Apparently I'm going to be GMing again. I'm not certain if this is a good happy thing or a terrible horrendous one. I'm somewhat excited since we're using the Dresden RPG and I think the system is incredibly interesting and fun, but I'm also dreading how things'll go. Last time we tried my style of stories they pretty much all crashed and burned. I haven't recently had the best of track records running things in others games at that. But hey, no one else knows the source material as well as I do, so that makes me the man for the job. I'll get my game face on and see what happens.
I'd love to sit back and begin hashing out ideas for how the story will run, but frankly I can't even begin to touch upon that aspect of things until we hammer out characters and a setting. One of my favorite parts of this system is how it's important to have all of the characters connect with each other and the setting before things even start, but it also means I can't do much pre-planning. With that in mind I'm going over all of the system rules again to get a better grasp of them. I'm going to have to explain virtually all of it, probably several times, so I suppose it's a good thing to have most of it committed to memory.
The system itself is an intriguing one. It places all the emphasis on character traits, and using them to flesh out the story, giving players part of the world-creating role that GM's usually have - even on an individual scene level. By creating aspects of their characters, such as 'Serves the Law', the player could decide to behave with that in mind when playing the game and earn fate points if done properly. Fate points can then in turn be used to either make themselves better in certain scenes or even make declarations that change the world slightly, like suddenly knowing the closest place cops hang out when bored. It could allow the players a chance to manipulate the game in ways other than just blowing shit up. While the latter is always fun I'm eager to see what the guys can come up with in this system.
As for where we'll play I suspect it'll end up being Toronto or somewhere similar in North America, it has the benefit of being big enough to include all the various supernatural communities and being familiar enough that we aren't bullshitting literally every second of the game. Given the players have the ability to affect the setting its not like I can just research where we're going to explain things to them, they need to know about it in general terms before hand.
Anyways, we're going to meet up tomorrow and figure out everyone's characters and the city itself. Should be fun, though I expect it to be quite time consuming.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Videos and Magic
What? I like multiple topics, even if they don't relate to one another at all. It's what makes this place such a varied and exciting blog, right? Damn straight pretend-audience. (Hi Josh! Why don't you go link this to some one God-dammit?)
Anywho, I'll start with video news. Our more clever viewers may have noticed we don't really have any and no one is watching the ones we do. I'm fairly certain this is because we have literally no focus as a group. We don't produce work on a regular basis and what we do make tends to vary wildly in content. This isn't exactly the best way to draw in a multitude of viewers. Even my hope that I'd continue to make videos died when I realized I really had nothing worth showing, or at least what I did have to show fell prey to the same flaws we have as an over all group. With this in mind I suppose we can say videos are on a hold, and given none have been made for about three weeks this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. I still have ideas for the future, but there doesn't look to be much point in pretending we can create an audience as we stand right now.
The best future plan I have is to start up a series around Star War The Old Republic when it comes out, just some basic coverage about what the game is and tutorials about how it's played. I anticipate being one of the first people to get his hands on the game in the open beta so I hope most of what I post will actually be new news, and since it's an MMO this is a series with potential to go on for quite some time. Many a youtuber has gotten his start following game news about a new big hit. We'll see how that goes when the time comes.
Now for a dramatic topic shift; it's magic time. I didn't exactly unlock the secrets to life and death but I did find a few new interesting tid-bits when working out last night. To give some context, I'm in Kung Fu and one of the handy tricks they have to build leg strength is to adopt a sort of half squat and hold the position for as long as you can. If you haven't ever trained in it before this can be surprisingly difficult and painful, with most people out of shape having problems holding it for more than a minute or two their first few times. Of course since this is holding a static position it means your legs start to burn horribly until they give out, and the point is to keep doing it to strengthen the thigh muscles which are incredibly important in many martial arts. What I discovered was the ability to move pain, and seemingly draw energy from the stress of the situation into creating a magnified version of my previous tests.
To clarify, I was practicing the Horse Stance (as the half-squat is called) on and off a couple weeks back and found distracting myself while doing it is a convenient way to up the amount of time I can hold it. I was using this trick to rebuild the time I could hold it quicker, as I renewed my training two days ago. Mind over matter and whatnot; if you're too distracted to give yourself an excuse to give up, you won't. For reference, I don't do this exercise more than once a day. In an odd moment of pain induced insanity twelve or so minutes into it I thought "hey! Why not make psiballs! That'll be fun!", and promptly did so. The results were startling.
When previously trying to intentionally increase the warmth of the psiballs I was making I had managed a heat level of perhaps warm laundry, for an easy analogy. However it took considerable concentration to do so each of the few times I managed such. In that particular exercise I managed a level two or three times the magnitude of even the best previous attempts. What's more, I could feel the heat build in both my chest and head, then flow down the shoulders and to the hands each time I poured more will into the experiment. I was intentionally visualizing pulling the 'energy' from my tired and aching legs when I did this and noted a significant drop in the pain and stress I was feeling in them. I continued my exercise until 16 minutes on the dot, a personal best, which I only stopped at because I was sweating horribly and thought I should probably work on something else before I broke myself.
In the wake of this experience I find myself with a number of bizarre conclusions to mull over. I've possibly attained a level of self delusion so significant I can utilize it to consciously push myself to new extremes in a physical sense. I've potentially found a way to use a combination nerve endings and unintentional control over how my body regulates blood to enhance my ability to resist pain and move excess heat, going on Trevor's theory that this is all manipulation of blood vessels. I also might be psychic and capable of using energy to make myself stronger. For some reason I have doubts about the last one, but in a realization of my utter lack of knowledge about biology I can't even begin to confirm or deny the other theories. At best it seems very peculiar that I can regulate heat inside of my body with that much speed, so the blood vessel idea seems out of place. It's worth noting the process of moving heat into the 'psiball' was one that lasted under a two seconds, as best as I can recall. The situation was, as you'd imagine, somewhat stressful.
I intend to make another attempt at it tonight, though I'm not entirely certain about what I can do differently to test any of these theories. I simply don't know enough to make any real conclusions here. Nonetheless, I'll post my findings.
Anywho, I'll start with video news. Our more clever viewers may have noticed we don't really have any and no one is watching the ones we do. I'm fairly certain this is because we have literally no focus as a group. We don't produce work on a regular basis and what we do make tends to vary wildly in content. This isn't exactly the best way to draw in a multitude of viewers. Even my hope that I'd continue to make videos died when I realized I really had nothing worth showing, or at least what I did have to show fell prey to the same flaws we have as an over all group. With this in mind I suppose we can say videos are on a hold, and given none have been made for about three weeks this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. I still have ideas for the future, but there doesn't look to be much point in pretending we can create an audience as we stand right now.
The best future plan I have is to start up a series around Star War The Old Republic when it comes out, just some basic coverage about what the game is and tutorials about how it's played. I anticipate being one of the first people to get his hands on the game in the open beta so I hope most of what I post will actually be new news, and since it's an MMO this is a series with potential to go on for quite some time. Many a youtuber has gotten his start following game news about a new big hit. We'll see how that goes when the time comes.
Now for a dramatic topic shift; it's magic time. I didn't exactly unlock the secrets to life and death but I did find a few new interesting tid-bits when working out last night. To give some context, I'm in Kung Fu and one of the handy tricks they have to build leg strength is to adopt a sort of half squat and hold the position for as long as you can. If you haven't ever trained in it before this can be surprisingly difficult and painful, with most people out of shape having problems holding it for more than a minute or two their first few times. Of course since this is holding a static position it means your legs start to burn horribly until they give out, and the point is to keep doing it to strengthen the thigh muscles which are incredibly important in many martial arts. What I discovered was the ability to move pain, and seemingly draw energy from the stress of the situation into creating a magnified version of my previous tests.
To clarify, I was practicing the Horse Stance (as the half-squat is called) on and off a couple weeks back and found distracting myself while doing it is a convenient way to up the amount of time I can hold it. I was using this trick to rebuild the time I could hold it quicker, as I renewed my training two days ago. Mind over matter and whatnot; if you're too distracted to give yourself an excuse to give up, you won't. For reference, I don't do this exercise more than once a day. In an odd moment of pain induced insanity twelve or so minutes into it I thought "hey! Why not make psiballs! That'll be fun!", and promptly did so. The results were startling.
When previously trying to intentionally increase the warmth of the psiballs I was making I had managed a heat level of perhaps warm laundry, for an easy analogy. However it took considerable concentration to do so each of the few times I managed such. In that particular exercise I managed a level two or three times the magnitude of even the best previous attempts. What's more, I could feel the heat build in both my chest and head, then flow down the shoulders and to the hands each time I poured more will into the experiment. I was intentionally visualizing pulling the 'energy' from my tired and aching legs when I did this and noted a significant drop in the pain and stress I was feeling in them. I continued my exercise until 16 minutes on the dot, a personal best, which I only stopped at because I was sweating horribly and thought I should probably work on something else before I broke myself.
In the wake of this experience I find myself with a number of bizarre conclusions to mull over. I've possibly attained a level of self delusion so significant I can utilize it to consciously push myself to new extremes in a physical sense. I've potentially found a way to use a combination nerve endings and unintentional control over how my body regulates blood to enhance my ability to resist pain and move excess heat, going on Trevor's theory that this is all manipulation of blood vessels. I also might be psychic and capable of using energy to make myself stronger. For some reason I have doubts about the last one, but in a realization of my utter lack of knowledge about biology I can't even begin to confirm or deny the other theories. At best it seems very peculiar that I can regulate heat inside of my body with that much speed, so the blood vessel idea seems out of place. It's worth noting the process of moving heat into the 'psiball' was one that lasted under a two seconds, as best as I can recall. The situation was, as you'd imagine, somewhat stressful.
I intend to make another attempt at it tonight, though I'm not entirely certain about what I can do differently to test any of these theories. I simply don't know enough to make any real conclusions here. Nonetheless, I'll post my findings.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Some Thoughts on Magic
Sufficient to say I haven't managed to succeed in any of my attempts to perform the various psychic feats that would confirm it as real a phenomenon. I've had limited success in my practices on a personal scale, but the potential for muddying these results with delusions is too high to extrapolate anything of use from them. I can easily see how many of the practices could have massive mental benefits as they almost all concern themselves with attaining a peaceful mind first, and pursuing the manipulation of energy second. However I wasn't setting out to prove that meditation could have calming effects or that training could improve focus - we already know these things, there's no real mystery involved.
Though I think it's worthwhile to note the significance of the changes involving your state of mind that working on these practices will have. You're not going to turn into a monk in a day or anything, but for a man like myself thats never really bothered with matters of the 'spirit', the calm and relaxation you can get are difficult to describe, and quite potent. Once I was aware of a few of the easier beginner steps to handling 'energy' I could achieve a level of detached peace that I wouldn't otherwise get without taking a hour out of my day to read, or indulge in some other hobby. Furthermore, working at the starter steps of meditation managed to get me into relaxed states I wouldn't know how to replicate in any other manner. The closest experience I have comes from the odd occasion I've woken up at night, not sure of what roused me. The time when everything's dark and quiet and none of the worries or troubles of the day intrude. The only times during the day I've come across a similar sensation involved long walks through the forest, over an hour in length. To achieve the same results in ten minutes in my living room was... surprising, to say the least.
Further exploration of psychic manipulation may prove difficult. The next step is undoubtably finding a way to verify that my current developments are energy based rather than a personal delusion or random firing of nerves, but to do so I will need some one in a similar stage. I don't want to go into any of the online communities due to the risk of running across trolls or individuals who may very well be knee-deep in personal fantasies. However my options aren't precisely varied, and to give up now would be to reach an unsatisfactory conclusion, even for myself. I never intended to prove anything on a world scale, but if I don't even make the attempt to verify the existence of psychic exchange I'll just want to readdress the notion in the future.
A final concern I've come across is the connection to religion that a number of communities I've come across have. I hate to phrase it this way, but I feel that incorporating any sort of religion into these practices only heightens the chance for hallucination to be taken as legitimate energy movement. Belief in the unprovable seems like a very poor basis to examine magic or frankly anything. It opens the door to abandoning the scientific method before the experiments even begin, and provides a catalog of excuses to ignore when your attempts are honestly failing. However these are just issues with how I would interact with these communities, the real concern is the sheer number of them. Due to the method problems it means that even if one community happen to have stumbled across an actual way to interact with magic (for want of a better term) it would be impossible to distinguish it from the numerous others who failed.
This study is becoming much more difficult than I original anticipated. None the less, I must press on if only to exhaust my own desire for the truth of the matter.
Though I think it's worthwhile to note the significance of the changes involving your state of mind that working on these practices will have. You're not going to turn into a monk in a day or anything, but for a man like myself thats never really bothered with matters of the 'spirit', the calm and relaxation you can get are difficult to describe, and quite potent. Once I was aware of a few of the easier beginner steps to handling 'energy' I could achieve a level of detached peace that I wouldn't otherwise get without taking a hour out of my day to read, or indulge in some other hobby. Furthermore, working at the starter steps of meditation managed to get me into relaxed states I wouldn't know how to replicate in any other manner. The closest experience I have comes from the odd occasion I've woken up at night, not sure of what roused me. The time when everything's dark and quiet and none of the worries or troubles of the day intrude. The only times during the day I've come across a similar sensation involved long walks through the forest, over an hour in length. To achieve the same results in ten minutes in my living room was... surprising, to say the least.
Further exploration of psychic manipulation may prove difficult. The next step is undoubtably finding a way to verify that my current developments are energy based rather than a personal delusion or random firing of nerves, but to do so I will need some one in a similar stage. I don't want to go into any of the online communities due to the risk of running across trolls or individuals who may very well be knee-deep in personal fantasies. However my options aren't precisely varied, and to give up now would be to reach an unsatisfactory conclusion, even for myself. I never intended to prove anything on a world scale, but if I don't even make the attempt to verify the existence of psychic exchange I'll just want to readdress the notion in the future.
A final concern I've come across is the connection to religion that a number of communities I've come across have. I hate to phrase it this way, but I feel that incorporating any sort of religion into these practices only heightens the chance for hallucination to be taken as legitimate energy movement. Belief in the unprovable seems like a very poor basis to examine magic or frankly anything. It opens the door to abandoning the scientific method before the experiments even begin, and provides a catalog of excuses to ignore when your attempts are honestly failing. However these are just issues with how I would interact with these communities, the real concern is the sheer number of them. Due to the method problems it means that even if one community happen to have stumbled across an actual way to interact with magic (for want of a better term) it would be impossible to distinguish it from the numerous others who failed.
This study is becoming much more difficult than I original anticipated. None the less, I must press on if only to exhaust my own desire for the truth of the matter.
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