Sports Journal 10-12-13

I’m going to give you the main pertinent stat from Saturday’s two league championship games. Cardinals over the Dodgers, 1-0, in a about two-and-a-half hour long game.  Tigers over Red Sox, 1-0, in a nearly four-hour long game. Now in all fairness, the Tiger-Red Sox game was probably more entertaining with the drama of the near combined no-hitter and on-base action, but not to the tune of an extra hour-and-a-half to get to the same low score (in fact the minimal score for finished baseball game).  (Okay, I admit.  That Cardinal-Dodger game may have been seriously quickened by the players, playing a day game after a long, extra innings night game.)

I’m going to flat out blame the American League East division, specifically the Yankees and Red Sox.  These jokers have pioneered the four-hour, nine-inning game.  Pitchers endlessly adjusting themselves and soft-tossing to first.  Batters all but playing with themselves as they constantly hop-scotch in and out of the Batter’s box, fouling off pitch after pitch in every at-bat.  Anybody who plays these teams usually ends up adopting their style. 

This movement must be CRUSHED for the good of the game.  This isn’t entertaining, half as much as it’s an endurance contest for the fans.  I want more guys like the Cardinals’ closer, Trevor Rosenthal.  He pitches so quick, it’s like he’s playing catch with the catcher.  Can we freaking pick up the pace a little bit?  All of the drama of the game will still be there, I swear it will, just play faster!

I listened to the Cardinal-Dodger game on the radio and was treated to Dodger team broadcast, featuring mostly Vin Scully.  He was in classic form, spinning little tales, painting word pictures, and eloquently describing the ambiance of the ballpark.  I loved his description of the St. Louis crowd being so perfectly composed, who only got excited when it was necessary.  But when they did, they’d roar like “waves crashing on to rocks.”  What else could you say about the game other than that Wacha kid is pretty good?  Come on, a double, a passed ball, and sacrifice flyball was the entirety of scoring action.  Dodger fan and sports talk broadcaster, Ben Maller, all but said after this loss, that the Dodgers have the Cardinals right where they want them. 

In Boston, the players grow beards.  The pre-game even ran a feature on them.  I loved Sox players referring to Dustin Pedoria as “a gnome,” and “like a lumberjack’s beard on a 12 year-old’s body.”  For the game, however, all the Red Sox players did was strikeout and complain about the umpiring.  There were a lot of close calls, but on replay, the umps did seem to get it right.  For their part, the Tigers couldn’t hit either, but at least took it like a man, instead of a whiney brat. 

Yeah, John Lester for the Sox and Anibal Sanchez for Tigers might have a little something to with that lack of offense.  I loved Sanchez’s pitching line: 6 innings, no hits, 6 walks, 12 strikeouts, including 4 in one inning, thanks to a wild pitch.  Sorry he shot off so pitches that there was no way he was realistically going to get a no-hitter by himself.  You know those guys behind you do have gloves?  You don’t have to walk or strikeout every batter.  8 1/3 of a staff no-hitter was still nice.     

I didn’t even try to watch any college football, but still filled up the day and night with sports.  There was the Drag-Boat race in the morning.  All I can say about that is that they go fast.  I unexpectedly finally got ABC back on my TV reception (this might part of a network contract dispute, I don’t know) and got to see a little of Nicole Briscoe’s awesome chest (sorry best pic easily available) .  I think there was a NASCAR race going on in the background, or paid commercial programming (who can tell the difference?).  I know the headlights on NASCARs aren’t real.  I don’t care if Nicole’s are.

I give up on boxing.  I was assured that the Marquez-Bradley was going to end in a knockout.  What did I get?  A split-decision with both boxers on their feet.  As what always happens when I watch.  All I can authoritatively say about boxing coverage is always go with the Spanish language broadcast.  Unless you’re really fluent in the language, you’re not going to pick up a word, because they’re going too fast, but their breathless commentary makes even a lousy fight somewhat  exciting.  Bradley won, I guess.  I can’t tell you who really won, but I know who lost: me and my time. 

(I’ll be back.  I know it.  It’s those damn Tecate Girl commercial bumpers they run in between the rounds.  I don’t care if their headlights are real either.)

It was a lovely, late afternoon, Fall day in the pleasant country of Japan, as I sat here after midnight and settled in for two hours of F1 coverage into the early morning.  Ah, Suzuka.  The racetrack with an overpass, just like out your own highway.  Seems like a safety hazard to me with cars running fast over each other, but they run with it anyway.  Sort like a life-sized slot car track.  The track was otherwise immaculately manicured like a baseball field, unlike the pasture they ran that Korean GP on last week.  I fully expected to see cars sliding on cow patties in that one.  The great crowd there was treated to Grosjean making a spectacular move at the start to get past Vettel and Webber, and then not being able to hold that lead for the rest of the race.  Vettel, Webber, Grosjean made up the podium.  Well, that was functionally the whole race.  Well worth staying up to 2:30 A.M. for.  

Artifacts: Motherboard Redux-Fan Fiction 1

Motherboard,Fan Fiction 2, Definitions, RPG Notes

When I made the original Motherboard post, I knew that all of the other original notes about it had been tossed.  What I’d forgotten was that I did that because I’d actually typed them up first.  (I wonder what else is on my hard drive?)  So, just for fun, here it is.  We’ll start with the fiction.  I wrote this in high school.  Be kind. 

(“What’s your excuse for your current writing, J?”)

(“Shut the F*** up!”)

CIRCUIT RUNNER

Flashman

          The Motherboard alighted.  Energy surged among her many circuits bringing life to Ring City and its inhabitants.  In his cell, Zepher ZB3 materialized into being.  An Electronian, Zepher and his ilk are first among the Motherboard's races to be charged, even on D7's when the board is turned on only for routine maintenance.  Already the Electronian guardians were delivering charge to the Protonian and Neutronian guardians and then to the cells of their races.  The cycle begins.

          While those in the Nucleus must complete housekeeping functions before idle time, out in the Data Stores, there are few responsibilities.

          "It's gonna be a beautiful day here in Ring City," boomed the overhead speaker, "Only high, scattered warps in the area, with clean, pure, power surges expected all cycle.  Sorry to all you thrillers and wormers."

          "Damn!  I wanted to run a worm after the match," thought Zepher as he sped on a local circuit to the Speedball Arena.  Several of this cycle's participants were already there.  Making a flashy skid-stop, Zepher attracted the attention of a pretty, young Electronian.

          "Hi," Zepher said in a glowing tone, "What's your level?"

          She gave him a freeze, "I'm Level Five, hot-zip.  You'd better watch yourself or you'll be eating circuit."  She stalked off.  Somehow, she no longer looked so pretty.  So much for the pre-race chatter.

          Above, a floating camera spoke with a deep Protonian voice broke up with the roll call.  "Zeela ZA8 in white.  Zepher ZB3 in black.  Racers to the line.  The oval raceway was as smooth as an Output Circuit and pitched at almost 20 degrees.  Scuffing across the surface, Zepher got a feel for the surface.  Sparks flew wherever he touched the track as it was designed to amplify Electronian shock.

          "Ready to feel the agony of defeat?"  It was the girl again, whom the announcer had identified as Zeela.  She stood at the line with an almost intolerable air of smugness.  Zepher said nothing, concentrating fully on the track before him.   A holographic drag racing start post appeared before them and quickly clicked down to green.

          A glassy ball, three feet in diameter, materialized in front of the racers.  Lightning suddenly struck Zepher and he was blown off the track.  Zeela prepared another charge in order to secure the ball.

          "So much for a clean game," muttering, Zepher hopped back on the track and peeled.  Using a light charge, he sped passed Zeela and shocked her into a daze.  The ball fell into his field.  His speed slowed with the ball consuming part of his charge, but he still cleared half a lap before she caught up.  Like a localized thunderstorm, the racers charged around the track. 

          Edging close, Zeela yelled, "Eat this!"  Zepher was swatted to the track by a violent elbow check.  His field disrupted, Zeela snagged the ball and flew away.  Preparing a massive charge, Zepher waited for her to complete the lap.  She boomed towards him.

(This reminds me of the movie, Rollerball, which I had not seen while I saw in high school.  This race would have been a lot more interesting if it was more like Rollerball.)

Baseball Journal 10-11-13

As more or less predicted, the Wildcard teams have been eliminated.  I’m thinking after about five years somebody’s going notice that Wildcard hasn’t made it to the World Series.  At that point, team owners and fans are going to start looking at a Wildcard slot as a playoff consolation prize and treating it as such.  What does MLB do then?

You may not know this, but the most profitable team in baseball is . . . wait for it . . . the Houston Astros.  Marginal attendance, a shaky TV deal, a very low payroll, and I’m guessing they’re getting “luxury tax” money from the Yankees and Dodgers, apparently makes you money in the MLB.  Imagine a scenario where only a handful of big market, high payroll teams can really compete for the championship, and they bid up the services of even slightly above average baseball players.  Imagine every other team, having been shut out of being able to put together a potential winner, simply content themselves with staffing their rosters with Triple-A players and making money off of the big teams’ charity. 

The big market teams are going to get sick quickly of losing money (no, championship teams aren’t big moneymakers) and paying to make loser teams profitable.  The small market teams are going to say they can’t afford (and their market can’t support) a higher payroll without going bankrupt.  Imagine a league of nothing but Yankees and Astros.  Think about it.

Okay stop thinking.  The playoffs continue.  I got to watch a little of the Dodger-Cardinal game at work on Friday night.  I stayed through the 10^th inning before finally leaving.  I hated to leave a tied playoff game, but it was late, and after Carlos Beltran threw out Mark Ellis at the plate, I felt satisfied.  More to the point, I also couldn’t take any more of TBS’ three-man booth.  National playoff coverage is bad enough without having a third person heaping additional criticism on every single play.  I was actually wondering if there was a button on the remote that would let me tune them out, but keep the crowd noise.  Less is sometimes more.  (Dick Stockton and Bob Brenly called a nice game for TBS earlier in the week, though Bob was a little disorganized, like they’d called him on the golf course in the morning and asked if he’d like to call the game that night.)

      

Flipping stations during the commercials was also pretty desolate.  The massively hyped Fox Sports 1 network was showing a high school football game.  (Hey, I wonder if our Mayfield-Cruces game could end up being shown nationally.  A few years ago, USA Today ranked it as one of the top ten high school rivalries in the country.)  ESPN was no better.  They were breaking down a Mexican national soccer team victory on Sportscenter.

I ended up being glad that I went home.  Not being able to get the game on radio, I settled for listening to Fox Sports Radio live talk shows.  The game continued into the Ben Maller Show.  Ben, a huge Dodger fan (if I got to hang out in the pressbox with Vin Scully, I’d be one too), was, of course, covering the game.  He was taking a call and had this exchange while play continued.

“Hey, Ben.  We got Kershaw going tomorrow.  So whatever happens here . . .”

“Don’t you say that!  Okay, the Cardinals have a runner in scoring position with Carlos Beltran at the plate.  But we’re not done yet.  This isn’t over.”

“Okay.  I know.  But I’m just saying . . .”

“Oh I hate you Carlos Beltran!  I hate you with every fiber of my being!  Beltran just drove in the winning run!  It was that stupid caller’s fault for jinxing the game!  I hate you Beltran!”

Coming back from commercial, Ben was more sedate, but no better.  “Oh, I’m so happy to be here working tonight.  This is just delightful.  You listeners are really going to get a great show.”  At the start of the next hour, he spent 15 minutes explaining how overrated Carlos Beltran is and how he’s never getting into the Hall of Fame.  Yeah, I gotta say, listening to an angry, bitter fan ranting was probably more entertaining than actually watching the game.

Adventure Generation 4

Some general suggestions:

Think of the characters like a Medieval superhero group with a Rock & Roll band lifestyle and personalities. 

The character group should have an actual stated purpose that fits into the setting.  Characters should be automatically “hooked” into adventures by virtue of that charter.  Of course, that charter can be changed over time.

Each session should have a goal for the character group.  The Ref should also have a goal, which may or may not be the same. 

Name all of the main villains and significant henchmen.  Give them big, splashy, over-the-top personalities. 

Use unique settings (environment, building, natural features) and use unique creatures wherever possible.

Pace adventures like a comic book, movie, or cartoon.  Set high stakes for big fights.

Avoid overly complex adventure backstory (or having no backstory), an overly complex plot (requiring railroading to move forward), and arbitrary ethical/moral choices (forced by the plot and not the characters).

Avoid skill checks for clues, travel, or diplomacy and such that are crucial to the adventure continuing.  Failure should make the task harder, but the adventure should continue.

Avoid using traps that do not come with a warning or some foreshadowing. Announce the trap to create dread.  Traps should create a complication that must be dealt with either to find, to keep from going off, or to deal with after it’s gone off.   

Don’t make every encounter outside of a tavern or bazaar necessarily a fight (especially in a dungeon).

Settings should be designed not for the point of characters acquiring treasure or XP, but rather for enhancing reputation, gaining allies and enemies, and, most importantly, creating memorable adventures. 

The rules should be “bendable” to take some of the arbitrariness out of the random rolls, but each “fudge” should come with consequences for the characters.

[Okay, I apologize for these posts.  Seemed like a good idea at the time to type this stuff up and post them.  All I did was take away time from working on the Cyber-Pulp Setting.  I'm off Monday.  I've got a mixed bag of Artifacts posts coming up.]

Adventure Generation 3

A few random adventure ideas.

-Cut off behind enemy lines.  Fighting your way back to friendly territory.

-Killer monster zoo and they’re loose.

-Bank job.  Give players the goal, general layout, and a few contacts and information about the workers and operations.  Let them work out all of the details for the heist.

-Bounty hunt for a shapechanging spy.  Must be taken alive.

-Salvage: lost merchant ship found adrift, expedition to raid it.

-Magnificent Seven: hired to defend a town against a bandit gang.

-Stealing the body of a nobleman from a castle morgue.

-Raid a Castle Perilous (Darkest Hole) to free the single prisoner held inside.

-Sunken city temporarily resurfaces.

-Ghost City: haunted by ghosts, poltergeists, shadows, banshee.

-Medici family agents: working for a powerful ruling family (or against them)

-Rescue a Nobleman captured on the battlefield, as the family is unable to meet the ransom.

-Haunted battlefield: neighboring village and field overrun with undead chained to spot.  Valuable treasure and a soul-stealer sword.  Deserted during the day, but comes alive at night with Aliens-like action.

-Keep on the Borderlands Redux: Dispatched to the Keep to scout it and find it in flames.  Destroyed from the inside out and deserted of humans.  Infested with humanoid looters.  Betrayed, taken by stealth by a traitor and a coalition of humanoids under evil priests.  Have taken captives back to their hidden caves.  Going to make a major sacrifice under the full moon to create undead.  Race against time.

-The Presidio: The characters are exiled to a lawless frontier area as colonists and to serve as soldiers there against threats to the colony. 

A few interesting settings.

-A haunted seaside graveyard filled with only headstones, the empty graves of those lost at sea.

-Knossos: labyrinthine city on Crete, buried by volcano.

-Maze tomb of Egyptian King Perabsen

-Petra: canyon tomb city

-Towers of Silence in Iran.  A Zoroastran graveyard, the top of the towers were where corpses were laid out to be picked at by birds.  Fire at the temples were kept perpetually burning by the magi.

-The Caves of Sibyl of Cumae: Held books of prophecy and was an entrance to the underworld.  Volcanic area with poisonous gasses.  Possible home to the Medusa.

Group Goal Adventure Ideas:

Finding new a trade route (Marco Polo)

Winning a kingdom (Conan)

Object Quest (Camelot, Lord of the Rings)

Protect the kingdom/court intrigue (Camelot)

Rebellion (Robin Hood)

Exploring the New World (Columbus)

Take over an empire (Cortez, Pizarro)

Tournament fighting group (Gladiator, Pokemon)

The Chosen Ones Guarding the Hellmouth (Buffy)

Adventure Generation 2

Here are a few of my own ideas on creating adventures.

Types of Antagonists:   

Negotiable: Will resort to violence if forced, but would prefer to make an arrangement with the characters.  (Example: cowardly or intelligent, but greedy and lazy, monsters.)

Situational: Violent if provoked because of circumstance.  (Example: wild animals that are out hunting or in their lair.)  

Confrontational: Violent if the characters happen to be there.  (Example: guards on duty, Orcs on a raid.)

Adversarial: Seek violence against the characters specifically.  (Example: assassins, someone seeking revenge for previous character actions.)

Bosses: Have big plans and manage large resources.  Violent against the characters if they get in the way or significantly degrade their holdings.  (Example: dungeon overlord.)

Shadow Bosses: Like a regular boss, but are protected by money, fame, title, and influence.  They are imperious to direct attack by the characters.  (Even if directly killed, they can easily be organizationally replaced.)  Confrontation is by proxy and the goal is to destroy the Shadow Bosses’ status and standing.  (Example: a corrupt king.)

Motivations for adventure:

These motives (adventure hooks) can be combined and vary from character to character even on the same adventure.

Circumstance: Opportunity/complication from being in the right/wrong place at the right/wrong time.  (Example: acquiring a treasure map in a dice game, running into a gang fight.)

Threat: The characters must act or they will incur a loss, either personal or on a larger scale.  (Example: invasion, theft of a treasure haul)

Obligation: Required as a consequence of prior actions, current status, or from family, friends, other groups, or country.  (Example: drafted, old master kidnapped)

Charter: Essentially an economic goal. (Example: raiding a dungeon)

Quest: Anything other than an economic goal.  (Example: destroying the ring of power)

Emotional: Curiosity, fear/survival, greed, heroism/fame, loyalty/honor/duty, and revenge.  (Example: character’s honor is called out, characters on the run after a heist.)

Adventure Generation 1

These are some ideas from an unpublished Spider-Man supplement for a Marvel RPG.  These ideas should work for any setting.  I don’t have the original link and no author is listed on pdf I have, so sorry I can’t reference the material.

For a quick three scene adventure:

Choose three cool settings

Create a villain

Create a hook for the characters

First Scene: Start with immediate action that sets up a mystery.  A clue leads to the second scene.

Second Scene: Investigation of clue.  Minor obstacles, puzzles, interrogation, red herrings.  Revelation of the villain’s plan, or at least his location.

Third Scene: Showdown.  Villain attempts to enact his plan.  The characters are the only ones who are in a position to stop it.

Other Considerations:

Who are your players?  What kind of adventures do they like?

Choose NPC’s.  Villain henchmen, character allies, non-combatants to negotiate with, random belligerents

Objectives.  Beyond the primary objective: secondary goals, false objectives, bonus/opportunity objectives, and future plot hooks within those objectives

The following notes were part of a series by Wolfgang Baur.  I don’t remember where they were originally published, perhaps Dungeon Magazine.

Keep the backstory of an adventure simple and relevant to the characters.

Have encounters serve a point, avoid random ones, and trim excess ones.

Select monsters to a theme and give them a reason for being there.  Use variation for the chosen monsters, instead of adding random monsters.

Consider Challenge treasure.  Items gained from adventuring that are hard to remove, transport, or sell.  Items that are fragile, huge, a valuable animal, or makes the holder a target.  Property, land, noble titles.  Historic artifacts, that do not have any intrinsic monetary value, but are priceless. 

Make adventure motives personal to the characters: curiosity, fear/survival, greed, heroism/fame, loyalty/honor/duty, and revenge.  Consider also the Plot Twist that changes the characters’ motives during the adventure.

Vary the types of encounters to challenge the players and to give each character class a chance to shine.

Combat: Vary the danger of the encounters.  

Low-level: A light workout, probably only a nuisance or delay.  However, a long series of small encounters, without a chance to rest, can be dangerous (running a gauntlet).

High-level: Possibly lethal, but can’t be avoided, necessary to character goals.  If the foe is intelligent though, negotiation might be an option.

Big Finish: Face off against the main villain and his henchmen.  This kind of encounter should require the characters to use some strategy to defeat, not just a rush to battle.  Give the characters a reason and an opportunity to recon it first.

Magic: Traps, obstacles, or weird artifacts and their effects.  Usually require some special consideration to deal with.

Knowledge: Requires the characters to draw on previously gained experience or they will have to seek out the knowledge.

Puzzle or Trap: An encounter to waylay or delay the characters.  Traps should come with some sort of warning and may have a secondary feature, such as an alarm.  Puzzles may be a test of worthiness or require the characters to seek out something to solve it.  

Roleplaying: Encounters featuring negotiation, interrogation, and intelligence gathering.  Some potential combat encounters should have the option of negotiation.

Safe Haven: Give the characters a place to rest, regroup, and plan.