Archive
Putting your Hand in Large Hadron Collider!
This is WAY outside my area of knowledge. Still it’s a good vid and clearly Thunderf00t put a lot of thought in this one. Enjoy yourself some science!
What I REALLY Expect of D&D Next
I was reading this link about where the next version of D&D is going. Let’s call it 5e. Play testing for 5e starts today.
So some background on what I have played: I started with the Blue Book and then played the hell out of 1e. I stopped at 2e, because I was getting busy and didn’t need to learn new rules. I’m playing some 3.5e and now 4e with my kids. I don’t plan to play test 5e. I have other things to do right now…
But here’s the thing that popped into my head as I’m rolling up new 4e characters with my kids:
I’m sitting here with bunch of 1e, 3e, 3.5e and 4e stuff between me and my friends, What the heck is 5e going to REALLY offer to make me spend $100s of dollars on a new version? What is the killer app as it were?
Is a 5e cleric really going to be that different than a 4e cleric that I want to drop that amount of coin? Odds are I’ll start looking for cheap 4e material and explore that.
Let me put it another way, there is no way I would play 1e over 3.5e or 4e. Personally, I like 4e better than 3.5e. So the versions have been getting better. That said, if I had a ton of 3.5e stuff (and a lot of people did who played that version), I wouldn’t have jumped to 4e. There was nothing there to make you want to switch.
A lot of people look at a bunch of stuff that is BS: How much to rollplay, how much combat there should be, how long should combat be, etc. Bottom line, a lot of that stuff is up to the DM’s and the player’s style of play. It can’t be forced by the rules onto the game.
Look D&D has dug itself into a hole. It has too many versions and that’s the bottom line. Clearly 5e is going to be some sort of fusion of 3.5e and 4e to try to get the core of the D&D players together. I understand why they want to do that, but that doesn’t sound like enough to get me to buy the new books anytime soon.
I’m going to give Wizards of the Coast what I think the killer app is for 5e. Come out publically and say that you will NOT change the rules of 5e for at least 8 years. If you do that and successfully merge the 3.5e and 4e rules, you might be able to get people to switch to 5e. You burned some bridges over the years with changing the rules; you need to make a public commitment to 5e.
I’m not planning on getting 5e out of the gate, but tell me up front that this rule set is going to be around for awhile and that could be enough to get me to buy the book and kick the tires from the start. Otherwise it’s just going to be something close to 4e and I’ll just stick to that.
Draw Mohammad Day 3
Waiting for the Money Pit (Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino)
Dominion by Donald X. Vaccarino
So Dominion is an excellent card game. It plays 2-4 players and up to 6 players if you buy some of the expansions. Here is a Tom Vasel’s review of it:
It takes a little bit to setup it up, but it’s a lot of fun and once you know the cards, the game can play quick (30 mins or less).
Now what about this app for Dominion? Well, if you read this thread you will see that this app is only a free app that will be pulled once the developers release the full app.
So when you look at the app, you can see why the app is a little ‘rough around the edges’ when you play it. No developer is going to put a lot of time into an app that’s going to get pulled. That said, it works well and allows 2 player multiplayer. It’s a great time filler right now when you have 5-10 mins to kill.
That said, Rio Grande Games said back in January that the official version of the game will be out in a few weeks. That was back in Jan 2012 and I’m still waiting.
Look, I understand as a developer, that deadlines can get missed, but missed by 4 months shouldn’t happen if the game is going to be out ‘in a few weeks’. Get this app done so I can give you my money please. 🙂
Until then, try and enjoy the free version.
Monckton PWNED! Flawless Victory! Part 3
So now it seems that Watts Up With That? is just being dishonest.
So I have no information myself on who is right with these behind the curtain emails, etc., but clearly Potholer54 has made clear arguements which Monckton has not answered and it’s clear that WUWT doesn’t want to deal with it, so they are banning posters and removing comments. Not having an open discussion always raises a red flag about that person’s honestly and that’s what Anthony Watts has done here.
I can only guess that since Monckton got owned by Potholer54, that is causing some problems at WUWT. It’s hard to see it many other ways.
It’s just water?
So this weekend my family went to a Infant Baptism. My kids have not been in a Church for a Service for about 2 years, which was the last time we went to an Infant Baptism. So, my kids are checking out the church. They liked the cool windows. They were quickly bored of the service of course.
Anyway my oldest was asking about the ceremony and the talk went something like this:
Son: So what is this about?
Me: Well, the parents are promising to bring up the child in the ways of their religion. The priest will talk about that promise and then put some holy water on the child to complete the ceremony.
Son: Where’s the water.
Me: It’s usually in the front of the church. (I point at the Baptismal Font)
Son: (Walks over to the Font, looks in and looks at me with a disappointed look) It’s just water…
Me: I agree. (I guess he was expecting it to glow or something)
(Later, after the ceremony is done)
Son: So we sat through that so they could dump some water on a baby’s head and him wake up? That’s silly.
Me: Yep, I agree. 🙂
I always love how kids can look at things without all the extra baggage adults dump on top.
Are you Ready for Ragnarok?
Is that a nice looking image or what?
Yggdrasil is a board game that I reviewed here. It is a nice multiplayer co-op game (i.e. The players work together to beat the game).
Now it’s out for IPad. The graphics are great just like the game itself and it plays really well. There are some unlockable characters, which is also cool.
The only downside to the game is the game is only ‘pass and play’, no playing over the internet yet. I hope that will change. It’s a little pricey at $6, but for board game fans it’s easily worth it. If they allow internet play it’s a Home Run. For now, it’s a solid triple and I’m sure to be playing it for hours.
Here is a repost to Tom Vasel’s review of the boardgame.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: Atheist?
So is Neil deGrasse Tyson an Atheist? It’s a question I’ve wondered about from time to time, so here is his stand. He is an Agnostic.
So a few thoughts of my own.
To me the only difference between Atheist and Agnostic is where do you draw the line.
Can I show God doesn’t exist? Well, yes, in about the same way I can show that T-Rexs don’t exist either. A T-Rex could be stomping around somewhere in some remote place on the globe, but I know that the odds are so low, they are basically zero. For that reason, I’m an Atheist.
Now for some folks, that’s not good enough. I don’t know why. I doubt they (Neil included) would be Agnostic about T-Rexs.
I think it just comes with being a public figure. Carl Sagan also walked a fine line between Atheist and Agnostic. Carl is widely credited to be a Atheist, but never said so publically. Here is a clip of James Randi saying why that was:
Going back to Neil for a second, at the end of the video he says he doesn’t understand why Atheist exists. If so, then you haven’t really thought about it well enough Neil….
Atheist exists as a group, because we see the many wrongs happening in the name of religion. That’s why we stand up to it.
If there was an scientific theory, that had no basis, Neil would talk about it right? Yep.
It seems odd to me that in this video Neil sees the harm that religion has done, but on the other hand he doesn’t understand why Atheist exist. When that harm goes away Neil, so will the title Atheist.
The Gaming Atheist 