In Memoriam: Eric Flint

  Life comes at you fast.

It must have been 25 years ago that I'd heard of Eric Flint.  I got him confused with Kenneth Flint, who's Riders of the Sidhe I read as a kid.

Of his works, the two series I was/am most familiar with were the Ring of Fire series, and of couse the Belisarius series.  The later because of Baen Books and David Drake.  

I'm working on a pure gaming blog for my world and creations inspired largely by the works or Eric Flint and David Drake.  It was just this morning, in a burst of creativity that the world got its name "Davric" taken from their first names.  I was hoping to have more content on the blog before I wrote to both men to thank them for its inspiration.  Not to ask them to read it, I don't feel pretentious enough to ask professional authors to read my scribblings. Just to say, "You inspired this.  Thank you." Today was the day I started.  The day I moved from notes in a facebook group to actually organizing the thoughts and dreams.

Now I will never get to send him that e-mail.  

The world is wonderful.  I've corresponded with various authors over the years, and a few actors as well.  I'm sure their replies are minor to them, but that they took the time to reply means a lot to this old hermit.

So rest in peace, Mr. Flint.  Your work inspired me, and I am sure countless others.  The world is lessened by your passing.

Losing the battle, but the war continues.

 

I lost the battle today.  Had a PTSD flashback after a call yesterday. Shook me up, but I kept going. 

Woke up this morning feeling ‘off’.  Dove into work hoping I could get my head right.  No joy, took a couple of my emergency ‘anti-panic attack’ meds and it didn’t help either.  I kept working and trying to push it away, but my heart kept racing and I started shaking.

I had to bail out and take the attendance hit.

This hasn’t happened in over a year.  Last time it was when I was in the hospital, in the dark, and became obsessed with how scared Becca must have felt being alone without me there, losing the battle with the melanoma.  That’s when I discovered that hydroxyzine helped. 

But not today.  I got out of the house and drove.  I didn’t even know what time it was when I left work.  Picked up Tea and then we drove some more.  I’m still not at 100%, heck, I’m at 10% maybe.  I’m hoping and praying this weekend will allow me to build up some strength and I can hunt down and kill what ever is triggering the anxiety. 

And yes, rage can override the anxiety for a while, but it isn’t good for me, and not constructive at work, or at home.  Tea and Tank both can tell when I’m running on rage, and it doesn’t do them any good.  So I have to rely on will.  Something I’m short of, having spent most of it today.

That’s the problem with chronic mental illness.  Somedays I lose, most days I win, for now.  The battle is over, the war goes on.

So, the election.

 

My prediction was pretty much on the nose.  President Trump would win election night, then enough votes would be ‘found’ to pull Biden over the finish line.

Sure enough…  Those votes were ‘found’.  Larry Corriea, who was an accountant among other hats before he became a professional author, lists a number of them here.  In case it was missed, all these statistical anomalies point in one direction.  So not only are there an improbable number of anomalies, they all benefit Biden.  To someone who isn’t a screaming partisan, it should raise eyebrows. That’s before the videos… Tangent, let’s not forget why the Democrats wanted the Green Party off the ballot.

Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.  So these anomalies need to be investigated, will they?  OF course not.  The 105% precinct for Obama weren’t contested by Mitt Romney, the GOPe bends over.  That’s why people voted for President Trump he fights.  Proving fraud is easy, we’ve the affidavits and the video.  Proving fraud enough to shift popular opinion?  That’s hard enough when the media and your own party aren’t wanting you out of office.  So I think we’re stuck with President Harris.

Or as I’ll call her, “President Cock Holster.”  Hey, no one was outraged when Bill Maher called President Trump that.  Fair’s fair.  Of course that she actually was Willie Browns mistress…

Some people have compared President Trump to Ronald Magnus, but I think a historic President has some more similarities, President John Tyler.

Both President Trump and President Tyler came to power unexpectedly.  Both were not accepted by their party.  In President Tyler’s case he was cast out, in President Trump’s case, he was just held at arm’s length by the establishment, what has been called “GOPe”.  Both men were States Rights, and, ironically, like President Tyler, President Trump’s greatest victories came from foreign policy.  Getting NATO allies to pay closer to their fair share, sanctions against Russia, tariffs on China, and spreading peace, both in Europe and the Middle East, are examples of President Trump’s successes.  Notice how they didn’t make big news?  President Trump changed the world, for the better.  Also how many conflicts have been initiated in the past 4 years by the US?

So what do we have to look forward to with President Harris?  Nothing good I fear. 

• We’ll see the removal of due process in universities.  Young men like Paul Nungesser will continue to be persecuted with no process, no right to see their accusers or evidence on university grounds.
• We’re already seeing a return to “No worse ally, no better enemy,” foreign policy.  The talk of treating the PLO like they aren’t a terrorist organization, rejoining the farce of an Iran treaty.  Terrorists are celebrating.
• Due process is just the beginning. President Cock Holster is on record to wanting to use EOs to seize guns, her persecution of journalists as AG in California is well documented, as is the left’s assaults on religious freedom.  From singling out churches in California, to the persecution of the Jewish citizens of New York, the only amendment the left likes is the 5^th.  If (big if, considering the efforts by the Democrat machine) the Republicans can hold Georgia, then  at least the destruction of the Republic can be slowed.
• Enemies lists.  We’re already seeing the howls from elected officials, and others, to ‘hold accountable’ people who worked in the current administration, or even supported them.
• Rewriting of history.  Already the Media is pretending that 2000 and 2016 never happened. Gay groups are erasing Richard Grenell and falsely claiming Biden is the first President to support gay marriage before taking office.  Celebrities are pretending there was no vitriol aimed at President Trump

So we’re facing fraud, persecution and gaslighting.  What can we do?

• Stay engaged.  Both with each other and with your local politicians.  The ones you can reach, be civil, even when you strongly disagree.  The ones who don’t reply, to quote Maxine Waters “get in their faces, make them uncomfortable.”  My former congressional Rep, Joyce Beatty, is an anti-Semite and won’t denounce her fellow bigots.  My former state congresswoman, Mary Lightbody is a liberal democrat, but one who will at least listen to her constituents’ concerns.  This holds true down to the town level.  Get involved!  Go to tow meetings, meet and greets with politicians.  Be visible, but polite.
• Stay engaged with each other Facebook and Twitter are compromised, so make sure you keep other methods, MeWe, Parler, Gab are all less censory than FB or Twitter.  Plus there’s phones, Keep circulating the tapes.  Don’t let the victors get away with rewriting history.
•  Guard your privacy.  Now more than ever, VPNs and encrypted e-mail are a boon.  I use Protonmail and ProtonVPN and fully support their efforts.
• Remember, we’re not alone.  70 million people voted for peace and prosperity, in the face of a relentless onslaught of how a dementia patient and an anti-free press, anti free speech, anti-Constitution VP pick would be better.  Be a warrior, but a happy warrior.

Well, we’re two weeks into the new home, and no regrets.

It still needs a lot of work, we had to replace the stairs on the deck, good enough to fool the FHA inspector, but they fell apart and almost took out Tea’s good ankle.  Guy did good work though.  We’ve some issues with the plumbing we’re going to address, and the electric is going to be overhauled to get up to my specifications. (I run a lot of electronics of course and want an upgraded fuse box to handle the load.

We’ve had some setbacks, we didn’t realize the garage was all on one circuit, so we lost some meat in the chest freezer.  Also, Jasper seems to have a skill for stepping on Tea’s bad ankle, though he feels bad about it later.  He’s also been a bit less social towards the neighbor dogs, I’m planning to work more on socializing him.  We’ve a playground next door I can take him to run around and work on the nails.

We’re slowly getting the place into shape.  In having the electric done, I’ve decided the office will have an old style push button switch instead of a flip switch.  I’ve also ordered faux brass plate covers for the outlet and light switch.  I like the idea of my office having those early 20^th century touches, while holding all the 21^st century hardware.  Likewise, we’re replacing some of the bulbs in the lights with smart bulbs, again because of the age of the house and locations of switches.  We’ll need to have another Dot or two.  By the time I’m done the Wi-Fi will reach the Garage and they’re perfect for intercoms.

Teaera’s brought her own unique set of skills to making this a home.  She’s a much better housekeeper than I (A low bar I know) and she’s a skill in comparison shopping I lack.  It’s good to be able to stretch our food budget, and she’s an eye for deals.  She’s also excited to help put the home touches on and renovate the place.  Once we’re presentable, there will be pictures, promise.

I’d like to take a moment to thank people who made this possible.

Leslie Neal, who helped me sell the condo and close that chapter of my life.  It was a learning experience for us both. If you’re buying or selling in Central Ohio, look her up and tell her I sent you. Of course we’ve known each other for 40 years or so…

Tony Norris, who helped me find this place after the previous SE Ohio realtor I used flaked out on me. If you’re looking for a place in South East Ohio, look him up.  Nice guy, wears many hats and works his aft off.

Tim and Jen and Clan Rickey.  Guys, we couldn’t have made that last push w/o you, and I still owe you that dinner in Zanesville.  Just pick a Sunday and we’ll do it.

Tony and Kim McFarland.  Two more of my dearest friends.  I’d never expected you to foister the lummox for so long and will be glad to bring him home and take him off your hands.

John and Angie Greener.  Thank you for fostering the Asscat.  I’ll be back soon to pick him up. 

And of course, my dearly departed Rebecca.  I was asked why I called the move, Operation: Thanos.  The plan was of course for us to start our new lives post cancer together.  My life didn’t end with hers, but I wished it had.  I’d promised her I’d go on, get out of the condo, get our family back.  I did it dear, but it cost me… everything.

Family

“I don't care about whose DNA has recombined with whose. When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching--they are your family.”

― Jim Butcher, Proven Guilty

I don’t do the ‘things to be thankful’ social media stuff.  But I wanted to talk about family. 

I am blessed with loving parents and with siblings, both natural and step.  Has it been perfect?  No.  But this is life, not a Brady Bunch episode.  We have our ups and downs, marriages and divorces, feuds and forgiveness.  But they’re my family, and I love them.

I’m blessed though, in that I have brothers and sisters.  Those who have stood with me when things have gone to hell.  So in the spirit of thanksgiving, I wanted to thank them.  I just don’t know how.

Tim and Jen, my oldest friends and the parents to five wonderful children and now young adults.  Thank you for letting me be your brother, their Godfather and for being there when I needed you, even when I didn’t.  I love you both more than I can ever express.

Tony and Kim, We met in college, but that seems like a lifetime ago.  I’ve not been the best of friend over the years, disappearing for months if not years.  But you are family to me, if you’d called I’d have been there, as you have been for me countless times.  I love you both.

Finally John and Angie. What can I say? 8 years seems like not much, but you both welcomed me, and later Becca with open arms.  You let me share one of the most joyous moments of your life, and you were there for the darkest moments of mine. 

And Beth, I can’t forget you.  What began as “Operation Poodle rescue” blossomed into a friendship and more.  You are my sister, and through thick and thin, I know we’ll be there for each other.

So yes, even with the pain of my loss, I’m blessed to have two families, who will be there for me, and I’ll be there for them.

When everything goes to hell.

“There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more . . . secure.”

― Jim Butcher

Why do we play what we do?

So, after reading yet another ‘powergamer is ruining my game’ thread on Facebook, I got to thinking about how I play, and why.

I know some in our local Society can find my play disruptive.  While I’m not outgoing, and am definitely not a fast talker, my characters often are.  Some, like Miroslav and Ksenia, are enjoyable for shock value, their ‘fish out of water nature’ is fun to play in a party. (for those of you who don’t follow Pathfinder, while both characters are on the ‘good’ side of the alignment box, the environment they came from is known for its casual inhumanity.  When you’re a great grandchild of THE Baba Yaga, the being who won’t become a god because it would be a demotion, the being who every hundred years comes back and harvests her daughter and grandchildren and plops a new ruler on the throne, you tend to have a ‘skewed’ version of morality) Others, like Shankar and Mayim are my flirty sex on a stick characters.  I save them for adult tables, because their sense of adventure is not appropriate for children.  Still others, like Samiel and Kiril, are the ‘mobsters with hearts of gold.’  I wear a variety of hats as a player, and a few others as a GM.

Now this isn’t what is ‘disruptive’  Despite trying to send a GM to therapy with Mayim, and egged on by another player or three in doing so, I can tone them down.  Usually what some folks find ‘disrupting’ is my non-conventional tactics when the fight breaks out.  I prefer debuffs, trips, disarms, entangle, well I’m known as Tanglefoot Matt for a reason, and buffs like bard song.  Basically, make the party better and the bad guys worse.  For added amusement, I also like spells like murderous command and unnatural lust, depending on the character.  I always have my ConditionCards handy, and have joked about getting the entangled card blown up and printed on a shirt.  Most of my characters are also skill builds, also known as ‘skill monkeys’ so I’m also the one telling them what the bad guys’ weaknesses are.

So yeah, I’m making it more challenging than ‘he hits me, I hit him’ but the reason is above.  I’m making the party better at what they want to do. The player who loves his high damage build, is going to enjoy more that the bad guy is easier to hit, or is coming to him to cop a feel rather than standing back and shooting a bow  The player who loves multiple attacks is going to love the to hit and damage boost from bardsong, as well as that the badguys are easier to hit.  The role player who doesn’t want to use player knowledge is going to be grateful that his character doesn’t have to run through the golf bag of weapons because of my character going. “Just cave its head in with the golf club!”  This also means that I’m not stealing anyone’s spotlight.  Mr. “High damage meele” doesn’t have to worry about my character out punching him.  Miss “I’m the healbot” can heal all the nicks and scratches without me whipping out a wand of cure on my utility belt, I can save that for later.

Aside: I played a game where my slayer (think a stealthy fighter) had higher ranks in knowledge religion than his cleric and Paladin co-adventurers.  When the Paladin of Iomedae (a Lawful Good deity) is fine with you administering the last rites of Lissala (Lawful Evil deity) on the dead people you find, that’s hilarious.

And remember, this is my preferred playstyle.  I’ll have my moment to shine when the skill roles are needed, or when local campaign fluff is needed. (I have a decent memory for game world, lore.  Part of my love of skill monkeys.)  So I’m perfectly happy to let everyone play to their strengths, and help them do so.

I’m also the guy with the utility belt I mentioned above.  Need an alchemical item?  Step right up.  Need a trap disarmed, sure!  Need a door unlocked, yup.  Need the guard distracted while the rest of the party cases the place?  Sure.  Though the method of distraction will vary, from fast talking by Miroslav, to um, other things of Mayim and Shankar.  Need a scroll of control weather when the storm comes up?  Well I don’t normally care one, but the look on the GMs face when I said “I reach for my scroll of control weather” was priceless. (When I said, no, I don’t have one. His reply was “If anyone at this table would, it would be you!”)

Now all that said, it’s also part of my play-style to step aside and let the other skill monkey shine.  Most of my characters can do some decent damage if they have to cut loose.  Samiel is an archerologist (archer archaeologist) and with him buffing himself, the damage he can do is not inconsiderable.  Miroslav and Shankar are both melee fighters if need be, and Ksenia, well, she is a full spell caster, not just a hex casting machine.  I had a GM learn that first hand when I cut loose with her higher-level spells and turned the battlefield into a nightmare for the melee types.  So, My ‘annoying playstyle’ by debuffing, buffing, and skill monkeying, is designed around making everyone else’s time better.  You want me to go up front?  I can, but I’ll let you go first if you don’t mind.

Aside the second, I was playing Shankar in a trap filled scenario.  I went to take out the first trap, and the person playing the ninja said she wanted to.  I stepped back and let her.  She proceeded, through mostly bad dice rolls, to set of every single trap in the scenario she tried.  When we came across the last one, she was worried that she couldn’t disarm it and let me try.  It was at that point she found out that my die modifier was almost twice hers. Trap easily disarmed.  When she asked me why I let her set off all the traps I said “Hey, I don’t step on other players’ toes.  You wanted to be the one to disarm the traps, I’m not going to deny you the die rolls and chance to shine in the spotlight.”

So in closing, I’d ask… What’s your playstyle, and how is it ‘disruptive’?

Playtest II, Rogue Bugaloo

Just got home from playing the Pathfinder 2e playest module “Doomsday Dawn” Since my first playtest was lost to the ether, I figured I’d write my notes while the memories were hot.

Character Creation:  Went much easier this time, building a human rogue rather than a half elven bard. Without having to worry about spells (and the weird not right spell list of the bard) character creation was easy.  I went for two rogue feats, since I felt trap sense was essential (more on that later).

The multiclassing rules, well ‘archetypes’ as they’re called, caught my eye, so rather than build a character for the scenario, I went with a character I'd play through higher levels.  I chose human this time, because of wanting essentially an extra feat.  As a result, I built this character with both intelligence 16 (for the archetype) and dexterity 16 (because he’s a rogue, duh).  The stats ended up being like this.

Strength 12, Dexterity 16, Constitution 12, Intelligence 16, Wisdom 10, Charisma 12

Not ‘optimal’ (by comparison, the iconic Rogue has all 12s except for an 18 dexterity) but enough for my needs.  Next came that Race, er Ancestry feat.  I chose General Training to get feather step.  I then took the street urchin background, as the idea of a kid alone on the streets being taken in by a wizard fit the background I was going for.  Then we went on to class.

Rogue is surprisingly straightforward.  It is the ‘feat and skill monkey’ class, more so than even the bard.  And I love my bards.  With an intelligence of 16, my rogue has 13 skills he can be proficient in. By comparison there are 18 skills in Pathfinder 2e (not counting the subset of lore, which can get rather trivial.)  Add in underworld lore from the background I start at 14 skills.  Wow.  So, having taken all the roguey skills (acrobatics, athletics, craft, deception, diplomacy, intimidation performance, society, stealth and thievery), I moved on to what to do with my three remaining skills.  Well since I was going to multiclass wizard, arcana makes sense. (see below) I added in survival, to help represent the time he lived on the street, and finally Medicine, because why not?  So the only skills my rogue is not trained in are religion, occult, and nature (and all the subsets of lore, he’s not a jeopardy champ).  He’s a city boy after all. 

So now we go on to the class feats.  As I mentioned above, Trap Spotter seemed to be a must.  With traps being more lethal and disarming them a must, I thought the ‘danger sense’ aspect of trap sense was a must have.  That is gives bonuses to disarm and spot traps is even better.  The other first level feats pale in comparison.  Then I get a free ‘skill feat,’  The rogue gets one of these at every level. Going with my “rogue working for a wizard” concept, I took arcane sense, a feat that allows me to detect magic at will.  Again, the idea is that he can break into another wizard’s room and quickly find “the good stuff”. 

I think in some ways ‘feats’ is going to be to Pathfinder 2e what ‘level’ is to old school Dungeons and Dragons (see, this cartoon, for what I mean).  Race, er, ancestry feats, class feats, general feats.  It can be a feat to keep track of which is which.  

I’m of mixed feelings on skill feats. On the one hand they open up new possibilities, like battle medic giving an alternative to magical healing.  On the other, things that were part of a skill in first edition Pathfinder have become feats in second edition.  For example, survival has a section of skill on surviving in the wild, but then the forager feat just means you can do more at higher levels, which you could do in first edition with a simple skill roll.  Not a big deal, but I do worry that feats will come along in the future that make it so things you assumed were always possible, suddenly become impossible without the feat.  A term from the 3.X days of D&D was FSBNBNN “Feats should be nice, but not necessary.”

Equipment is pretty straightforward, hand crossbow, short sword and main gauche as weapons, studded leather armor and thieves tools.  Most all weapons have properties now, and my choice of melee weapons allowed me to add dexterity to damage and add a bonus to my armor class for an action.  I nicked most of my starting kit from the iconic rogue.

Finally, a name.  Having been listening to “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress” I named him Tan Staafl.  Voila one complete character to run.

Now for the adventure and game play.

The party ran through part one of Doomsday Dawn, a multipoint module allowing for playtest at low to mid levels.  Our group consisted of my rogue, an iconic cleric, a monk, and a fighter.  With the exception of the iconic cleric, all the other PCs were created by the players (with the help of their parents).  We didn’t use the backgrounds in the module, but if we had, I’d have taken mindquake survivor.

The first combat was the most lethal.  With no darkvision and only one light source, combined with some incredible rolls, knocked most all the party down to single digits.  We made it through, barely, but burned out the cleric’s healing.  Thus, our humbled adventurers headed back to the town to heal.

Combat is much more swingy than first edition.  Between the new level of critical damage, and the new critical rules, a hot streak of rolls can wipe out a party.  Stealth is a must, and darkvision is even better than ever.  For some reason, goblins and dwarves are the only ones to have it.  

Trap sense was well worth it, as the traps in the scenario were picked up by the free perception check.  With healing and other magic being more limited, play smarter, not harder, looks to be the rule for second edition.  Teamwork is going to be your friend.

Initiative is also going to take some getting used to.  Perception is the initiative modifier now, with some situational exceptions.  Since it is a wisdom based skill, it means that clerics and druids will be the faster characters when the fight breaks out.  “Speed of cleric.” Is gone.  

Combat is simple with the ‘three actions and a reaction’ rule.  It also makes fights more challenging for characters like bards and other casters with concentration-based effects.  Concentration is an action to maintain.  So if your bard casts bane, and does bardic performance first round, that’s all three actions.  After that it is two actions, one to maintain inspire courage, one to concentrate on bane.  This leaves a move or attack.  Decisions, decisions.  It makes it more tactical and faster.  Bonuses are rarer now, which is good and bad.  Good in that it simplifies and speeds turns.  Bad in that it is hard to be really good at something. A first level character with +6 to +7 in skills is not unheard of in First Edition, but is impossible in Second.  Makes a first level rogue nervous with only a +3 or 4 to stealth. Skills run on a d20 + level + attribute modifier + proficiency.  Making it a toss up between equal level characters. 

In closing, Pathfinder Second Edition looks, in this beta, to be the difference between a Dodge Charger L-body and a Dodge Charger LX.  They have the same name, and look similar, but have many years of refinements and differences under the hood.  Will Pathfinder Second Edition be an Edsel?  We’ll see.  I’m cautiously optimistic, but still love my First Edition.

The Pathfinder open beta is currently a free download on Paizo.com