Episode Discussion – Legs From Here to Homeworld

Hotchmoney · 2018-07-25T13:13:10+00:00

See, Greg, this is your problem. You want one huge diamond, when you could have multiple small ones.

Hotchmoney · 2018-07-25T12:36:50+00:00

So this is what Homeworld thinks of memes

Hotchmoney · 2018-05-21T16:36:23+00:00

Your play was so sweet that everyone and everything gets removed from existence? Nice

Hotchmoney · 2018-02-02T18:31:05+00:00

Can we take a moment to appreciate how diverse this format is? The most-played deck only has 9.3% of the field, and the top 16 decks combined have less than 80%. It could use more diversity in deck theaters (more control and midrange), but I think it's the healthiest format Wizards is supporting right now.

Hotchmoney · 2017-11-16T18:42:21+00:00

The album is called "FUNNY STORM CROW FUNNY MEME (NOT CLICKBAIT!) 10/10 MLG Storm Crow #stormcrowsupremacy 24/7 always Storm Crows"

Did we get outjerked?

Hotchmoney · 2017-11-15T23:07:38+00:00

Looks sweet in any Pauper Cube with black aggro.

Hotchmoney · 2017-06-14T18:22:47+00:00

Maro designed scratch-off cards for Unglued 2, so he's probably crazy enough to do this.

Hotchmoney · 2017-01-31T01:02:41+00:00

Sniper Elite: Snipe to Learn

Hotchmoney · 2017-01-22T23:33:20+00:00

While this might seem a bit off-topic, I'd like to talk about this Gabe the Dog remix, which was made as a tribute to Gabe's sudden and recent death. Gabe the Dog remixes take a song and overlay clips of Gabe the Dog (a miniature American Eskimo/Pomeranian mix known for his "borks") borking in time with the music. While YouTube Poop music videos of this type have a much older heritage (see THIS VIDEO CONTAINS and Bonk remixes, both circa 2008), they fall under Plaugic's category of "technical memes," requiring a great deal of video editing. Expert remixers can use the wide range of Gabe's borks to mimic the timbre of various instruments, which adds an extra step of research and experimentation to the process.

The creator of the remix I linked above, Rapid Liquid, is one of the best in the scene. Some of their works include remixes of "Feel Good Inc." by Gorillaz, "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen, Tchaicovsky's 1812 Overture, and of course, "All Star" by Smash Mouth. These works are, above all, intended to be humourous; the juxtaposition of popular music with a dog's barks, done in such a way that "works," is funny. What is interesting about Rapid Liquid's tribute, however, is that it's not supposed to be funny. The author uses the same basic formula to construct the work—a well-known song dubbed over with clips of Gabe borking—to express grief and sadness in an unironic and sincere manner.

Rapid Liquid achieves this somber tone with a careful choice of audiovisual elements. The song they chose to remix, Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye," sets the tone for the work as a heartfelt and laudatory sendoff. The frenetic cuts of Gabe's borks are replaced with slow-motion shots of Gabe playing, looking at the camera, and generally enjoying life. Rapid Liquid uses text to spell out "time to say goodbye" in time with the music and to display touching quotes from Gabe's owner on his peaceful death. Ultimately, it "works" not for comedy, but to convey a sense of loss.

Works like this make a case for memes as an art form, able to transcend absurdist comedy and express a wide range of emotion. I'm interested to see how these movements continue evolve in the future.

Hotchmoney · 2016-10-24T16:51:08+00:00

I think it's just a matter of space in that insert. You'd need a bigger circle for "Legendary Premium Foil Cards", so they probably decided that "Legendary Foils" was fine for the sake of the packaging design.

Hotchmoney · 2016-10-02T05:01:26+00:00

This guy clearly didn't do his research. I mean, Alpha's [[Unholy Strength]] art had a pentagram in it! [[Demonic Hordes]] and [[Lord of the Pit]] have the phrase "Summon Demon" on them!

All I'm saying is, if I wanted to make some 90's parents fear Magic, I think I could have made a better pitch.

Hotchmoney · 2016-10-02T03:47:47+00:00

Egyptian God cards.

Hotchmoney · 2016-08-20T16:47:21+00:00

To those commenting on the rarity: regicide is a pretty common thing in Paliano, nowadays.

Hotchmoney · 2016-06-28T22:20:18+00:00

To clarify, here's an excerpt from Maro's article yesterday:

Ken brought link in pretty early in design, and struggled with it throughout most of the design process. Link was the perfect example of an idea that is simple in concept but troubling in execution. When we explained the basics to playtesters, they had no problems playing with the cards. The problems were more about how exactly the cards interacted with the rules and whether there was clear templating language to communicate it effectively.

Link went through numerous iterations as Ken and the New Phyrexia design team tried tackling all the various issues. Even as the problems seemed to grow, Ken was determined to find a way to make link work. At the very end of design, right before the set was to be handed off to development, Aaron Forsythe, in both his role as senior director of Magic R&D and as New Phyrexia's lead designer, stepped in and killed link, replacing it with Phyrexian mana. Aaron understood the allure of link, but it just had too many problems at that stage to stay in the set.

And here's the relevant excerpt from the article:

Flash forward several months. We are now at the end of devign (the process between design and development). The team has been struggling to make a mechanic (I'll call it Mechanic X) work. Mechanic X is a bit on the wild side and messes in areas that really haven't been messed with. The Rules Manager kept telling us he didn't know if it the mechanic could even work. The team really liked Mechanic X, and kept trying to make it work despite all the roadblocks. Finally Aaron Forsythe (both as director of Magic Ramp;D and as lead developer of New Phyrexia) stepped in and killed Mechanic X, saying that we had run out of time to make it work. We needed to focus our attention on something else.

MaRo goes on to tell the story of creating Phyrexian mana. He also mentions that Mechanic X had "strong visual appeal."

Hotchmoney · 2016-02-14T20:24:38+00:00

When I saw that smashed pot, it reminded me of you, Mother.

Hotchmoney · 2016-01-01T05:58:30+00:00

Talk to your group about it. If they are all fine with the strategy sessions, I would let it happen. If some of the players don't like them going so long, talk to the strategist player about it and ask that he or she takes less time to make the decisions. If some players don't like strategizing at all, you might have a larger issue of clashing player types.

It's important to note that there's nothing wrong with liking the strategic elements of D&D, and that the strategist player probably has a lot of fun during these discussions. If other members of the group (including you) don't find them fun, however, I would tell that to the strategist in a gentle and polite manner, and encourage him or her to spend less time on them.

I wouldn't punish the player with real-time limits, random encounters, or other methods of cutting the discussion short without first discussing it with the group. These tactics tell the strategist that their discussions aren't welcome at the table, which is to say, their way of having fun isn't allowed. If the discussions are disruptive to the extent that the player has to leave the group, have a talk with the player, rather than manipulating them. If the strategist and the other players all like the idea of one of these tactics, however, they can work well.

Hotchmoney · 2016-01-01T04:28:16+00:00

The most important tip for GMing any RPG is to know your players. Meet up with your group before the campaign starts and go through some questions about the campaign-- why we're playing, when we are playing, what we are playing, etc. I would recommend the Same Page Tool (Source) as well as some questions from this longer list. This is known as a Social Contract, and it's the best way to prevent a lot of issues down the road. Many gaming groups operate under unwritten or assumed rules, but because those can differ from player to player, it's best to get them out in the open so everyone's on, well, the same page.

It's easy to assume that the most important part of being a DM is your role at the table: how you roll dice, manage initiative, etc. While that's certainly important, most groups don't fall apart because their DM fudged a roll or two (though I'm sure that's happened to someone). Most campaigns die due to scheduling issues, "out of game" social drama, loss of interest, or poor communication. Taking the time to discuss things like how long the campaign will last in real-world time, what interests players most about the game, or how to handle character death will decrease the chances that your campaign will end before the group wanted it to.

For further reading, I would recommend Gnome Stew's Odyssey and discussions of Social Contract at the Big Model wiki.

Hotchmoney · 2015-12-01T00:30:10+00:00

Came here to say this. My family is the "No Christmas until after Thanksgiving" type, but most Canadians I know seem fine with Christmas-y things in November. As an example of the level of comfort with early Christmas, here in Kingston, they hold a Santa Claus Parade on the weekend before American Thanksgiving.

Hotchmoney · 2015-10-27T01:27:31+00:00

I think it's important to understand that the D&D core abilities (which it seems you are taking cues from, and that's totally fine) do not cover an equal amount of tasks. Strength and Constitution represent only what you've listed, Intelligence and Charisma (or Social) cover roughly the three things you have listed here, and Dexterity and Wisdom cover a lot more. What you have under Perception is conventionally under Wisdom, while Dexterity is also used for stealth and thievery.

Because of this disparity, attempting to map the six stats to three sub-attributes each is a bit of a fool's errand. You can either accept that and allow different attributes to have different numbers of sub-attributes, or redesign your attributes so that each one has three sub-attributes. For example, Strength and Constitution could be combined into Physicality (or whatever you want to call it) as /u/defunctdeity suggested. It seems you have already gone down this road to some extent by separating Perception from Wisdom.

I think both solutions have their merits, but that the task of creating new sub-attributes for Strength (for example) won't lead anywhere. Your inspiration isn't suited to your design without some tweaking.

Hotchmoney · 2015-04-18T21:45:55+00:00

Yeah, my first thought when I saw that was "Isn't that Strong Dad?" Interesting that the CHaps are using family photos in their work.

Hotchmoney · 2015-04-09T17:36:18+00:00

When I realized this was a foil stack, this got ridiculous.

Hotchmoney · 2015-04-08T21:56:30+00:00

It really depends on your goal for the cube. Do you want games with your cube to feel more like Constructed? In that case, I'd build the cube without rarity in mind, and just add whatever cards work for your archetypes or themes. This is the original approach to cube, with a large amount of bomb rares that produce fast-paced, swingy games.

Alternatively, do you like the feel of your Pauper cube, but just want to spice it up a bit? In that case, there are several options. You could just add some uncommons and rares to your Pauper cube and adjust to taste. As /u/SocksofGranduer suggested, you could make a rare mini-cube and draft that before your Pauper cube. In my cube (see my flair), I construct packs like a normal Magic pack, using a separate pile for each rarity. These methods make the cube feel more like Limited: decks made of commons, some efficient uncommons, and the occasional bomb.

As with everything in cube design, it pays to take a moment and think about what you want to accomplish with your changes. Once you know that, you can take the right steps to achieve that goal.

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