Metaphysical Beliefs » Hobbies & Games

Role playing games explained

admin — Mon, 24 May 2010 09:29:38 +0000

To outline what makes up a role playing game is mechanical. To describe the environment one is subject do during a game is physical. Explaining Role Playing Games, however, must be done at a nearly metaphysical level, or else the reader only takes away what he brought with him, So, to explain the RPG phenomena, one must feel what it is that makes them exciting.

How many of us played “cops and robbers”, “spacemen and aliens”, even the now-politically-incorrect “cowboys and Indians”? The unbridled imagination of that youthful play format, for the most part, is left behind in the modern ‘grown-up’ world. We have forgotten, mostly, how to see a bunny rabbit in a cloud, or to think “what if?”

Role playing games are, in a nutshell, a rule-bounded playground of our youth, the kind where you never skin your knee, you never have to be alone, where you get picked first in sports. Role-play lets the banker, for a little while, be the stagecoach bandit in the Wild West, or the auto mechanic be the first person to set foot on an alien planet.

For the person who guides this community foray into imagination, it is the easy way to authorship. Getting published in a book or magazine, is for many merely a fantasy. When game-mastering (or story telling, or a myriad of other title roles), the story becomes alive. Players experience the joys – and the terrors, the agony and ecstasy- as if the the game were, for those precious moments – real

The dynamic that creates the interest and excitement, that gives the RPG its allure, is that of joint experience. When one person tells a story, it is iimpersonal, outside of you the hearer. When the story includes your input, when you becoma a part of the process, it moves to a realm of communal behavior, wherein believing does, for the time period, make real that which is imagined. It is this sharing, communing, and being a part of something that draws literally millions of players to the game tables.

Other modes of play capture more physical aspects (such as live-action or dinner theatre). Others draw on more precise data maintenance (like war games and high end strategy games). Still others feast on the spirit of group hysteria and excitement (like party games and gambling games). But for the pure joy, the unmitigated childlike wonder, the open and unadulterated (pun intended) communication and experience, nothing comes close to the Role Playing Game.

Role playing game reviews: Hunter: The Vigil

admin — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:07:35 +0000

White Wolf’s new World of Darkness focuses on the monsters. Their flagship line is about vampires; their other two main games feature werewolves and wizards; they’ve got games about fairies and Frankenstein monsters, and ghosts and spirits make regular appearances in even a generic WoD game. “Hunter: The Vigil” looks instead at the humans who fight back.

The most obvious thing about Hunter is that it takes the “five inherent, five social” structure of the other games (OK, Changeling has 6 and 4. Still.) and tosses it right on out the window. Instead of metaphysical groups that a character is “born” into, you get careers-things like teacher, soldier, or academic-and there are something like 25 of them. Similarly, when it comes to social groups above the “these are my buddies” level, you can have anything from hedonists who hunt for the thrill through people who believe they’re descended from Satan and working stiffs who object to monsters messing up their neighborhoods to agents of the US government and the Inquisition itself. There’s a *lot* of character customization possibility here, only slightly limited by the fact that it’s probably best to keep the characters all in one group, especially if it’s one of the more specialized ones-it seems unlikely that Team Valkyrie would be working with some guy who’s organized his neighbors, at least on a long-term basis.

To give the mere mortals a chance at standing up to the guys with super-strength, claws on demand and various kinds of magic, the book presents two kinds of edges: one available to any hunter team (”cell”), and one that requires joining one of the big conspiracies. Any team that trains together can learn tactics, which give them an edge when fighting in specific situations; a cell that practices vampire-hunting gets a bonus for trying to stake a sucker, for example. But giving up some of a character’s autonomy grants even cooler abilities, as when the Cheiron Group implants you with monster bits that allow you to give back some of what the monsters dish out.

The best part of the game, however, is the consideration of feel. If you want to play Hunter in a Halo-esque “We’ve got a nest of suckers in Cleveland” kind of way, you can; tune Morality to “anything you do to a monster is OK”, and off you go. Groups that want to explore shades of grey and whether the hunters eventually turn into monsters just as horrible as the ones they hunt can have that just as simply. Plus, the whole premise is that it’s group-oriented and humans need to band together to survive; this makes it a perfect fit for a gaming group.

Also entertaining is the hunter’s-eye-view of the monster groups. It doesn’t take much tweaking for the inherently scary vampires and werewolves, but the maneuvering to make the downsides of mages and changelings look malevolent is kind of fun.

Bottom line: Hunter is great as a sort of “gateway” WoD game. It can get uncertain immigrants from other systems into the mindset while still allowing them to hunt the monsters, rather than playing them. It’s not a game for those who want big, spectacular powers, but powers aren’t everything…

Growing older and still collecting comic books

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:51:27 +0000

Just as playing video games as an adult is more fun than ever so too can comic book collecting still be fun and wonderful.

I am not embarrassed at all to say I have been collecting comic books on and off for twenty years. I love the stories and I love finding out about new comic books.

It should not matter if you are an adult collecting comic books because nowadays most comic book collectors are adults or young adults.

The same thing can be said about those who write and illustrate comic books.

There is a buzz and excitement to comic books that I had not felt for years.

I went into a shop about three and a half years ago after I had stopped collecting for a few years.

I was in for a big surprise. Comics had grown up and gotten even better.

All of the comic companies, major and minor were putting out top notch titles with interesting subject matter and adult content.

In the DC Universe the Infinite Crisis grabbed my attention and did not let go, and I enjoyed the 52, and as of late Countdown.

I also got into Jack of Fables and Fables, both of which are hysterical, and a book called The Boys, which is way over the top. Kabuki is a brilliant, metaphysical book, and Tarot is a wonderful independent comic about sexy witches.

There was also the Messiah Complex and the whole Mutant madness with the Scarlet Witch, and of course Marvel’s Civil War.

The last few years have been very exciting, and with the set up for Dc’s Trinity, their Superman Batman Wonder woman comic book, as well as Marvel’s Secret Invasion, their are many exciting developments in comic books.

In America comic books are often overlooked and seen as child’s play. No one tends to see comic books as real art. The illustrations are considered low brow and the stories are considered mere fan fare.

They are not. Recently Stephen King allowed a comic book interpretation of his Dark Tower series to commence and I was pretty impressed with the results. Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire stories have also become comic books and they are pretty good.

Novelist Jodi Picoult did a short run as the writer of Wonder Woman, and Reginald Hudlin did a run on Black Panther. Also, Kevin Smith has done a run on both the Green Arrow and Daredevil, and Rob Zombie has also done some comic books.

Comic books are respected and highly consumed pop culture objects in Japan. They sell in a week what we sell here annually. Their comic artists are called manga ka and are revered and referred to by name

Video game reviews: Everyday Shooter (PS3)

admin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:43:36 +0000

Valentine’s Day: A special day a time of year to enjoy a romantic dinner with that special someone, to walk on a moonlit beach, holding hands and whispering sweet nothings, to switch on your PlayStation 3 and finally find true love. Yes, I’ve fallen for a girl, and her name is Riff: Everday Shooter. Oh God, I hope she is a she.

Metaphysical gender issues aside, Everyday Shooter is something very special. A meets B’ descriptions are always unfair, and more than a bit lazy, but Everyday Shooter is definitely Geometry Wars meets Rez yet it’s so much more than a top-down shooter with some musical cleverness. Visually it has this appealingly strange retro feel in its use of clashing, bright colours and blocked-out shapes that makes me think of 60s wallpaper, which is odd because I hated 60s wallpaper. Audio-wise it’s full of cool guitar tunes ranging from chill-out riffs that you’d enjoy with a Pina Colada to some spunky beats that you’d embarassingly click your fingers to whilst your partner disappointedly shakes their head at you.

But the kicker is of course the synaesthesia: Everyday Shooter is by no means the first game to attempt this but like its predecessors it achieves it with style. When you pull off a complex chain and all your enemies disappear in a flurry of twinging and twanging, it produces something quite beautiful to your eyes and ears.

Hopefully that’s what you’ll hear a lot of the time, as chaining is the key to success in Everyday Shooter. As the game explains helpfully, there are certain ways in the game to produce a chain reaction, with one enemy’s exploding in glorious colour triggering off many others, and when that happens you’re rewarded with a smackdown of points.

Now admittedly I’ve only gotten to level 5 of 8 so far – with my personal favourite thus far being level 3. I love the idea of shooting down a garguantan judgemental eye that gets all its energy from other little slave eyeballs and an army of waddling robots. However my lack of success thus far is not only down to my Delirium Tremens like coordination but because Everyday Shooter is pretty danged hard. At times there is so much junk flying around on screen that it’s nearly impossible to keep up and it can be quite frustrating when the game suddenly ramps up the difficulty, which it frequently does. My only other real complaint is the lack of an online leaderboard (which is probably a good thing for lifestyle reasons).

However these are easily forgiven and quickly forgotten, and I suspect I won’t let this game defeat me without me discovering all eight levels. With its polished and imaginative design, its clever change-ups between levels as well as all the charm and fun of its music-making gameplay, Everyday Shooter has a lot to offer to those looking for something a little different to get addicted to.

So a message to all those who’ve fallen out with their loved one this Valentine’s, whatever the reason – whether it’s because she’s not kept her promises about that new Home you’re getting together or because she’s not as popular as that hottie from Japan: Give your PS3 a chance – she’s got a present for you and I think you’ll like it.

[Yes, both Everyday Shooter and the PS3 are girls. Deal with it]

Treasure hunting for herkimer diamonds

admin — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:31:06 +0000

Herkimer diamonds are double terminated quartz crystals that are found in Herkimer County, New York, hence the name. These crystals have usually have a shape that is very similar to diamonds with 18 facets and two terminators or points at the end. These beautiful gemstones were formed close to five hundred million years ago. They are formed extremely slowly in pockets of rock and can be clear or cloudy in color and may be found in a verity of colors depending on the impurities present in the crystal.

These quarts crystals range in size from microscopic to over eight inches long and three to four inches wide and in rare cases even larger. The best gem quality crystals are usually found in the one half inch to one inch range and will have excellent clarity, which is the reason they are nicknamed diamonds. As the crystals become larger in size they tend to become less clear.

Herkimer diamonds are naturally faceted and have a hardness rating of 7 where diamonds have a hardness of 10 and it must be cut to give it smooth faces and the traditional diamond like shape.

How are they formed?

Millions of years ago calcium magnesium carbonate was deposited on the ocean floor. As more and more of the sediments were deposited on the ocean floor the calcium magnesium carbonate and other minerals was compress into a rock strata called Dolostone which is quite similar to limestone. Cracks can develop in the dolostone and then sea water will dissolve part of the rock leaving pockets where the quarts crystals form. Pockets can contain from 1 to thousands of these quarts crystals of all sizes. These pockets usually range in size from inch to six feet in diameter.

Many of the crystal prospectors believe that they contain metaphysical properties. They are believed to be able to activate your third eye and enhance the dreaming state. When worn they may bring about a greater access to your psychic abilities.

At Herkimer Diamond Mine located in Herkimer County, New York, you can purchase an all-day prospecting ticket for around $10. Prospectors can dig through the rubble near the mine area and break open rocks looking for the Herkimer diamond deposits. Common tools used for prospecting are a 2 to 3 pound hammer, chisel, crowbar, safety glasses, gloves, 5 gallon bucket with water and some type of hoe or rake to move the piles of broken rock around. Basic tools can be supplied by the mine staff with proper identification. Visit the Herkimer diamond web site for current hours of operations and prices.

Up to 500 people a day from all around the world may visit the mine to prospect. Hunting for Herkimer diamonds is great fun and a lot of hard work. If you are lucky your will find a large pocket of crystal within the quarry walls. One or more of the diamonds may be found by searching the rock rubble near the quarry walls scattered across the quarry floor with little or no effort. Another common prospect method is to select and break open a rock with a heavy hammer and look for a cavity with crystals imbedded within.

Happy treasure hunting.

Metaphysical Beliefs » Hobbies & Games

Role playing games explained

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Role playing game reviews: Hunter: The Vigil

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Growing older and still collecting comic books

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Video game reviews: Everyday Shooter (PS3)

Treasure hunting for herkimer diamonds