I thought about titling this post “I’m a geek.”  This isn’t a secret at this point even if I don’t have any impressive nerd arguments to brag about.  The thing is I’m several kinds of geeks as is fairly common and a tiny bit of a math and statistics geek so this post at Delta’s D&D Hotspot about calculating values for randomness wasn’t news to me.  The follow up post largely supports the evidence of the gentleman at Game Sciences’ assertion about sharp edged dice. (Nor is it lost on me that I am obsessively testing my dice, that thing the poster above is afraid they will do.)  It doesn’t make sense to me that sharp edged dice would be more random than soft edged ones.  In fact it would seem to me that sharp edges would primarily just kill the energy of the roll sooner.  My own experience does in fact indicate that soft edges make the dice roll further and perhaps that makes any flaws in the dice more apparent by exaggerating their opportunity for influencing the roll.

Now, I am a bit of a statistics geek but this is going into an uncomfortable area where statistics meets physics and beyond reading some Stephen Hawking I am no Robert Oppenheimer.  In fact let me refer back to that Shameful Topless Robot Post above and let you read about the arguments between physics and engineering majors that eventually involved a vaccuum tunnel and randomoness tests until it took 4 montsh to get the game actually going. No, for the record, I won’t be going that far.  Nor am I qualified to.  But my experience in statistics largely involves databases and populations – tracking randomness in traits that are already occurant in the environment (collection or population) and I don’t have to wonder how it got there until I find a pattern.

The dice are different because these aren’t naturally occurring incidents – I’m experimenting.  So, the question comes up about the state of the experiment.  I had originally detailed out an excruciating exact plan of holding the die/dice (there is a valid linguistic argument about the singular being die or dice, more on that another time) a certain way, rolling it, positioning, etc…  Then, I began to get concerned that I was becoming too precise and might skew the results by the sample not being allowed enough naturally occurring randomness.  The answer I think is to control the force, use a dice rolling tray (White Wolf’s dice do have worn edges), grab the die/dice as it lands, take it back to roughly the same starting place and throw it with roughly the same force in roughly the same direction.  In other words, keep the environment for the roll consistent but not precise allowing the dice to act as they should ‘in the wild’ and do a large enough sample that it will create a representative sample.

Rolling with the right force but not controlling it may take a tiny bit of practice but I think will work.  Ideally I should do the test for a full set but I think I’ll start with a single one.  50 is the minimum sample for something like this (5 * 10) for a chi squared test.

500 I think will do it.

So, I’m looking at the upcoming Amazon releases from White Wolf, what I have and what I want.  I’m eagerly looking forward to new books for Werewolf and Mage.  Vampire?  /shrug

Now, I know the vampire content on this site might lead one to believe that I’m obsessed with vampire. I’m not.  I am very comfortable with vampire and very fond of it.  You might call it my natural default within the World of Darkness.  Not only am I comfortable with it mechanically but thematically and in terms of characters.  However, I look over my Vampire: The Requiem library and … well, its huge.  And while I’ve been happy with the quality I would be lying if I said that at least a few books within the last year or two didn’t feel a bit like they were stretching or filler.

I’m not accusing them of being twat and twaddle mind you, not at all.  Just a bit like they were trying.  Now, I’m looking forward to Wicked Dead.  It sounds good.  I don’t know what is planned for Vampire after that but I’m sure there are products on the board.  Its clear that Vampire has been very, very popular for White Wolf but I want to see some Werewolf and Mage books at this point.  I suppose I feel like I have a world of Vampires that is increasingly less dark, like we are peering into every corner already.  I’m not saying I won’t get interested in future Vampire books but I think White Wolf will have an increasingly hard sell on their hands.  I’m increasingly more interested in seeing the other parts of the World of Darkness which they have done and are doing good work with.

I’m an Ftard. I admit it. My previous rants about Promethean were flawed. I … well, I was tempted to leave it at that but I may as well lay my stupidity bare. I don’t really have an excuse. The section on wastelands reads that if the Promethean leaves the 1 mile radius from where they they rest for one hour within 24 hours the effect stops. Somehow I read that as, if the Promethean comes back into that radius within the 24 hours the effect continues. But that isn’t how it actually reads.

I still feel that it is too far and killing a dead thematic horse that disquiet already accomplishes but it is not broken as I felt it was much less the dramatic failure I thought it was.

Malkav the F-tard. *hands in geek card and goes to cry in a pile of 2nd Edition AD&D books*

My mind is very much on dice and randomization lately.  I’ll be cross posting between here and another new blog I’m working on here soon but for now I want to point your eyes to these videos on Youtube.  There are some issues still not addressed.  Primarily to what degree is randomness effected and how can we test randomness of dice?

Still, watch these.  More will follow.

Princes and Hounds

If you were to ask the average kindred of Khallam, “who is the prince” you would probably get the reply, Byron, at least from those vampires familiar with the tradition of a Prince.  Khallam has no such position.  Instead it is ruled by three stewards, each of whom could make a claim to being the prince on some level.  Byron is the head of the Ordo Dracul of Khallam and it is he that the social life and politicking revolve around.  He absolutely does have clout as it is he who provides the muscle to the Invictus that allows them to run the city and the Sworn of the Axe could probably establish martial law if they wished to.  However, it is the Invictus who run the day to day administrative affairs of the city and it is the hounds that enforce the Traditions, answering to Tegen.

Tegen’s hounds are a range of brawn and brains whose only exceptional traits are their ability to work as a team and their dedication to interpreting the Tradition of the Masquerade broadly enough that they feel compelled to quiet any supernatural occurrence as that all too often leads to uncomfortable questions.  After all once the kine accept magic how long is it until they start asking about all the other old stories and could vampires be real too?  However, relics, tomes, wyrm nests, these are handed over to the Ordo Dracul.  Usually.  A few may … well, fall through the cracks of being handed over.  Since they aren’t claimed by the Sworn of the Axe in battle Byron is not obligated to give the Sworn first pick as is tradition among the Ordo Dracul.  All of this arrangement keeps both Tegen and Byron firmly centered as those capable of giving out substantial gifts.

Then, what of Istavan?  Istavan is a powerful figure among the Sworn of the Ordo Dracul in Khallam and has considerable influence among several factions but his official power has no Sworn of the Axe or Hounds.  Instead Istavan’s real power comes from two sources.  One, many truly admire him, even love him.  And that is a dangerous thing.  Secondly, often overlooked is that Istavan has been entrusted with the authority to break rules.  He can allow murder by diablerie for example or siring based on moral justifications.  Istavan is the least likely to be called prince but yet the one the least rules apply to.

Cthulhu Rules

I’m pretty much a gaming whore.  I love games.  However, as life has moved on and things have demanded my attention more and more like a responsible job and children I find myself less willing to learn new ones.  I used to buy games fully knowing I would never play them but now I at least want usable stuff from them.  In the last year I’ve bought Cthulhu Tech and Trail of Cthulhu for example for these purposes.  I really want the Call of Cthulhu 6th edition hardback too.  (See a theme?)

Oh, and I love some Cthulhu in my D&D and World of Darkness.  The fact that most Cthulhian gaming is as much pulp as Lovecraft doesn’t bother me in the least though I think I try to inject a bit more Lovecraft than is often the default.  Anyway, before this becomes a Cthulhu gaming blog (which has merit in it’s own right) I want to mention Pathfinder.

My lack of posting the last two weeks is mostly because the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game hardback came in the mail to me.  And yes, I love it.  It is everything that World of Darkness isn’t to me, a polar opposite and one of the few games along with Shadowrun and World of Darkness that I’m willing to invest in for gaming right now.  See, despite my fan boy like willingness to buy virtually everything with WoD on it my slavish devotion has limits.  I’m looking for boundaries in games at this point.  For example, Shadowrun.  I have in the hardbacks I now own for Shadowrun 4th edition everything I feel like I want to run Shadowrun and frankly I’m not particularly interested in buying any more.  I’m looking for something much the same in Pathfinder.  I have a love for D&D that isn’t rationale but based on childhood pleasures and to me Paizo’s Pathfinder is D&D in spirit far more than the actual D&D 4th Edition is.  This isn’t to slam 4th Edition.  I think its a fine game.  Its just not a game I’m personally interested in though if I had buddies that wanted to play I’d be glad to make a character and I’m sure I would enjoy playing with them.  WW has managed to continue to put out books that interest me in having them be part of a my ‘core’ collection.  A very large core at this point.

So, I am working on a blog for Pathfinder support tentatively called Paths in the Sand.  It will chronicle my obsession with mythic arabian fantasy gaming and I may make some world building project similar to Khallam for it.  I need to check terms of use again but I may need to get Paizo’s approval before using any branding elements and so on.  They have a community license.  I will post the link here when I’m ready and I will be back with more WoD posts very soon including some ideas for Cthulhu in the World of Darkness.