Holy And/Or Radiant Damage

A minor point but one of potential interest to D&D players who've played multiple editions of the game. Can holy and radiant damage both live in the same game? (Another way to put it: can we get by with just the one and not feel like we're missing something?)

Take the poll here.

So, Yeah, "D&D Next"

I'm a day late to this party, but I hereby publicly confirm that, yes, I'm one of the designers on D&D Next (as the cool kids are calling it), a project that will likely evolve into a new iteration of the Dungeons & Dragons ruleset. We intend that these rules connect with all previous versions, and indeed, the players of those games. Our goals are big, we own that. But they're good goals, and we won't accomplish them if we don't try. We want to create a rulset that can include players of every previous version of D&D because, after all, it's ALL D&D. The essence of D&D lies outside the mechanics, and we're on the hunt to bring this goal to ground.

An Exercise in Sarcasm

Herman Caine's 9/9/9 plan is easy to understand. That's why it's BETTER. Everything easy to understand is ALWAYS better. That's why iphones and electron microscopes are better than yelling and looking, because everyone understands exactly how iphones and electron microscopes operate. Shucks, I could probably whip either up in my barn in just two shakes of a lamb's tail.

Imprisoned

In the realm of the fantastic fiction and games, it's common to find imprisoned entities of terrible malign strength, secured by Ancient Powers of Good rather than destroyed. As for instance happened in the movie The Keep I watched last weekend with Batgirl.

The question is, why? Why didn't those Ancient Powers of Good who managed to imprison the Evil Thing simply not destroy it?

In my novel Sword of the Gods, and its sequel Spinner of Lies, this is something I've had to wrestle with. And this is what I've come up with, which works well enough for broader application:

Imprisoning defeated Evil Things and other cosmically powerful creatures is always better than killing them. Why? Because when they're killed, such entities reform/reincarnate somewhere farther down the time stream, but the where and when is impossible to predict.

By imprisoning an Evil Thing, you're guaranteed to restrict its movements in the future (assuming some clueless nazi/D&D adventuring party doesn't wander by years later and let it loose). On the other hand, killing the Evil Thing releases the essence into the multiverse, and that quanta of Evil Thing Energy will find purchase anew, eventually.

That said, a lot of great feedback was generated in comments where I first posted this, which I'm incorporating here as so: Different imprisoned Evil Things should probably have different reasons for escaping execution. Why? Because more options provide more story potential.

Possible reasons why a given defeated Evil Thing is imprisoned instead of dead:

• Death would release the slain Evil Thing to an inevitable reincarnation at an unknown time and place;
• Moral reluctance on the part of the victors;
• Inability for the Evil Thing to actually die (for whatever reason);
• The Evil Thing's potential as a weapon in some other conflict the victors are concerned about;
• The Evil Thing is linked to the Powers of Good so that to slay one slays both;
• The Evil Thing is an actual agent of a Power of Good and thus it is not so much imprisoned as kept caged until needed;
• And finally, some Evil Things are slain (we just don't usually hear about those in stories).

(Of course, if you're not an ancient power of good, but just a really butch mortal with weapons forged for a god, it's more viscerally satisfying to kill an Evil Thing than imprison it. A mortal's short life span means that killing a powerful demonic entity seems to get the job done well enough, so why worry about future generations?)

Ruby Ring

I received an heirloom on my last visit home. It was originally a gift from my grandmother to my grandfather before they were married. It subsequently passed to my father after my grandfather's death, and now it has come to me, on the condition it'll go to my oldest nephew when I shuffle off this mortal coil.

It's a ruby, slightly scratched, set in a gold ring.

It's a humbling gift, and it made me think about my grandfather's life, and my father's, and about the ultimate inevitability of death. But at the same time the ring represents a continuance of a sort. It's a thread through the generations. In this case, the thread is all the more bitter-sweet because in each case, my grandmother personally passed on the ring as a result of a recipient's passing.

Visiting Home

I'm back where I grew up to attend an old friend's wedding. Most of the old gang is here (minus one who couldn't make it--we miss you JD!).

As we sat around talking last evening, I think most of us realized that we'd planned far too short a trip. It was just so good to see everyone. We relaxed into ourselves, the people we'd been in jr. high and high school, and laughed at the half-remembered (or well-remembered!) jokes and stories from the old days.

I'm writing this with my feet up on a recliner, passing the time with my Mom in her very comfortable home. Later, the wedding, and tomorrow and the next day I'll go see my grandmothers, each still living out on the farm where each one has lived for the last forty or fifty years (at least).

There's a lot of history in this place; it made me the person I am today. I think I sometimes take that for granted. Or I only think about all the reasons I left.

But not today.

Watertown SD, for this weekend at least, you're number one in my book.

Anti-Vaxers and Grief Predators

I've long wondered how, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, anti-vaccination nonsense continues to hang on with such tenacity.

Then I read this account of a woman's experience attending an anti-vaccination convention, and I figured it out:

Like many wrong ideas that live long past their expiration date, someone's making a buck promulgating the disproved idea that vaccinations are harmful.

And anti-vaccination conventions are example number one. (Books written and speaker fees received by prominent anti-vaxers are example two.) Anti-vax conventions and people associated with them benefit financially when parents are misinformed. And who better to target than people who're hurting and looking for answers, such as the parents of autistic children? Just like psychics and mediums who take money from grieving wives, husbands, and parents of recently lost loved-ones, those pushing the idea that vaccination equals autism are grief predators. They're cashing in on parents who buy their books, buy their alt-meds, and attend their conventions and talks.

One Skeptic's Experience at an anti-vax convention: http://bit.ly/lBDW26

Necropolis of the Sword

Sword of the Gods includes a scene where the characters Demascus and Chant (and Riltana) discover a portal to a mysterious destination. Demascus knows his enemy Kalkan has recently fled through the portal.

When Chant and Demascus decide to follow Kalkan, they find a strange new place—the lost necropolis of Khalusk.

The backdrop article I've written provides an excerpt from the novel, some background history, context, and a bit of game mechanics for Khalusk. You can use the information to inspire a few D&D game encounters, or use it as the basis of a longer adventure set in one of the lost places of the Forgotten Realms® setting.

Article: http://bit.ly/khalusk

Portal 2

I just finished playing Portal 2. This is one of the funniest and fun video games I've played in quite a while. If you haven't played the first Portal, get it. Then move on to Portal 2. Five Stars! The video below provides a hint why I enjoyed the game so much.

Fun with Magnifying Glasses

Watching this video reminds me how my Grandma Cordell got my brother, sister, and I out of the house on sunny days--she'd break out her magnifying glasses and send us into the driveway to do . . . science! Or at least play with the power of the gathered, focussed light of the sun itself: Professor Paper, you've finally met your match. Dr Sunbeam is here, mua-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!



Had you, like me, forogotten the joys of owning a magnifying glass? Well, here you go, have fun. And don't burn any ants!

Large 4" Magnifying Glass 3X Optics

Finding The Right Card for Dad

As I was browsing birthday and congratulations cards this morning on Amazon, I came across a design that said, "Just For You Dad."

As easy as falling out of bed I realized I'd never shop for another father's day, birthday, holiday, or any other kind of card for my dad ever again. He's gone. There's no 'replacement' Dad who I'll begin sending cards to instead.

I remember when I used to shop for cards for him, finding the pre-printed Hallmark message that struck just the right note was important to me. Something indicating I was thinking of him, but nothing too smarmy. Because if it was too smarmy, that would've been terrible, right?

With the hindsight of today, the card I'd send now would say something like:

"Hey Dad, thinking of you. I didn't spend much time with you this last decade; I wish I'd spent more. I didn't always answer your calls, and I'm sorry. We had some rough times early on, but both of us grew past that. I've come to appreciate all the positive things you did for me, stuff a child can never really repay, other than to accept and acknowledge it. I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you in my life. Your son, Bruce."

10 Simple Ways To Support An Author

I've been stuck lately trying to come up with ways to market my novels. In the absence of a traditional publisher's budget that does this sort of thing for select books, I'm sort of left to my own devices when it comes to promoting myself. Wizards of the Coast publishing relies on the strong brand name of the Forgotten Realms to sell its titles. This has worked well in the past, actually.

However you don't need me to tell you that things are changing in the world of publishing. People have less time to devote to novel reading, and more novels to choose from when they do decide to sit down with a book (or whatever ereader they've chosen).

This collusion of events troubles me as an author interested in continuing to practice his craft in the part-time fashion I currently enjoy. And the virtuous circle closes--this is why I'm interested in finding new ways to market my novels.

So along comes this great blog post by Jody Hedlund titled "10 Simple Ways to Support the Author You Love." In this post, Jody notes how you can do an author you love a big favor by, in addition to buying and reading the book, by taking your support one tiny step further.

An excerpt:

1. Write a book review and post it on Amazon. If you’ve ever ordered on Amazon then you’re eligible to post a review. It’s very simple to do and incredibly helpful (if it’s a good review!).

2. Copy and paste your review onto other online bookstores. There’s nothing wrong with copying your Amazon review and using it on other sites, like GoodReads, Shelfari, Barnes&Noble.com or CBD.com.

3. Click the “Like” button on a book’s Amazon page. (If you're not sure what this is, head over to The Preacher's Bride Amazon page and you'll find it near the top.)

4. Click on the “Tags People Associate With This Product” on Amazon. If you scroll down on The Preacher’s Bride Amazon page, you’ll see approximately 32 tags. The more tags and the more clicks, the better a book will come up in search results.

Read Jody's full article (and all 10 steps) here:

http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/05/10-simple-ways-to-support-authors-you.html

Sword as QR Code

I love the concept of QR codes. I'm not sure we're quite there yet, but it's still fun. Like my latest encoded message below--point your phone at it and see where it takes you! (Well, ok, I'll tell you--I bet most of you reading this don't have a QR scanner app on your phone; this particular code takes you to an Amazon link for Sword of the Gods.)

Artificial Left-Right Divide

This year GE had a profit of $14.2 billion. Of which exactly nothing is being collected for taxes (reference), even while all us honest workers fork over a significant percentage of our wages to improve the country we're all part of.

Our elected officials could have tackled the deficit by imposing a fair share of the load on these corporations. Instead they cut billions from programs that do "wasteful" things like create new jobs, drive economic growth, and help the needy and our nation's children.

Is there any clearer evidence of the artificial nature of left-right divide that has been foisted on us (or that we've allowed ourselves to fall victim to), blaring from every major news outlet? We squabble over crumbs while corporations secure their hold on power.

e-signing for Sword of the Gods

Taking a cue from Paul S. Kemp, I'm doing an e-signing for my novel Sword of the Gods.


So if you’re interested in a signed softcover first edition of Sword of the Gods, read on!


If you live in the United States, you have a couple options. You can send me $17USD to me via any of the following methods (see? I aim to please!):

1) Pay Pal (my paypal account is bruce at brucecordell dot com).

2) via Cashier's check. This requires that you email me here to get my address of course.

3) forget USD; send me bitcoins (email me here to get my bitcoin address and in this rapidly fluctuating bitcoin market, how many bit coins to send!)

The $17 covers the cost of the book, tax, and priority mail shipping via the USPS. Include your address and any personalization instructions (if you provide none, I’ll make something up). After that, I'll get it out to you as soon as I can, though please don't expect overnight!

I have several copies of the book on hand right now, so the first dozen or so participants should have their copies pretty quickly. After I get through those, I’ll have to order additional copies (so the process of getting signed copies out will take a few days longer at that point).

If you live outside the US and are interested in one or more copies, email me here and tell me your address. I’ll let you know what the total cost of the book and shipping will be and you can decide if you want to proceed (international shipping costs can be prohibitive, according to Paul's blog, from which I'm cribbing much of the format here--Thanks Paul!).