Tia's Test, from Dread's Story Time 1.21.13
A story I wrote and read at Dread's Story Time on 1.21.13
we stand now in a place
where sea and land
meet yet
the sun cannot enter.
you have come to hear tales of legendary buccaneers and treasure and bravery.
I offer you none of that tonight.
this is a story of Tia Dalma. It is a story with no heroes and no happy endings. Only a glut of tears which could fill the place in which we now stand.
tonight though.. the first part of her story.
yet before we begin; a caution.
this grotto.. let it be a fence around your soul.
For there are those who wish to steal it. And change it.
And put it back
Back inside your body
bent and dull.
Ah but we will get to that. Let’s talk about Tia. That is tonight’s story.
I call it.. Tia’s Test.
1719. Ships from Africa move with…
Evenly Leveling
Well I started a new pirate a few weeks ago (Scout, in honor of the To Kill a Mockingbird character) and decided from the start to keep his levels even for all skills. By even I mean that all skills are within 1 level of each other. This is not exactly a radical approach but for me it was like doing homework for subjects I hate, for hours on end.
Then...
It became tolerable... and what was kind of fun was that you can't take this approach and work a skill for very long... you level up and BANG move on to the next skill.
At this point, I'm really enjoying the approach and have no intention of diverting from even levels on this guy. He's a noto 27 with all levels either at 14 or 15... which for a skill like grenades, you can arrive at from scratch i…
Tortuga Abassa - A Poem
Quick note: This is the poem I read at last Monday's story time, which is hosted by the Dread Poet Roberts each week. It's the first I've written in a long while...
After a black month at sea a single port opens her arms
So with tatty canvas afire and pine splintered
Spinnaker lost, keel shot away
Scuppers draining the blood of my crew
our wake trailing smoke and hunters, with holds full
Cannon deaf, weary, savaged
We run.
The lone port smiles her black tooth smile as we furl sails and come to her
By landing we conjure life from sure death, the pirate's eternal parlor trick
Our living cheerful, our dead muted and mourned
Lost men whose widows just might at darkest midnight feel the caress of their true love's phantom hand
Stretched from across an ocea…
Follow up to thoughts on Glitches
So I wrote a few days ago on banning the use of glitches among my Guild's members. The overall intention behind this was to keep away from glitches or software that manipulate leaderboard results, materially impact other players, or violate Disney's terms of the Game.
I've had some good conversations since then on what is a practical and fair way to think about glitches in general.
Clearly some glitches are benign. I'm not concern with these. And, clearly some fall into the categories I'm trying to keep away from.
So, I'm going to try to categorize the 'most frequently' used glitches into buckets that I can use when I talk to my Guild.
At the same time, I'm also studying Panda 3D and Python programming in order to get a better grasp of why we…
A GM's thoughts on glitches
This post has been a long time coming.
First, let me set a little context...I work in the software industry and manage large software projects. I'm working on one now at the largest IT company in the world. Software people usually LOVE glitches...not necessarily to exploit them, but to learn how systems work and where the cracks are. I'm no different, and find some of the glitches in POTCO clever and even charming.
As a GM though, I'm going to start a ban on nearly all of them in my Guild.
Why?
It's a tough decision. Not because I support rampant glitching; I think it degrades game performance and takes any legitimacy out of the Leaderboards.
Rather, it's a tough decision because I hate imposing rules on the Guild. Personally and as a player I …