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shy-magpie · 4 years ago

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RQG 151

Moving the patreon names a good idea but changes to structure take up more brain space than they should. I hope they keep the reminder they moved it as a substitute, at least for a while. The rest of the structure is the same and I can feel my shoulders coming away from my ears as the theme plays. I choose to interpret that as Alex saying his players being fine is his highest priority. Borb Under the sea bed🎵. 1)its great when I barely start a thought before a player says the same thing 2) we will get our musical one way or the other 3)I know they're from an improv background but it never ceases to delight how joyfully they support each other's unexpected bits. 4) Alex seems like he gets a kick out of playing up his annoyance at the musical idea more than actually being frustrated it keeps coming up. I thought so but nice to confirm. Bless this cast, it wouldn't have been a huge deal if they let Alex's description stand but its so nice they not only corrected it, they did so without hesitation and Alex seemed to appreciate the help in getting to better phrasing rather than take it as an accusation. Not that I thought he would but feeling grateful for RQ not falling into behavior I see elsewhere. Also hearing everyone chiming in; with Bryn being the one to name check the trope instead of it being on Helen to always take the lead is nice to hear. "he was very encountered" Have I mentioned lately that I love literally everything about this show? Even when he thinks he knows exactly what the party is going to do and certainly knows what he is guiding them towards Alex checks instead of putting anyone in the position of having to derail. Cel! I wonder if cis people get anywhere near my joy in Cel having that kind of control over their body. I mean its just objectively cool even without the gender aspect so I hope they at least enjoy that much. I need cancan art. Did Alex know how delighted Lydia would be with the image of being popped out like a cork before he said it? Coo coo ca chu, thank you Ben Zolf remains 200% done and doesn't bother checking the door Ben don't! 92 HP, well that would be comforting if it wasn't Zolf. Like I don't think it's actually a death wish/that he is suicidal but well, see not checking the door. He is far too comfortable with the idea of being hurt. Alex:Chill sea dude Ben: sounds of objection Lydia: chill environment neutral dude Still love Alex's set design. A person! Bryn sounds alarmed about implications of the walk ways. Cel can shield themselves. Yes Hamid can armor himself! Also casts fly on himself & Azu. Thank you Ben/Zolf. This show does get deep into moral quandaries sometimes but unless these guys are as drugged as the Kobolds they objectively need to die. The dice love us Altruism run Darn it Alex, are you hinting they are drugged against their will? Azu feels tapping their shoulder then killing them is better even if they don't have a prayer of defending themselves. Oh I see Helen has our back and is checking for mind control before we do Kobolds 2: the guilt continues. Well yes they are surprised Bryn sounds so pleased as goes through exactly how many ways the odds are in Hamid's favor. Then he rolls 6,6,5,5 on D6s for 26 damage so no kill like over kill. Watsonian explanation: emotion is at least partially fueling Hamid's magic especially anything fire/desolation aligned, and there is no way he isn't overflowing with emotion after the last few hours. Zolf is happy to let Azu handle the last one and uses his action to ask if Cel knows what (something, the equipment in this room?) does. Cel determines its a notification board for the cell cavern. So these guys were directly aware and involved with the mistreatment of the Kobolds. I officially am dropping the last tiny part of me that cared if they were drugged/otherwise forced into the work. If they were cognisant enough to read that and still did it then its time to find Zolf's old bucket. Glad the table is having fun! I wonder what the face Alex pulled looked like. Raw terror? The equivalent of a neon sign reading "I'm screwed"? I shouldn't have implied Alex would leave the listeners out, this is a wonderful description. Helen is more thorough than I am. There you go, time to die. Oh episode name drop. That's my Zolf, killing who needs killing doesn't mean we ignore collateral damage. And Cel just invented the departures board. Zolf: not worth destroying? Cel: If you'd enjoy it Priorities Heading towards the shore I like how Alex sounds pleased they broke his dungeon Vital info for visualizing this. Poor Azu is trying to swim while Hamid & Cel are zooming elegantly and Zolf is walking because boots or no he is ungainly. Hamid enjoying flying & Azu being adorable even under the circumstances is endearing. Correction Cel is walking Lockers & propaganda posters I can't put it in words but there is a connection being made between how little these mooks care about messing up shared spaces & the rest of the mundane evil that led to them being bucket worthy. Thank you all for the taking water breathing potions I'm not sure how I feel about Alex giving us stuff for free Oh Dear! Are the mooks heading to the village? Zolf is reassuring Never over the little touches Alex has to make the world feel more real like the water proof flares Oh Cel dear, 1)you don't know that, you don't need mourn your village while they yet may live 2)what kind of trauma have they been through? "Again"? Lydia gets a quick dig in about the party not being allowed to sleep. Cel shifts into a creature who can see. ~Break~ Nevermind just enlarge person Somewhere Babs is begging for a simple answer. I don't think we got a simple answer Hamid is reassuring Cel. Something both relateable and possibly a bad sign that "don't worry they have been spending all their time preparing to kill us, so they can't be attacking your people" is legitimately both the line Hamid took and probably the most effective possible. The others help too. I love how they openly care, reassuring Cel without telling them to repress or that they are wrong to experience the emotions in the first place. Lights and colors flashing in the water. The dice seem to be favoring Bryn today. There's a fight up ahead. They all run to the fight, Cel leaves them in the dust. Hamid flies after Cel since he couldn't catch up on foot The dice do know I promise I will appreciate the set design on relisten, but for the love of god who is fighting who? Mooks vs who? Humans Yes! Alex hasn't quite gotten there but the cast sound convinced its Barnes & Carter. Ah is Wilde with them? Did Wilde tear his hair out worrying then send back up the second Zolf was overdue? Bleeping Carter Barnes sounds like he is having fun Carter is throwing knives at people. Odd knife & dagger are basically synonyms but not getting Sasha feels 2 vs 8 Ben points out Carter stole Sasha's gimmick Ok warming to Carter will take a minute but I already like Barnes Natural 1 on bomb throwing. Thank you Alex for not being a "death by nat 1 is funny" GM Alex keeps forgetting what a bad bum Cel is. Giblet heavy day Moving quickly past possible misgendering of Cel. Best way to handle that I think, no distracting corrections but Lydia doesn't let it stand. Thank you for being safe Hamid! Hamid protects Barnes. Love the extra extra pew. Finger guns! Alex is 3rd person level stressed Cel gets out the crossbow and punctuates their correction on pronouns. I love this podcast. I really, really, love this podcast and stuff like that shows they love their listeners back. Cel: Pronouns. Are. They. Them Helen: the dice say they/them rights Not sure if dead but 13 damage against one misgendering mook Hamid continues to shoot very well in support rather than endangering himself needlessly. Azu, spotting Carter: You! You? Accidently restarted the episode when I unpaused and now my phone is acting up, and is doing strange things when I try to fast forward to where I was. The annoyance at the above is cancelled out by hearing "Pronouns. Are. They/Them" 4 times Zolf: great seeing you again I love Barnes Alex the fandom appreciates this description Ah Zolf got Barnes into the Campbell books And they attempt to flee badly Carter finally rolls decently but not impressively Cel shoots one in the neck they're still moving Hamid mutters in draconic: this is for the Kobolds Thank you Bryn Barnes successfully seduced <Azu> Helen I love that the trained mathematician is the one who participates in dice superstition Ben! Huh patreon names still make my brain happy. Wonder if it's something deep about community or I just got pavloved by it being before RQG & TMA for so long

#RQG spoilers #Rusty Quill Gaming #live blog thingy #RQG season 4 #RQG 151 #long post

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toasttz · 5 years ago

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From the Tabletop #7

For all my one (1) reader(s), I apologize for the delay on this instance of From the Tabletop. Everything I said at the end of the last post was clickbait, too, as this time, we're actually going to ping-pong back to Exalted with a brand new circle! FUNTIME! This go-around, our circle composition was markedly different to start, as two of our players from last time dropped out - one couldn't make the first session of the new campaign due to work and the other decided to become a total bitch-baby and pussed out entirely. However, at the same time I recruited two close friends to take their seats. And, due to other meatspace shenanigans, our usual GM had to be gone for the session as well, so Valentinian's player once more took on the mantle of GM for the campaigns kick-off. To begin, let's introduce the first batch of characters we'll be following. First is Rakis. Rakis, according to his player, was inspired by Desert Punk, if you're familiar with that at all. He's a short, wild-child, driven from his desert town into the desert wastes as a child by a mob who murdered his family in cold blood, leaving just him and his brother. His brother then got eaten by a massive sandworm (mechanically, for those who care, a reskinned River Dragon, just replacing the words "water" for "earth"). The worm then seemed to take on a totally different demeanor toward Rakis, and the boy began to believe the worm was his brother reborn. Rakis is a Solar, a survivalist who battles with tricky melee tactics, in tandem with his worm, but struggles in social settings. Then there's Doran, a metalsmith of some repute, whose family was held hostage by some mafia-esque organization until he followed very specific instructions to forge a fairy weapon to their specifications. However, due to not fully knowing the origin of the materials at play and the true nature of what he was making, the weapon took on a ghastly and dangerous set of properties, making it extremely lethal but draining to use. When he went to make the exchange, it was already too late, and his wife and children were already brutally slaughtered. Doran thus swore a quest for revenge. Also a Solar, Doran is a skilled melee fighter, who tries his best to not use the dark artifact in his bag, knowing full well what it can do. And lastly (for now), was my character, Albin. Albin was a design I've had in the wings for a long time, as a scholarly sort who ended up being really heavy into craft, loving both first-age tech and woodworking, from whence he created his main weapon - a wooden longbow. For emergencies, I also have a Prayer Piece firewand, a sort-of rifle but one powered by prayers to Sol Invictus and very, very expensive ammo to make. I play Albin as incredibly deadpan and flat, as some of his flaws include that he doesn't understand metaphor or people very well. And despite that, this character ended up as the face of the party (due to Rakis being socially inept, and Doran being socially hostile) for the first session, at least. Anyway, we agreed the three already knew each other, as Albin worked as a field scholar for Great Forks University (Slogan: Go Fork Yourself!), and the three had reasoned that the MO of both groups that hounded Rakis and Doran made it sound like they might very well be one and the same, so the three agreed to pursue this lead best as they could. Rolling into a random town in the 100 Kingdoms, we asked around about local legends at the guild building, which got us sent to... a crazy hobo who began spouting UFO and "evil shadowy government cabal" conspiracy theories at us. Rakis, quickly tiring of the man's ranting, used his knife to intimidate the man, ultimately causing him to pass out from the shock of the threat. However, we did gleam some useful information - something about the castle outside of town, full of murderers and thieves. Which sounded just like the men we had been tracking. So, off we went. We ventured toward the castle as the sun sank (to mask our approach, this decision was made consciously) and we were accosted by zombies. Which Albin has a distinct advantage over, since Prayer Pieces deal Aggravated damage to undead and creatures of darkness. I also seem to roll freakishly well when I have a firewand on my character. I can't begin to account for that. But we mopped them up and in short order, were making plans on how we were going to enter into this dreaded castle, guarded by spirits and clearly a not-good place to be. Rakis leaped up over the castle wall and stealth'd his way inside, narrowly evading patroling spirits with really wicked-looking knives. Eventually ninja'ing his way around to open the door from the inside for Doran and Albin to enter. The three snuck past a sort of enclosed dungeon area, with a blond(e?) person inside, being beaten by a huge brick house of an aggressor wailing on them. The following exchange actually happened: Rakis: Yeah, this isn't for us. This is probably their fetish. Blond: No, it isn't! Albin: They might have consented to this. Blond: No, I assure you I didn't! Doran: We should ignore them. Blond: No, you shouldn't! Albin: My goodness, that prisoner has opinions on this. We actually started to walk away at this point, and then the captive began singing "All by Myself". So, eventually, we relent (somewhat for meta reasons and also because the GM made us laugh pretty hard on this), and provoke the prison guard to open the door, whereupon Albin lit them up with his Prayer Piece. It took some doing, but we eventually killed the guard and liberated the ma... wo... uh... Lunar within. For the sake of this session, a GMPC, but a welcomed member of the team, Kharas the Blade. Kharas also has a tragic backstory, but it involved markedly less familial homocide. He was betrayed by his old team, who left him to die, hence his Lunar exaltation. Anyways, as the four of us moved up the stairs, we got chased by one of the guards and backed into a room, whereupon I had the idea to invoke the gods for help. This roll was... passable but not amazing, as the god I summoned was a Mouse of the Sun. However, its presence was still antithetical to our pursuer, forcing him into a bottle-neck in the doorway, where Kharas attacked from one side and Albin, Doran, and Rakis held him from the other, eventually leading to our victory. Heading up the stairs, we eventually overhear a discussion between two of the "Six Guns of Black Heaven", which ultimately results in us having a shootout, and capping at least one of them (I actually had to step away from the table for a brief moment, and I missed part of this), and the other came back with us as a hostage. As we escaped the castle, just in time to learn that the castle's original intent was to be a portal between worlds... and it sank into a dark void abyss, just in time for us to learn its name: Castle. Vania. Hahaha... For context, this transitioned into session 2, our GM was back and Kharas was in full player-character role now. Returning to town, hostage in tow, we awkwardly make small-talk to get past the innkeep (barely worked), and then began interrogating her (didn't work), then she launched a surprise attack with a dark-enchanted weapon, which attempted to strangle Doran. She bolted for it, with Albin and Rakis in pursuit of the hostage while Kharas and Doran attempted to disarm the wire-weapon that was in hot pursuit of Doran's neck. Kharas: Wait, it's going for me now?! Wait! I'll turn into a snake! Snake's don't have necks! GM: But, Kharas, snakes are nothing BUT neck! Kharas: ... OH CRAP! Meanwhile, Rakis and Albin are tearing down the hall in hot pursuit. This exchange happens, nigh-verbatim. Me (OOC): I have an ability that can translate sentences into languages I don't know. You speak Flametongue, right? Rakis (OOC): Yeah. What's your idea? Me (OOC): I'll shout out our strategy in Flametongue using my charm. Thus, she won't know what we're up to. Rakis (OOC): I'll hit her high. Can you shoot low? Me (OOC): Yeah. That'll be our plan. I'll use a burning arrow on the floor to prevent her from evading your attack. GM: *Makes a noise that I can't tell is a sob or a laugh* Kharas (OOC): What's up? GM: We have a circle that DOESN'T SUCK!! Ultimately, we managed to plug an arrow into her head, ending her futile struggle. And we probably could've done something about the mess and gotten away largely undistracted, but Rakis then began bragging about what we had done to the barkeep, and we had to skip town. Kharas was even kind enough to transform into a dinosaur and gave Albin a lift, as Doran and Rakis piled onto Mr. Wormsworth and rode out of town. Ultimately, we planned to go to A'Barr up in the north, a large city where we could lay low and maybe find information on our group of serial murderers. En route, Kharas requested Albin make a hurdy-gurdy. Yes, that's a real instrument, look it up on Youtube. Albin, being very hard into craft, easily cobbled one together, and accompanied Kharas in a rendition of Maiden by the River. This means nothing to you, but let me explain about this song. Every time - and I mean every time - this song was performed, someone botched SOMETHING and it usually resulted in a town burning down or something. It was reportedly the song that played before the terrible plague wiped out Scarlet's hometown of the better part of its population, giving the pirate an extreme phobia of the piece. However, we both... rolled 5 successes each! We broke the curse of this damned song! Doran and Rakis didn't fully understand why this was such a milestone for us, but it was an amazing moment for us all. In fact, Doran's player was kind enough to WRITE AND PERFORM THE DAMN SONG. I include the link for your enjoyment: https://www.mediafire.com/file/adyf20gdd3cp5jd/MaidenByTheRiverDraft.mp3/file Not long after, we arrived in A'Barr and began setting to work. But this has gone on quite long enough for today. Join us next time in Exalted where: Rakis tries to burn down half of Great Forks! We battle an Indominus Rex! A fifth Exalt joins the circle! We meet one of Albin's siblings! Doran dies in boiling magma! See you there!

#Tabletop RPG #Games #Exalted #Not a That Guy Story

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coldwall-collective · 7 years ago

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Another year in the books.

Roughly two and a half years ago, what was a silly little idea to do some crime was set into motion. Through time and effort, and a little bit of luck too, that dream grew into the Coldwall it is today.

It has cost me a lot of pulled hairs, a number of tears of frustration, and I think I have high blood pressure now. But I’d not change it for the world. With the work comes the most amazing gift. To see some of the most talented writers I have ever had the pleasure of knowing create stories that leave me speechless. To take part in events and plots that challenge me as a writer and even make me think of my own IRL path. To get to know some of the most genuine, caring, and downright amazing people I’ve met online, let alone in WoW.

Watching Coldwall grow over these many months has been a privilege and a pleasure. Seeing how others have come to call this place home, and some even calling it the family they wish they had, it’s that kind of community that we sought to construct and to maintain. And it’s here.

We did it, Coldwall. And I owe so, so much of it to every single one of you. You are the ones who contribute your characters, stories, and writing to the guild. You are the ones who stick by each other when things get rough, and enjoy the good news when it comes around. And even though I know I can often be frustrating to deal with, you are the ones that make me feel good about the person that I am. I’m thankful, every single day, for all of you. And for this guild, what it means to me, to all of us.

So let’s not stop. Let’s go into 2018 with our minds open. Coldwall has just begun, and we will continue to grow, welcome others into our fold, and produce stories that we and the server at large can truly enjoy.

From all of us at Coldwall, we hope you have a Happy New Year. And to all of you in CC, let’s go raise some hell.

- Masnira

This past year for me has been one of immense change. From my personal life to my education to my job, everything has shifted dramatically. I've become more busy than I'd anticipated, I've taken on many more responsibilities than I thought I would, and I've pushed myself to my limits at times. However, throughout it all, there's always been one constant: The Coldwall Collective. Sappy, but true. This guild has been an undeniably large part of my life for quite some time now, and I'm incredibly thankful for the memories I've made and the people I've met. Despite my recent decline in activity due to outside forces, I still often think about the guild a lot -- especially during times of stress to help me push through. And now, a cliche: here's to many more memories, laughs, and all that good stuff.

- Overseer Wolf @eldricceverton

The past year's been wild as can be. Lost friends, made friends, lost home, made home, got job, and it's stil lthe same guild as its ever been. That ain't a bad thing in my book. I prefer the guild to be how it is right at the moment - uncaring to everyone else's shit expect its own. It's a home I love and respect at this point, been here for awhile and I'm gonna plan on being here for many more. That ain't gonna change because long as I'm in the guild I'm gonna be there for my dumbass nerd of a GM, officer position or not, I love that dude and he needs an asshole to watch his back. A good, firm one.

- Overseer Shanaris @grannyshanny

As I'm sitting here thinking back over the last year its hard to believe that it hasn't even BEEN a year since I joined Coldwall. Even now my mind is telling me I must have been in this guild for a year, two years, a lifetime? Its just hard for me to wrap my head around how close I feel to each and every one of the members in such a short time...how much the Rat Bastard or the Bloodsport Brawl are just ingrained in my blood. Not a day goes by where Coldwall doesn't sit in a prominent portion of my brain sending little beams of contentness deep down into my soul. I guess, platitudes aside, I really just love that I found a place that feels like home, surrounded by people that care about me...people that I truly care about. As we go forward into the next year I look forward to forging this same bond with each and every new member we welcome in to our fold and hope that I can give to them the same home that the guild gave to me.

- Overseer Addie @addie-the-pirate

Cheers to the new year

To the dawn of a new day

To the true shadows

- Overseer Hiro @clothespanda

can i just say you're all talented and attractive and i'm lucky to be your officer, have a happy new year

- Overseer Mahat @the-elf-mahat

#OOC

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andrewuttaro · 5 years ago

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New Look Sabres: GM 42 - EDM - Thirsty Thursday

3-2 OT Win

When I was an undergraduate in college there was this special night of the week called Thirsty Thursday. A lot of my classmates created their schedules, so they had no classes on Fridays creating a prolonged weekend for all the activities Animal House taught you college students do. Thirsty Thursday was the beginning of that debauchery. Specifically the mid to late evening as the party people dressed to the nines emerged from their dorms, already tipsy, and climbed into Ubers, Lyfts and Cabs to go to the skankiest clubs and try to cross the border into Canada. Niagara Falls is pretty lit on the other side in case you weren’t aware. The Buffalo Sabres had themselves a bit of a Thirsty Thursday yesterday. This time however I’m excited for the consequences. I drew attention to GM Jason Botterill’s planned 5:30 radio appearance before the game against Edmonton so that when it was called off it seemed cowardly. Not that my lone tweet riled up an angry mob like the gif I used implied, but the timing seemed… well very bad. Dalton Smith was put on waivers the day before after an embarrassing affair on New Year’s Eve against Tampa and it all seemed for nothing: as if our GM had no clue what he was doing and now he was hiding from facing the fans. In reality perfect setups like that never happen. When WGR550 was told Botterill couldn’t make his regular radio hit the negativity around the team right now would naturally make you think of that dodging the press theory. Us wild and crazy optimists hoped against hope he was busy working on… dare I say… a trade!? The whispers came in as game time approached and Thirsty Thursday kicked off with a three-way (Normally something reserved for the end of the night if you know I mean). At about 6:40 pm the team announced a 2020 fourth round pick had been acquired from the Montreal Canadiens for Marco Scandella. The next part unfolded when the team announced at about 6:50 pm that the same 2020 fourth that was yielded from the Scandella trade was going to the Calgary Flames for RW Michael Frolik. No salary retained or conditions, it was essentially Marco Scandella for Michael Frolik.

Set aside all your newfound appreciations for Scandella, even his revitalization was to inflate his trade value. Not to be harsh but he won’t be missed; especially when Jeremy White’s Super-Secret Sabres Source (SSSS) then tells him they’re not done, and they want to bring Lawrence Pilut up from Rochester. This humble blogger says good and good. Scandella for Frolik constitutes a wash in terms of salary if not a little bit more taken on by Buffalo. However, if it gets Pilut back up to Buffalo and or Colin Miller out of buying tickets out of town then it’s a win in my book. In spite of how few trades we saw in the last five months of 2019 it does make a lot of sense that this is the prelude to bigger trades. One can only hope. I hope this analysis of it is outdated by the time I post it. Although we all thought the Jokiharju trade was the prelude to a bigger trade that never came so it could go both ways I suppose. All this figuring out distracted me from the actual game unfolding. I looked up and suddenly the Sabres were down 2-0 to the Oilers at home and certainly a blood bath was to ensue if another egg was laid in downtown Buffalo. Then as soon as I had that thought Thirsty Thursday ticked up again, but this time with some good clean action: Marcus Johansson disposed an Oiler along the wall in the offensive zone and went around behind the net. Johansson got it to Curtis Lazar who tapped it in past Mike Smith in net. It was now 2-1 and Jason Botterill had that much more cover to come out and face the press in the first intermission like we hadn’t gotten three hours earlier while trades were unfolding.

Jason Botterill spoke for about seven minutes saying a lot of things you might expect: Michael Frolik will bring even strength scoring, he’s won a Stanley Cup, has playoff experience and what not. Perhaps the most important things Botterill said is the special teams have to be better. He said that Frolik could help on the penalty kill and could be a bit of a rover on the wing. Botterill spoke to greater roster competition as something of a rationale for seeing as many players publicly want out. Assuming this isn’t the only move to be made its just refreshing to hear that the GM does understand what’s going on. The Dalton Smith Fiasco will probably be pushed under the rug 1984 style and that’s probably the only way to handle it at this point but pushing forward the point that there is in fact a plan here will allow some optimism, however scant, back into the fanbase. Once again, assuming there are more moves coming this move helps. The move itself is more or less whatever. If you get what Frolik was in years past then maybe he’s not just another piece to be traded at the deadline. Getting Frolik was one of those rumors from months ago and evidently the conditions on this Thirty Thursday were just right to make it happen. Conditions were not just right in the second period and apart from a slash on Jack Eichel and the Sabres taking over the lead in shots on goal, nothing really happened. Then it creeps into your head, like I hear it does for the party people at some point in the early morning hours on Thirsty Thursday, that all this momentary excitement could just melt away with nothing truly rewarding coming from it unless… unless you kiss that hot little number down the bar. It was unlikely another trade would happen as the clock ticked past 9pm last night but the clap-back Sabres awoke again. As an early offensive push unfolded in the third period for the home team they began cycling the puck around in the Oilers’ zone. Zach Bogosian took a shot that Sam Reinhart redirected in for the 2-2 equalizer and… well what do you know: Reinhart’s 100th NHL goal. For a moment try not to think about the impending second coming of the Reinhart contract drama and just savor what Samson does and who Samson is. But just like most things with this team, darkness follows close behind and Victor Olofsson was escorted out of the game after a weird fall all on his own just after he got the secondary assist on the equalizer. No new word on that today either mind you, just Scott Wilson getting called up because you can’t let us get too high, right?

The third period went on and the Sabres threw everything and the kitchen sink Zemgus Girgensons at Mike Smith. Nothing went through and we found ourselves in overtime. To Ralph Krueger’s credit most of the Sabres overtime periods have been tight possession affairs like they should be, even when they’re losing efforts. The same happened last night until an absolutely bonkers ten seconds about a minute into the extra frame. Jack Eichel went end to end, like from behind the Linus Ullmark net all the way to Mike Smith’s mouthguard on the other end. Along the way he drew a penalty when Oscar Klefbom hooked him on his final approach. That was good for a penalty shot but before the play was even over Jack almost scored on the rebound. This Thirsty Thursday was about to see it’s last act. That hot little number down the bar I mentioned earlier, that was Jack mother fucking Eichel, and we kissed his greatness to cap off the night. He took the puck, skated in and snapped it far side past Mike Smith, 3-2 Sabres in Overtime! And so the inebriated masses stumbled out of their rides in the wee hours of the morning; still concerned about their future but sated for just a time until the next party comes. Hopefully more parties to come then sadness they hope.

Like, Comment and Share this blog now because some of you will not like what I say next. The game on Saturday was moved to 1pm in the afternoon because the Buffalo Sabres organization shares an owner with the Buffalo Bills and is therefore allowed to be self-aware. You probably already knew that. To those of you whom pointed to that move as a sign of the Pegulas caring more about the Bills I’d just ask you to take a deep breath, maybe play your favorite video game and relax. There is good evidence that theory is true, but the Buffalo Bills also happen to be in the playoffs for only the second time in twenty years. Forgive the whole City around you if they want to focus on that team when they come on at 4:35 tomorrow! I know its 90s night… or afternoon now tomorrow, but please, let good things be good. Enjoy yourself a little bit. The Florida Panthers will be a challenge and then they’ll be off for four days, hopefully while Botterill is making more trades and Michael Frolik is getting his Visa figured out so he can actually come and play. Then its six games leading into the bye week of varying difficulty but mostly difficult. I would guess even if the Sabres miraculously won eight straight going into that break they still might only crack the top three in the Atlantic Division given the spaces between games. Nonetheless the tide of this dissent into another lost season we’ve been experiencing since before Christmas can be reversed this month. It will likely take more work on the part of the GM even though the deadline is still several weeks away. Yesterday’s Thirsty Thursday events were not enough for me to fully get back in the conductor’s chair of the hype train but whether it be for hoped for trades or just the first Buffalo Bills Playoff win since I was in diapers I can enthusiastically say right now: Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for Reading.

P.S. According to NHL PR that OT Penalty shot goal by Jack Eichel made him the first player in Buffalo Sabres history to do such a thing. That is some kind of surprising stat.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #nhl #blog

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jewelalto30-blog · 6 years ago

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Choice reads for Cubs fans this offseason

I have a confession. I am a voracious reader. No matter how busy my schedule gets, or how much I have going on in a day, when I get into bed at night I need to read at least a chapter of something. Non-fiction, romance, finance books, you name it and it’s sitting on my bookshelf. Baseball books, though, are a particular weakness of mine, I can’t resist them. I have an entire five-shelf unit in my office dedicated solely to baseball books, and surprising no one, quite a few of them have a Cubs theme.

With the offseason upon us, it seems like a good time to pick up a book or two while we wait for pitchers and catchers to report in February. And with the holiday season just around the corner, you might spot a gift idea on this list (even if it’s a gift to yourself).

All images and blurbs courtesy of Amazon, but none of the links are affiliate links. We don’t make any money off of this.

Amazon

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse — Tom Verducci

With inside access and reporting, Sports Illustrated senior baseball writer and FOX Sports analyst Tom Verducci reveals how Theo Epstein and Joe Maddon built, led, and inspired the Chicago Cubs team that broke the longest championship drought in sports, chronicling their epic journey to become World Series champions.

It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions.

How did a team composed of unknown, young players and supposedly washed-up veterans come together to break the Curse of the Billy Goat? Tom Verducci, twice named National Sportswriter of the Year and co-writer of The Yankee Years with Joe Torre, will have full access to team president Theo Epstein, manager Joe Maddon, and the players to tell the story of the Cubs’ transformation from perennial underachievers to the best team in baseball.

Beginning with Epstein’s first year with the team in 2011, Verducci will show how Epstein went beyond “Moneyball” thinking to turn around the franchise. Leading the organization with a manual called “The Cubs Way,” he focused on the mental side of the game as much as the physical, emphasizing chemistry as well as statistics.

To accomplish his goal, Epstein needed manager Joe Maddon, an eccentric innovator, as his counterweight on the Cubs’ bench. A man who encourages themed road trips and late-arrival game days to loosen up his team, Maddon mixed New Age thinking with Old School leadership to help his players find their edge.

The Cubs Way takes readers behind the scenes, chronicling how key players like Rizzo, Russell, Lester, and Arrieta were deftly brought into the organization by Epstein and coached by Maddon to outperform expectations. Together, Epstein and Maddon proved that clubhouse culture is as important as on-base-percentage, and that intangible components like personality, vibe, and positive energy are necessary for a team to perform to their fullest potential.

Verducci chronicles the playoff run that culminated in an instant classic Game Seven. He takes a broader look at the history of baseball in Chicago and the almost supernatural element to the team’s repeated loses that kept fans suffering, but also served to strengthen their loyalty.

The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.

Amazon

The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse — Rich Cohen

The New York Times bestselling author of Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football “knocks it out of the park” (Vanity Fair) in this captivating blend of sports reportage and memoir, exploring the history of the 2016 World Series champions, the Chicago Cubs.

Now A New York Times Bestseller

When Rich Cohen was eight years old, his father took him to see a Cubs game. On the way out of the park, his father asked him to make a promise. “Promise me you will never be a Cubs fan. The Cubs do not win,” he explained, “and because of that, a Cubs fan will have a diminished life determined by low expectations. That team will screw up your life.”

Cohen became not just a Cubs fan but one of the biggest Cubs fans in the world. In this book, he captures the story of the team, its players and crazy days. Billy Sunday and Ernie Banks, Three Finger Brown and Ryne Sandberg, Bill Buckner, the Bartman Ball, Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo―the early dominance followed by a 107 year trek across the wilderness. It’s all here, in The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse―not just what happened, but what it felt like and what it meant.

Featuring extensive interviews with players, owners, and coaches, this mix of memoir, reporting, history, and baseball theology―forty years in the making―has never been written because it never could be. Only with the 2016 World Series can the true arc of the story finally be understood.

Amazon

The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs: A Decade-by-Decade History — Chicago Tribune Staff

The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs is a decade-by-decade look at one of baseball’s most beloved if hard-luck teams, starting with the franchise’s beginnings in 1876 as the Chicago White Stockings and ending with the triumphant 2016 World Series championship.

For more than a century, the Chicago Tribune has documented every Cubs season through original reporting, photography, and box scores. For the first time, this mountain of Cubs history has been mined and curated by the paper’s sports department into a single one-of-a-kind volume. Each era in Cubs history includes its own timeline, profiles of key players and coaches, and feature stories that highlight it all, from the heavy hitters to the no-hitters to the one-hit wonders.

And of course, you can’t talk about the Cubs without talking about Wrigley Field. In this book, readers will find a complete history of that most sacred of American stadiums, where Hack Wilson batted in 191 runs—still the major-league record—in 1930, where Sammy Sosa earned the moniker “Slammin’ Sammy,” and where fans congregated, even when the team was on the road, throughout its scintillating championship run.

The award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a comprehensive collector’s item that every Cubs fan will love.

Amazon

Murphy’s Ticket — Brad Herzog

[Ashley’s note: including a kids’ book might seem silly, but I’m a sucker for good art and a cute story, and this just looks so sweet]

For 108 years, fans of Chicago Cubs baseball suffered every playofff season, with mishap after mishap each being traced back to 1945 when a friendly goat was kicked out of a World Series game. But the 2016 season felt different. Would this finally be the year that the Billy Goat Curse was reversed? Author Brad Herzog tells the story of the curse’s origin and follows the Cubs right through that fateful November night in 2016 when the Cubbies could finally fly the “W.”

Amazon

The Plan: Epstein, Maddon, and the Audacious Blueprint for a Cubs Dynasty — David Kaplan

On October 12, 2011, Theo Epstein became the new Chicago Cubs president of baseball operations, flipping a switch on the lovable-loser franchise and initiating a plan to accomplish in Chicago what he’d succeeded in as general manager of the Boston Red Sox: ending a World Series drought. It would require a complete team tear-down and turnover, a new farm system foundation of young talent which Epstein and Cubs GM Jed Hoyer gradually added to with gutsy trades and timely signings. After years of rebuilding, Epstein’s crystalline vision has been unquestionably realized in the form of one of the most exciting and talented teams in baseball, led by heavyweights like Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant as well as visionaries like manager Joe Maddon. In The Plan, David Kaplan of CSN Chicago and ESPN Radio goes behind the scenes with the Cubs and their front office, walking the steps of their captivating rise to becoming 2016 World Series champions. Featuring exclusive interviews with Epstein, owner Tom Ricketts, and other team insiders, this is the definitive account of a new era on the North Side.

Amazon

Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages — David Ross

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Packed with “compelling inside stories” (Chicago Tribune), Teammate is the inspiring memoir from “Grandpa Rossy,” the veteran catcher who became the heart and soul of the 2016 Chicago Cubs championship team.

In 2016 the Cubs snapped a 108-year curse, winning the World Series in a history-making, seven-game series against the Cleveland Indians. Of the many storylines to Chicago’s fairytale season, one stood out: the late-career renaissance of David Ross, the 39-year-old catcher who had played back-up for 13 of his 15 pro seasons.

Beyond Ross’s remarkably strong play, he became the ultimate positive force in the Cubs locker room, mentoring and motivating his fellow players, some of them nearly twenty years his junior. Thanks to Cubs Kris Bryant and Anthony Rizzo, “Grandpa Rossy” became a social media sensation. No one, however, could have predicted that Ross’s home run in his final career at bat would help seal the Cubs championship.

Now, in Teammate, Ross shares the inspiring story of his life in baseball, framed by the events of that unforgettable November night.

Amazon

A Season for the Ages: How the 2016 Chicago Cubs Brought a World Series Championship to the North Side — Al Yellon

[Ashley’s note: Al didn’t ask me to include this, but writing a book is HARD work, and doing it on top of running a website is even harder. Grab this one if you haven’t already.]

No doubt, you’ve heard about the Cubs’ decades-long run of futility. They hadn’t won a pennant in seventy-one years or a World Series in a record 108 years. To the frustration of Cubs fans everywhere, the team often missed chances with soul-crushing defeats.

But after a complete teardown that resulted in a 100-loss season in 2012, Theo Epstein and his baseball staff reversed that with the Cubs of 2016, a team that was not only supremely talented, but cared nothing for all the media narratives of losing. They did things during the regular season that no Cubs club had done in more than a century, including earning the most wins for the franchise since 1910. The club went on to defeat the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League playoffs before beating the Cleveland Indians to win the World Series.

Anthony Rizzo, MVP candidate Kris Bryant, Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester, manager Joe Maddon, and fan favorites like Javier Baez and David Ross are the heroes of the 2016 Cubs’ story. Told by Al Yellon, managing editor of SB Nation’s Bleed Cubbie Blue, A Season to Remember chronicles not only the 2016 Cubs’ rise to the top of the baseball heap, but the team’s—and the fans’—long journey to get there.

So there you go, a good stack of Cubs-themed reads to keep you busy in between qualifying offers and free agent signing news. Enjoy!

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/11/3/18049622/chicago-cubs-book-recommendations-christmas-gift-ideas

0 notes

talkcarol17-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Choice reads for Cubs fans this offseason

All images and blurbs courtesy of Amazon, but none of the links are affiliate links. We don’t make any money off of this.

Amazon

The Cubs Way: The Zen of Building the Best Team in Baseball and Breaking the Curse — Tom Verducci

It took 108 years, but it really happened. The Chicago Cubs are once again World Series champions.

The Cubs Way is a celebration of an iconic team and its journey to a World Championship that fans and readers will cherish for years to come.

Amazon

The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse — Rich Cohen

Now A New York Times Bestseller

Amazon

The Chicago Tribune Book of the Chicago Cubs: A Decade-by-Decade History — Chicago Tribune Staff

The award-winning journalists, photographers, and editors of the Chicago Tribune have produced a comprehensive collector’s item that every Cubs fan will love.

Amazon

Murphy’s Ticket — Brad Herzog

[Ashley’s note: including a kids’ book might seem silly, but I’m a sucker for good art and a cute story, and this just looks so sweet]

Amazon

The Plan: Epstein, Maddon, and the Audacious Blueprint for a Cubs Dynasty — David Kaplan

Amazon

Teammate: My Journey in Baseball and a World Series for the Ages — David Ross

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

USA TODAY BESTSELLER

Now, in Teammate, Ross shares the inspiring story of his life in baseball, framed by the events of that unforgettable November night.

Amazon

A Season for the Ages: How the 2016 Chicago Cubs Brought a World Series Championship to the North Side — Al Yellon

[Ashley’s note: Al didn’t ask me to include this, but writing a book is HARD work, and doing it on top of running a website is even harder. Grab this one if you haven’t already.]

So there you go, a good stack of Cubs-themed reads to keep you busy in between qualifying offers and free agent signing news. Enjoy!

Source: https://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2018/11/3/18049622/chicago-cubs-book-recommendations-christmas-gift-ideas

0 notes

pinksuitcherrypin · 8 years ago

Text

march 16th 2017

gm gm blog i havent been here to update in a while but shits been dry lowkey for me since my last entry- there was like a lot of emotional turmoil regarding me and sean after we slept together idk it was kind of a mess and it really got to me just emotionally and tbh im kinda glad i went through that kind of experience bc it taught me a lot about myself- havent updated you on bae either in a while um im like 99.99% sure hes in jail again right now so i havent heard from him in a super long time sadly coming up on close to a month with no contact :-/ idk it sucks but i like him a lot so imma just sit around and wait for him to come back and see what he has to say for himself.

so why were really here is my sexual activity right so the other day i was in the art building and just sitting and i look down at my phone and i have a text message from tony and lowkey i was shocked like i think my jaw dropped lmfao it wasnt like a wild text or anything just havent heard from him in forever like since december is the last time we fucked and ive slept w G and sean since then both of which are kinda better in bed but tony is the most avail to me lmfao that sounds so shitty but imma just be honest anyways it was wild that he messaged me tbh bc i was gonna be in columbus the next night which was wednesday and because i had a dr apt this morning to get some birth control lol so i tell him im gona be home and tell him ill come see him if thats cool he said for sure so the night of i head over there looking crusty af like dead ass no brows on no makeup at all leggings and a gross ass white tee and same old shit we sit on the couch and catch up about work and stuff literally same shit we always talk about and eventually he asks me to give him a back rub which is fuckin code for were moving into the bed room and so im like omw boiiiiiii hahahaha and when i get back to his room hes shirtless laying in bed and i just jump up next to him and scratch and rub his back and eventually he flips over onto his back and i flop down on my stomach like basically like ok my turn lol and hes rubbing my back and my ass not like sexually yet literally just a nice booty/back rub lol and dead ass im like falling asleep and so is he and eventually he leans in to kiss me and were kissing and kissing and shits getting hot hands are wandering around my body...and eventually im like ok get these leggings OFF and were kissing more and more and he like literally just put his fingers inside me and he usually never does that so i was shooketh tbh and hes kissing me still and wow it was nice he stops after a while and were still kissing and im like ok where the dick at and im reaching for it and like urging him to take his pants off and when hes just like out i grabbed his dick and kinda jerked it a little before giving him head and i was goiiiiiiiiiing in on him and i could hear his breath catch when i would do something really good and he was whispering ‘shit’ and idk bout you but if a boy is cussing while ur mouth is on their dick thats just the sexiest it gets tbh and im going going going and he kinda pulls me back and is like you have to stop or were not gonna be able to do anything i was like ayyyyy look at me go giving good head he stands up and is like what do you want and im like lol i wanna have sex obvi and he grabs a condom and is like alright bitch and grabbed my left ankle and like throws it over his shoulder and is like over kind of hovering and then is inside me and wooow that first thrust that really fits in and is like complete?? like fuck me UP so were fucking and he pulls out and is like trying not to finish fast which i appreciate tbh and is like ok flip over i know how you like it so im like on the edge of the bed and hes standing and im like up on my knees ass all the way up in the air lol and getting dicked down from behind is just hot???? so were going going going and eventually im like ok you stop lemme do the work so i asked him to just stand like solid and let me like do the thrusting?? idk if that visual makes sense but anyways im backing it up HARD like realllllly going in on him and it felt so good like i was really working it and i was feeling those pre orgasm feels and i was like yesss hoe im bout to do this hahahah so im like going hard and hes got his hands just on my ass like gripping me and i hear him moaning behind me and he like grabs me hard and makes me stop like hes about to finish and im like ugh why boy and i sort of flip over and hes like are you good im like yes boy are you good? hes like yeah im fine do you want more and im like lol yes im sorry its really good today he kind of laughs and shoves me over and puts it back in and this is where it got juicy yall so hes still behind me ok and im like alright imma be the one thrusting so just chill for a sec and he grabs my anlkes which are on either side of his legs and ls like holding my ankles and using my own body weight to like pull himself into me even harder and shit was hitting me deep i was like WOOOOOW so im kinda loosing my mind and goin hard and moaning like a demon as always and he was just really feeling it he smacked my ass kinda hard and finished he had a condom on so no worries lol but i felt bad bc he loves to cum in my mouth to like finish so i wanted to do that for him but he just was shook by my movements i guess hahhahaaha he kind of laughed at me and playfully smacked my ass and went to the bathroom and i was SLUMPED in his bed like good night type mood and he was like babe theres pillows if you wanna stay tonight i was like AWWW WOW i would love a sleep over w a boy but i gotta get home so i walk back out and we just like lay on the couch together and were deadass falling asleep so i get up to go and get my coat n shoes n shit and we hug and he says be safe tomorrow and and as usual i say i will and leave it was really nice honestly it wasnt like mind blowing but it was really good and really comfortable i can be me around him hes seen everything you know i dont really care about how i look when i go over there bc hes always tryna smash regardless ahahah anyways thats it for me

talk soon hopefully having sex once a month is fucking mothers dude

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keywestlou · 5 years ago

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THE FOG OF WAR

The fog of war is thick this morning.

Whoever bombed Saudi Arabia is drooling. Trump is anxious to jump in. The Saudis are playing poor me. Yemen says not me. And no one gives credit to Putin.

Trump back to retaliatory threats. The U.S. is “locked and loaded.” Depends of course who is ultimately determined to have been responsible.

What do I think.

Not the time for Iran to pull something like this. On the other hand, Iran is backing the Yemen rebels who the Saudis are fighting.

Putin had the New York Times reporter killed and his body dismembered. Putin has been a troublemaker consistently for several years. Think Crimea.

Whoever bombed the Saudi oil has excellent equipment. The ten strikes were described as “precision hits.”

I do not think Trump had anything to do with it.

I could care less about the Saudis.Fifteen of the 19 Twin Towers perpetrators were Saudi citizens. When no planes were flying the day after 9/11, a group of Saudis were permitted to fly out of New York City and back home. The Saudis at the time supported al Qaeda.

The Saudis gave us $4 a gallon gasoline. Our friends! Who needs them!

If Trump opts to go to war to support the Saudis, he is endangering the U.S greatly. He would then be placing us directly in the path of harm’s way.

A comment to someone’s writing this morning (not mine) said the U.S. was “goin to war for the cocksuckers who took down the Towers.”

What a mess!

I do not recall Trump ever complaining about his alleged bone spurs. Assuming they have gone away, as the U.S. leader he should have an up front position. He should be the first off a landing barge or the first to parachute out of a plane over enemy territory.

Someone has to do it.

The General Motors strike bothers me. Tens of thousands of GM employees from Michigan to Texas left work at midnight.

One fortunate thing is negotiations will continue even though there is a strike. Teams from management and labor are meeting at the moment.

GM cannot stand a strike. The last strike in 2007 cost the company $6 million. And it only lasted 2 days!

Our government bailed GM out when it looked like it was going under. The employees cooperated at the time to keep GM afloat. Trump’s tax cut helped major corporations significantly. It did nothing or next to nothing for GM’s workers.

Trump said he was going to bring manufacturing back to the U.S. How about keeping what we have here?

M gut feeling is the strike will not last long. If they are sitting together this morning, it is a sign they are close.

I hope.

Citizens of Key West and the lower keys. Oxitec has been found to be wanting again. At a time when they are seeking permission to begin a new study here.

A recent Yale study claims Oxitec does not work. In fact, may have some adverse affects. In an article published in the Activist Post 9/15/19, the Yale study found the mosquito offspring more robust and eventually being birthed in larger numbers.

A team of Yale students studied the genomes of both the genetically modified strain and the wild species before release, and then 6, 12, and 27-30 months after the releases began.

We went through Oxitec and its genetically modified mosquitoes 3 years ago. The people of the keys were opposed. It took a public vote to get the Oxitec plan knocked out.

Oxitec is back. They are talking with the State and the Mosquito Control Board. Be aware. It is time to man the ramparts again!

Country music singer and songwriter Billy Currington was in Key West last night. He did a free concert. The crowd of 2,500 stretched from the foot of Duval to Ocean Key’s Sunset Pier. The entire pier packed.

Prior to the outdoor show, Currington did a donation appearance at the Key West Theater. All monies raised were for Key West’s sister city in the Bahamas, Green Turtle Cay.

Part of Currington’s performance included a song he wrote about Green Turtle Cay some time ago.

I was having a late Sunday mid afternoon breakfast at Harpoon Harry’s. The place almost empty. A woman sat a couple of seats from me at the bar. We began talking.

Her name Gail Schulte. Married name. Ancestral name Pratt. Her husband Mark Schulte.

They have been residents of Key West for more than a year. Lived in Sandwich, Massachusetts where they ran a guest house. Sold it and bought one in Key West thereby fulfilling a lifetime dream.

The Key West guest house is Suite Dreams Inn at 1001 Von Phister.

Sandwich is near Chatham on Cape Cod. I frequented Chatham many times over the years. Ergo, the conversation drifted into the Cape and Gail’s descendants.

Gail’s great, great, great, great grandfather was Edmund Freeman. I am not sure I have enough grandfathers. Whatever, Edmund came to our shores in 1635.

The Mayflower was the first boat to come to the new land. It arrived together with 2 other vessels in 1621 landing at Plymouth Rock.

The Abigail led groups of ships to the new land. The Abigail’s second trip in 1635.

There were religious difference with those who had landed at Plymouth Rock several years earlier. England was aware and did not want the 2 groups to live together. Edmund’s group was way of course in any event. Ended up even further than its original landing place.

The landing was on Cape Cod in what is now Sandwich.

Edmund’s group elected 10 men to be their leaders. Edmund was one of them. He later served as Assistant Governor of Plymouth Colony under Governor William Bradford.

The Cape and Sandwich land increased in value over the years. Some of Edmund’s descendents became very wealthy. I don’t know if Gail was so fortunate.

There is more to the story. Involves Key West locals.

When I first purchased my Key West home 25 years ago, I was fortunate to meet Woody and Joan Cornell. A great couple. They had met during World War II when Woody was stationed in England.

They prospered, but worked hard in doing so. They owned and operated a country house/resort in New England. I recall Woody telling me once that he and Joan were lucky to have had their daughter Greer before they went into the hotel business. He said there would have been no time thereafter. It was work, work, work, and more work for he and Joan.

Woody and Joan eventually sold the New England operation. Moved to Key West in 1995. Bought either a former home or guest house. Their intent to get back into the resort business in a much smaller way.

They spent 8 months “configuring” the place.

Woody was extremely talented. He and Joan could build, renovate, etc. anything. The result absolute beauty.

The building Woody and Joan configured and made into a guest house is the Suite Dreams Inn Gail and her husband purchased last year.

I met Woody and Joan through my daughter Lisa. She was good friends with their daughter Greer. Greer today is in the hospitality business as her parents were. I first met Greer when she was at the Casa Marina. She is associated today with 24 North on the Boulevard.

Small world. Everything interconnects.

I finish with climate change. An item of great concern.

A Swedish scientist has arrived at a theory whereby an insufficient food supply problem could be remedied. Eat human flesh. The bodies of dead relatives.

The scientist is big on his theory. Certain it would work. Problem is how people would react and accept/not accept it. The scientist believes people have a resistance to cannibalism. He describes it as “conservative” and “selfish.” I think it “sick.”

Enjoy your day!

THE FOG OF WAR was originally published on Key West Lou

0 notes

kayleyfaheyus · 6 years ago

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Shift Your Brokerage into High Gear

Five years ago, I was a hobby farmer in Western Ohio, on the prowl for a new career. After 19 years in the automotive industry, working my way up from lot porter to salesman to GM and president of a dealer group, I was ready for a change.

I was eager to apply my background and experience in consumer marketing to a new line of work, one that preferably highlighted my passion for land. Should I get a broker’s license or go to work for a management company or call up a trust department to see if they had any openings? I honestly had no idea how to proceed. Fortunately, my wife, Jessica, made a brilliant suggestion: Call the publisher of that magazine I was always raving about, and see what he had to say. You probably already have an inkling of how things turned out.

I lobbed an email to The Land Report publisher Eddie Lee Rider, and that very day I got a call back. The sales guy in me immediately liked this. Not five minutes into our initial conversation, we both sensed an opportunity. My gut told me to sign on with the Magazine of the American Landowner. After a heart-to-heart with Jessica, that’s exactly what I did.

Almost immediately, I recognized that the tenets of marketing and branding that build successful dealer groups also applied to the successful marketing of land. I guarantee the lessons I learned as I worked my way up from the mailroom to the showroom and finally the boardroom can better your book of business.

Consistency is Key

One of the principle tenets of automotive marketing is that reach without frequency equals wasted money. Eddie Lee hammered home this very same point to me. “If someone wants to buy a one-time ad, tell them not to waste their money,” he says. “Selling land isn’t about when a broker is ready to market a listing. It’s about when a buyer or a seller is ready to pull the trigger.”

“Consistency is key” is especially true when marketing land and your services. A well-crafted branding message, delivered consistently, creates top-of-mind name recall. In my humble opinion, this could well be the factor that generates that all-important phone call from a potential buyer or a motivated seller.

There is No Off-Season

Many industries target a certain time frame to ramp up marketing. Car sales is not one of them. It may seem as though dealers are doubling down when they do a “year-end clearance,” but that’s just one of many arrows in their quiver. How many times a year do you see ads about factory incentives? Or special dealer financing? By the time you factor in all the limited-time offers that are pitched – President’s Day, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Back to School, Black Friday, New Year’s Eve – a far more sophisticated strategy emerges. Automotive dealers market 24/7/365.

So if investors who buy and sell land have no off-season, why should you?

Yes, we both know that as the calendar year wraps up, so does deal pace. I equate this to an auto dealership’s year-end clearance. But if your own marketing slacks off during the off-season while your competitors are busy reinforcing their branding, guess who gets the cold call in the middle of winter? Guess who hits the ground running when the snow melts or school lets out? Not you.

As entrepreneurs, our instinct is to keep our powder dry when things slow down.

Yet the decision to buy or sell a legacy property is often a family decision that is discussed and debated during the off-season, a.k.a. the holidays. Does it really make sense to pull back your marketing at the exact moment you need to be building your business?

Like countless brokerages coast to coast, The Land Report shifts into high gear as spring turns into summer. Yet we consciously produce our biggest issue of the year, which features The Land Report 100, so it comes out in December. Why? Because we practice what I’m preaching. Our must-read content is on coffee tables and in private jets precisely when families gather for the holidays.

Effective marketing is a full-time, year-round commitment. The consistent marketing message that you deliver, even during spells of lower activity, builds brand equity and name recall. These are priceless.

Marketing is Not an Expense. It is an Investment. Treat it as Such.

Best practice dictates you establish a marketing budget and commit fully to it. Budgets create limits; you can’t have a presence everywhere. So, do your research, negotiate well, and pick your platforms based on their position within the industry. Only invest in favorable brand association. Demand added value for your marketing dollars. Above all, challenge your marketing partners to deliver your message effectively and specifically to the right audience. Trust but verify.

Please note that I said “platforms.” Do not put all your eggs in one basket, be it print, online, or direct mail. And that includes my own title, The Land Report. Do you go to the trade shows your target buyer attends? You’d be surprised how many of those events take place during the so-called off-season. How about hosting your own event, even if it’s just a cast-and-blast for a handful of key clients. Again, money well spent.

Fish where the fish are. By that, I mean make sure you connect with your target market in person, online, via direct mail, and in print. That’s a sound investment.

Branding is Not A Slogan. It’s the Truth.

I’ve always been a big fan of Ford’s slogan: Built Ford Tough. It’s confident. It’s catchy. And it hammers home the fact that more than a century after Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company, Ford is very much an industry leader. I know that for a fact because I spent the majority of my career with the blue oval.

Let’s apply that marketing savvy to your business. If your brokerage has been around for a while, what are you best known for? A specific land use? A certain market? A specialized expertise? Spell it out in an honest, straightforward manner. At The Land Report, we call ourselves The Magazine of the American Landowner. It’s confident. It’s catchy. And it hammers home the fact that we share the stories of America’s leading landowners.

But what if you’re new to the business and just starting out? What drives you? What inspired you to launch your business? Are you a longtime local? Then put those deep roots and your local ties to work for you. Maybe you relocated to the land of your dreams. If so, doesn’t your trailblazing decision make you the ideal candidate to pave the way for others who might want to do so? Do you love to hunt? Is life better on the back of a horse?

Consider these questions and write down your answers. Look at it closely. Refine it. Hone it. Buff it. THAT is your brand.

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Market Your Brand

The landscape of marketing choices for land professionals has never been more diverse. Traditional advertising is gone. Kaput. Once upon a time, advertising featured an “offer” that was deliverable through standardized channels. Today, it’s all about experience marketing. When I got my first paycheck in the automotive industry, Facebook, Google, and YouTube didn’t even exist. By the time I left, key influencers were creating billions of impressions with blogs and podcasts that reached consumers via their iPhones, a product that debuted in 2007. This avalanche of new technology has created exciting opportunities for small business owners to create and control marketing and branding. Use it to your advantage.

I’m a big fan of Instagram. The visual-forward nature of this rapidly growing platform and its ability to integrate video and drone footage gives a broker the unique opportunity to conduct virtual showings on multiple listings from a handheld device. If you are a land broker in 2018, an active Instagram account is a must, not an option.

Finally: hashtags, hashtags, hashtags. Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck insists that for real estate professionals, the most effective way to grow your Instagram following is through the use of strategic hashtags. This means the use of a minimum of 10 hashtags per post. I recommend including hashtags featuring the state where your listing is located as well as the type of property �� i.e., #farm, #ranch, #timberland, #hunting. Keep the hashtags relevant and watch the interactions with your posts build.

Thanks to Jessica’s suggestion, I’ve been on board with The Land Report going on five years now. Even better, I’m applying insights and ideas that I gained in one of the most competitive industries to my new career. I sincerely hope that one of these kernels of truth helps you take your book of business to the next level in 2018 and beyond.

P.S. If you want me to share more, reach out to me at [email protected]. I’ll even help you set up that Instagram account you’ve been putting off.

About the Author: David Zawalich lives in west central Ohio with his wife, two kids and a Wire Haired Pointing Griffon named Zeke. His love of land and the outdoors was sparked as a child in the wilds of northeast Pennsylvania. He employs his unique vantage point as a landowner and marketing professional as the Associate Publisher of The Land Report.

The post Shift Your Brokerage into High Gear appeared first on REALTORS® Land Institute.

from News About Real Estate https://www.rliland.com/shift-your-brokerage-into-high-gear-branding

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joefnolan80 · 6 years ago

Text

Shift Your Brokerage into High Gear

Consistency is Key

There is No Off-Season

So if investors who buy and sell land have no off-season, why should you?

As entrepreneurs, our instinct is to keep our powder dry when things slow down.

Marketing is Not an Expense. It is an Investment. Treat it as Such.

Fish where the fish are. By that, I mean make sure you connect with your target market in person, online, via direct mail, and in print. That’s a sound investment.

Branding is Not A Slogan. It’s the Truth.

Consider these questions and write down your answers. Look at it closely. Refine it. Hone it. Buff it. THAT is your brand.

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Market Your Brand

Finally: hashtags, hashtags, hashtags. Marketing guru Gary Vaynerchuck insists that for real estate professionals, the most effective way to grow your Instagram following is through the use of strategic hashtags. This means the use of a minimum of 10 hashtags per post. I recommend including hashtags featuring the state where your listing is located as well as the type of property – i.e., #farm, #ranch, #timberland, #hunting. Keep the hashtags relevant and watch the interactions with your posts build.

P.S. If you want me to share more, reach out to me at [email protected]. I’ll even help you set up that Instagram account you’ve been putting off.

The post Shift Your Brokerage into High Gear appeared first on REALTORS® Land Institute.

from News About Real Estate https://www.rliland.com/shift-your-brokerage-into-high-gear-branding

0 notes

flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

DGB Grab Bag: Zetterberg Spills the Beans, the Horn of Doom, and Gretzky's Soap Debut

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: Roberto Luongo. Some solid eclipse-related humor here from the always topical Panthers goalie.

The second star: Matt Dumba. The Celtics and the Cavaliers made a massive trade this week, and hockey fans everywhere were like, "OK, we get it NBA, your off-season is a million times better than ours. Stop rubbing it in." Oh, and one fan in Boston burned a jersey, because Boston.

Meanwhile, Dumba, who is apparently a big Cavs fan, decided to shoot his Kyrie Irving jersey into the garbage. (No, not the Wild's playoff record. Actual garbage.)

The first star: Kings in training. This was going to get a spot in last week's list, until it was knocked out of the running by the Great Phil Kessel Hot Dog Sweep of 2017. But that hardly seems fair, because it's good stuff. So let's enjoy the L.A. Kings getting some lessons on how to take their game to the next level.

Yes, this would seem to give the Kings an unfair advantage in the Pacific, but don't worry—the boys are working with the Coyotes and the Flames, too.

Outrage of the Week

The issue: According to a report in a Swedish newspaper, Red Wings star Henrik Zetterberg is planning to retire after the 2018-19 season, even though he'll still have two years left on his contract. Coincidentally, those last two seasons on his 12-year contract carry a salary of just $1 million, well down from $7 million he'll make this year.

Normally, this is where we'd all go wink/nudge about how the contract was obviously meant to circumvent the cap by tacking on extra seasons at a rock-bottom rate that both Zetterberg and the Wings knew would never be played. And we'd be right. But this story takes it even further, since Zetterberg himself apparently told the paper: "It is quite obvious that you try to fool the system." That quote is translated, so maybe some layer of nuance got lost. GM Ken Holland, meanwhile, says he hadn't spoken to his player about the story. Still, it's not hard to connect the dots here. Zetterberg basically did it for us.

Zetterberg earlier this year. Photo by Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The outrage: This all seems like clear cap circumvention and the league should take action.

Is it justified: Sure. The tougher question is what, if anything, we should expect the NHL to actually do about it. The league's treatment of back-diving contracts has been a joke from day one, so there really are no good options here.

To be clear, everyone knew what was up with these contracts when players like Roberto Luongo and Marian Hossa first started signing them back in 2010. The league could have stepped in immediately and ruled against those deals, as they had the right to do. Instead, they approved them all except for one: Ilya Kovalchuk's first attempt with the Devils, which had to be reworked into something only vaguely more reasonable. Everything else got the thumbs up from the league, even though everyone knew the deals were a problem. That was dumb and unfair.

Then came the 2012-13 lockout, and the league used a new CBA as a chance to change the rules. It introduced the cap recapture penalty, and suddenly contracts that had already been approved were singled out for punishment. That was also dumb and unfair.

Recently, we've seen the start of the third act, in which it becomes clear that nobody is ever going to pay any significant cap-recapture penalties because players won't actually retire, they'll just go on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). Not only is the league fine with that, teams have taken to occasionally hiring injured players who are still under contract to a team for years to come.

In theory, you can't use LTIR to hide a player who's healthy, but nobody is healthy after 15 or 20 years in the NHL. So is Gary Bettman really going to drop a multi-million cap penalty on one of his bosses for a contract he (or someone else) signed years ago? It sure doesn't seem like it.

Sorry, Gary. Photo by Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports

This is yet another example of how the NHL is never able to recognize a problem that's right in front of its nose, not even if fans and media alike are all jumping up and down and pointing and holding flashing neon signs that say "PROBLEM." Further, when the league finally does acknowledge that something is wrong, it never fails to come up with complicated solutions that don't actually fix anything at all. We've been down this road so many times that nobody can be surprised anymore.

So sure, Zetterberg will probably decide to stop playing in two years. The Red Wings will announce that he's going on the LTIR with a bad back or whatever else, saving them from a $5 million recapture penalty. Everyone will point back to this week's article in that Swedish paper and ask if the league will do something. Bettman or Bill Daly or whoever will use their very grown-up voices to assure us that the league is taking this very seriously and very well might do something this time.

And then it won't.

Yes, you'll be outraged, and justifiably so, but it will be the weary kind of outrage that only a modern-day hockey fan knows, because man, we do this all the time.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

Today is August 25, and if it's your birthday you're in good company. NHL birthdays on this day include longtime player and coach Dave Tippett, 1,000-game club member Nick Schultz, and obscure player alumni Builder Lego. There's also this week's obscure player, Harry Mummery.

Mummery was born on August 25, 1889, and made his NHL debut when the NHL itself did, in 1917. He played six seasons for the Toronto Arenas, the Quebec Bulldogs, the Montreal Canadiens, and the Hamilton Tigers.

Here's the key point: Mummery was a badass. He was the biggest player in the league, weighing in anywhere from a reported 220 up to 245 pounds; according to Wikipedia, which never lies, he was known for eating two steaks before every game. He was also fast for a big man, making him one of the first defensemen who could really get a head of steam going and truck guys.

In addition to having a great name of his own, Mummery specialized in getting traded for other guys with great names, including Goldie Prodgers and Sprague Cleghorn. He won a Stanley Cup with the Arenas in 1918, and finished in the top ten in PIM four times in his six-year career.

But here's my favorite part of the Mummery story. Check out his career stats line:

Courtesy Hockey-Reference.com

Yes, you're reading that correctly: When Harry Mummery wasn't crushing dudes on the blueline, he was stepping in to play net. Back in those days, teams didn't have backup goalies, so if the starter got hurt you had to either play without one or find someone willing to step in. Mummery was more than willing, going between the pipes on four occasions over the course of his career and even being credited with two wins. To this day, he holds the NHL record for most goaltending appearances by a non-goaltender.

Baseball fans can have their non-pitchers pitching. I'll be over here waiting for the next hockey player to pull a Mummery.

New Entries for the Hockey Dictionary

The Horn of Doom ( noun): The loud horn blast that the NHL's war room can use to stop play in any game if it believes a goal has been scored without the officials realizing it.

The Horn of Doom is incredibly rare, showing up only a handful of times each year. Plenty of fans have never seen it happen, or aren't even aware that it exists, but we got one during the Stanley Cup Final this year, when a Predators' goal was missed in real time. Note how even the announcers are confused when the horn sounds in that clip—that's how rare it is.

The theory behind the Horn of Doom is that the league doesn't want play to continue if it knows a goal has gone in. That's because a review will wipe out everything that happens after the puck crosses the line, and the league doesn't want there to be a controversial play or penalty or (worst of all) another goal in the meantime. So it blares the horn to stop play, making for the only time in an NHL game that play can be stopped by anything other than an official's whistle or the final buzzer on a period.

In theory, I shouldn't like the Horn of Doom. I'm on the record as rooting for maximum chaos, and I'd love to see two teams trade chances for an entire period without realizing that none of it actually matters because the puck crossed the goal line 15 minutes ago. The Horn of Doom rule ruins all of that.

But the implementation is so over the top that I can't stay mad at it. I mean, the NHL actually blares a horn to stop the play. Imagine if your employer did that every time you screwed up. Just a loud horn blast, at which point everyone has to stop what they're doing and stare at you while you make your way over to pick up the phone, where your boss is waiting to tell you what you did wrong. Oh, and then you get to turn around and announce your mistake to everybody using a microphone that never works.

It's pretty much the worst thing the league does. And that's the beauty of it. Long live the Horn of Doom.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Last week we watched a clip of the New Jersey Devils visiting General Hospital, in which Doug Brown and a nurse went into an exam room and, well, it was interesting.

With all due respect to the Devils, though, they're not the gold standard of awkward NHL soap opera appearances. That will always be Wayne Gretzky's 1981 appearance on The Young and the Restless. It's a moment worth revisiting, and we've got just the host to walk us through it.

Yes, it's our old friend Alan Thicke. You see, there doesn't seem to be a YouTube video of Gretzky's full appearance out there, but we do have this clip from the 1984 NHL Awards, so we'll work with what we have.

Why yes, that would be the same 1984 awards show that gave us a segment featuring trumpet players and workout models. What can I tell you, it was an especially strong show that year.

We join Thicke midway through a joke about Rod Langway being a tiger on the ice who has to have teeth removed from his fists. Rod Langway ranked 179th in the league that season with 61 penalty minutes, for the record. As Alan and I both know, you never let the facts get in the way of a good punchline.

Thicke moves on to the Art Ross presentation, joking about how everyone knows that Gretzky wins it every year. He even throws in a Knowlton Nash callout just to confuse American viewers. He also drops in a weird aside about Gretzky winning the Pearson, which he'd already done twice before, before setting up a bit about how much "special attention" the star gets.

That leads us to our second punchline, this one about the Oilers hiring a Zamboni to "wipe the perspiration off his upper lip." That doesn't actually make sense, but does rank as the second-best moment ever involving Alan Thicke, the NHL awards show, and a tiny Zamboni.

That leads into a reel of Gretzky's off-ice endeavors, and that's where we find the infamous Y&R appearance. The backstory here is that Gretzky was apparently a huge soap opera fan, and that led to him getting an invite to appear on one. In what stands as a bit of, um, creative casting, he played the role of a mob enforcer.

Specifically, he's playing the role of "Wayne, out of our Edmonton operation." Way to stretch those wings, buddy.

Gretzky delivers his handful of lines, including "Sure could use some of your class around home." Wait, did he just insult Edmonton? I feel like maybe he did. Come on, man, Edmonton's a classy place. It's not perfect, but it's not like they go around peeing in the sinks. OK, wait, bad example.

By the way, I've never watched a soap opera in my life and even I know Nikki Newman when I see her. But where's Victor at? They couldn't get him to do a scene with Wayne? You big-leaguing your Canadian audience here, Victor? You'll come crawling back when our discount retail chains come calling, mark my words.

Gretzky gets another line—"Call me Wayne, everybody does"—and then we're on to other appearances. I really want to know what's up with that dance clip at 1:27, so if anyone has the backstory there please call the tip line. We also get a look at the Wayne Gretzky doll that didn't sell all that well, as Grab Bag readers learned three years ago.

After some tennis talk and quick appearances by Sally Struthers (?) and Andy Warhol (???), we're done. By the time we cut back to the podium, Thicke is gone, presumably because Rod Langway dragged him off stage and beat him up for not introducing him to any of the workout girls.

Gretzky, of course, would continue his acting career with an infamous hosting job on Saturday Night Live in 1989, in which he sang, water-skied, and had his wife stolen by Wayne Campbell. I guess she fell for his "Call me Wayne, everybody does" line.

Speaking of Gretzky on SNL, the musical guest that night was the Fine Young Cannibals. Do you know what else the Fine Young Cannibals were doing in 1989? Appearing in the credits for that Team Sweden song we featured two weeks ago. I completely missed that somehow until it was pointed out by, well, pretty much everybody. What did they do? Did they help sing the song? Write it? Babysit young Henrik Lundqvist? I have so many questions.

In that same post, I joked about how I was surprised there wasn't some connection to the late-80s Capitals, hockey's reigning kings of making terrible rock videos. But there was: Bengt-Ake Gustafsson shows up in the credits, too, fresh off a nine-year stint in Washington.

Finally, who was the captain of those Capitals teams? Rod Langway. I'm telling you, this all ties together somehow. I don't know how deep it goes, but I'm working on it. I may need protection if I get too close to the truth, though. If anyone knows any mob enforcers from Edmonton looking for work these days, let me know.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you'd like to see included in this column? Email Sean at [email protected] .

DGB Grab Bag: Zetterberg Spills the Beans, the Horn of Doom, and Gretzky's Soap Debut published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years ago

Text

DGB Grab Bag: Zetterberg Spills the Beans, the Horn of Doom, and Gretzky’s Soap Debut

Three Stars of Comedy

The third star: Roberto Luongo. Some solid eclipse-related humor here from the always topical Panthers goalie.

The second star: Matt Dumba. The Celtics and the Cavaliers made a massive trade this week, and hockey fans everywhere were like, “OK, we get it NBA, your off-season is a million times better than ours. Stop rubbing it in.” Oh, and one fan in Boston burned a jersey, because Boston.

Meanwhile, Dumba, who is apparently a big Cavs fan, decided to shoot his Kyrie Irving jersey into the garbage. (No, not the Wild’s playoff record. Actual garbage.)

The first star: Kings in training. This was going to get a spot in last week’s list, until it was knocked out of the running by the Great Phil Kessel Hot Dog Sweep of 2017. But that hardly seems fair, because it’s good stuff. So let’s enjoy the L.A. Kings getting some lessons on how to take their game to the next level.

Yes, this would seem to give the Kings an unfair advantage in the Pacific, but don’t worry—the boys are working with the Coyotes and the Flames, too.

Outrage of the Week

The issue: According to a report in a Swedish newspaper, Red Wings star Henrik Zetterberg is planning to retire after the 2018-19 season, even though he’ll still have two years left on his contract. Coincidentally, those last two seasons on his 12-year contract carry a salary of just $1 million, well down from $7 million he’ll make this year.

Normally, this is where we’d all go wink/nudge about how the contract was obviously meant to circumvent the cap by tacking on extra seasons at a rock-bottom rate that both Zetterberg and the Wings knew would never be played. And we’d be right. But this story takes it even further, since Zetterberg himself apparently told the paper: “It is quite obvious that you try to fool the system.” That quote is translated, so maybe some layer of nuance got lost. GM Ken Holland, meanwhile, says he hadn’t spoken to his player about the story. Still, it’s not hard to connect the dots here. Zetterberg basically did it for us.

Zetterberg earlier this year. Photo by Eric Bolte-USA TODAY Sports

The outrage: This all seems like clear cap circumvention and the league should take action.

Is it justified: Sure. The tougher question is what, if anything, we should expect the NHL to actually do about it. The league’s treatment of back-diving contracts has been a joke from day one, so there really are no good options here.

To be clear, everyone knew what was up with these contracts when players like Roberto Luongo and Marian Hossa first started signing them back in 2010. The league could have stepped in immediately and ruled against those deals, as they had the right to do. Instead, they approved them all except for one: Ilya Kovalchuk’s first attempt with the Devils, which had to be reworked into something only vaguely more reasonable. Everything else got the thumbs up from the league, even though everyone knew the deals were a problem. That was dumb and unfair.

Recently, we’ve seen the start of the third act, in which it becomes clear that nobody is ever going to pay any significant cap-recapture penalties because players won’t actually retire, they’ll just go on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). Not only is the league fine with that, teams have taken to occasionally hiring injured players who are still under contract to a team for years to come.

In theory, you can’t use LTIR to hide a player who’s healthy, but nobody is healthy after 15 or 20 years in the NHL. So is Gary Bettman really going to drop a multi-million cap penalty on one of his bosses for a contract he (or someone else) signed years ago? It sure doesn’t seem like it.

Sorry, Gary. Photo by Bruce Fedyck-USA TODAY Sports

This is yet another example of how the NHL is never able to recognize a problem that’s right in front of its nose, not even if fans and media alike are all jumping up and down and pointing and holding flashing neon signs that say “PROBLEM.” Further, when the league finally does acknowledge that something is wrong, it never fails to come up with complicated solutions that don’t actually fix anything at all. We’ve been down this road so many times that nobody can be surprised anymore.

So sure, Zetterberg will probably decide to stop playing in two years. The Red Wings will announce that he’s going on the LTIR with a bad back or whatever else, saving them from a $5 million recapture penalty. Everyone will point back to this week’s article in that Swedish paper and ask if the league will do something. Bettman or Bill Daly or whoever will use their very grown-up voices to assure us that the league is taking this very seriously and very well might do something this time.

And then it won’t.

Yes, you’ll be outraged, and justifiably so, but it will be the weary kind of outrage that only a modern-day hockey fan knows, because man, we do this all the time.

Obscure Former Player of the Week

Today is August 25, and if it’s your birthday you’re in good company. NHL birthdays on this day include longtime player and coach Dave Tippett, 1,000-game club member Nick Schultz, and obscure player alumni Builder Lego. There’s also this week’s obscure player, Harry Mummery.

Here’s the key point: Mummery was a badass. He was the biggest player in the league, weighing in anywhere from a reported 220 up to 245 pounds; according to Wikipedia, which never lies, he was known for eating two steaks before every game. He was also fast for a big man, making him one of the first defensemen who could really get a head of steam going and truck guys.

But here’s my favorite part of the Mummery story. Check out his career stats line:

Courtesy Hockey-Reference.com

Yes, you’re reading that correctly: When Harry Mummery wasn’t crushing dudes on the blueline, he was stepping in to play net. Back in those days, teams didn’t have backup goalies, so if the starter got hurt you had to either play without one or find someone willing to step in. Mummery was more than willing, going between the pipes on four occasions over the course of his career and even being credited with two wins. To this day, he holds the NHL record for most goaltending appearances by a non-goaltender.

Baseball fans can have their non-pitchers pitching. I’ll be over here waiting for the next hockey player to pull a Mummery.

New Entries for the Hockey Dictionary

The Horn of Doom ( noun): The loud horn blast that the NHL’s war room can use to stop play in any game if it believes a goal has been scored without the officials realizing it.

The Horn of Doom is incredibly rare, showing up only a handful of times each year. Plenty of fans have never seen it happen, or aren’t even aware that it exists, but we got one during the Stanley Cup Final this year, when a Predators’ goal was missed in real time. Note how even the announcers are confused when the horn sounds in that clip—that’s how rare it is.

The theory behind the Horn of Doom is that the league doesn’t want play to continue if it knows a goal has gone in. That’s because a review will wipe out everything that happens after the puck crosses the line, and the league doesn’t want there to be a controversial play or penalty or (worst of all) another goal in the meantime. So it blares the horn to stop play, making for the only time in an NHL game that play can be stopped by anything other than an official’s whistle or the final buzzer on a period.

In theory, I shouldn’t like the Horn of Doom. I’m on the record as rooting for maximum chaos, and I’d love to see two teams trade chances for an entire period without realizing that none of it actually matters because the puck crossed the goal line 15 minutes ago. The Horn of Doom rule ruins all of that.

But the implementation is so over the top that I can’t stay mad at it. I mean, the NHL actually blares a horn to stop the play. Imagine if your employer did that every time you screwed up. Just a loud horn blast, at which point everyone has to stop what they’re doing and stare at you while you make your way over to pick up the phone, where your boss is waiting to tell you what you did wrong. Oh, and then you get to turn around and announce your mistake to everybody using a microphone that never works.

It’s pretty much the worst thing the league does. And that’s the beauty of it. Long live the Horn of Doom.

Classic YouTube clip breakdown

Last week we watched a clip of the New Jersey Devils visiting General Hospital, in which Doug Brown and a nurse went into an exam room and, well, it was interesting.

With all due respect to the Devils, though, they’re not the gold standard of awkward NHL soap opera appearances. That will always be Wayne Gretzky’s 1981 appearance on The Young and the Restless. It’s a moment worth revisiting, and we’ve got just the host to walk us through it.

Yes, it’s our old friend Alan Thicke. You see, there doesn’t seem to be a YouTube video of Gretzky’s full appearance out there, but we do have this clip from the 1984 NHL Awards, so we’ll work with what we have.

Why yes, that would be the same 1984 awards show that gave us a segment featuring trumpet players and workout models. What can I tell you, it was an especially strong show that year.

Thicke moves on to the Art Ross presentation, joking about how everyone knows that Gretzky wins it every year. He even throws in a Knowlton Nash callout just to confuse American viewers. He also drops in a weird aside about Gretzky winning the Pearson, which he’d already done twice before, before setting up a bit about how much “special attention” the star gets.

That leads us to our second punchline, this one about the Oilers hiring a Zamboni to “wipe the perspiration off his upper lip.” That doesn’t actually make sense, but does rank as the second-best moment ever involving Alan Thicke, the NHL awards show, and a tiny Zamboni.

That leads into a reel of Gretzky’s off-ice endeavors, and that’s where we find the infamous Y&R appearance. The backstory here is that Gretzky was apparently a huge soap opera fan, and that led to him getting an invite to appear on one. In what stands as a bit of, um, creative casting, he played the role of a mob enforcer.

Specifically, he’s playing the role of “Wayne, out of our Edmonton operation.” Way to stretch those wings, buddy.

Gretzky delivers his handful of lines, including “Sure could use some of your class around home.” Wait, did he just insult Edmonton? I feel like maybe he did. Come on, man, Edmonton’s a classy place. It’s not perfect, but it’s not like they go around peeing in the sinks. OK, wait, bad example.

By the way, I’ve never watched a soap opera in my life and even I know Nikki Newman when I see her. But where’s Victor at? They couldn’t get him to do a scene with Wayne? You big-leaguing your Canadian audience here, Victor? You’ll come crawling back when our discount retail chains come calling, mark my words.

Gretzky gets another line—”Call me Wayne, everybody does”—and then we’re on to other appearances. I really want to know what’s up with that dance clip at 1:27, so if anyone has the backstory there please call the tip line. We also get a look at the Wayne Gretzky doll that didn’t sell all that well, as Grab Bag readers learned three years ago.

After some tennis talk and quick appearances by Sally Struthers (?) and Andy Warhol (???), we’re done. By the time we cut back to the podium, Thicke is gone, presumably because Rod Langway dragged him off stage and beat him up for not introducing him to any of the workout girls.

In that same post, I joked about how I was surprised there wasn’t some connection to the late-80s Capitals, hockey’s reigning kings of making terrible rock videos. But there was: Bengt-Ake Gustafsson shows up in the credits, too, fresh off a nine-year stint in Washington.

Finally, who was the captain of those Capitals teams? Rod Langway. I’m telling you, this all ties together somehow. I don’t know how deep it goes, but I’m working on it. I may need protection if I get too close to the truth, though. If anyone knows any mob enforcers from Edmonton looking for work these days, let me know.

Have a question, suggestion, old YouTube clip, or anything else you’d like to see included in this column? Email Sean at [email protected] .

DGB Grab Bag: Zetterberg Spills the Beans, the Horn of Doom, and Gretzky’s Soap Debut syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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onlyonemister · 8 years ago

Text

Making a Game: The Basics of Battle

Hoo boy it’s time. This article got a bit delayed because of GDC. My apologies. If it is any consolation, I had a great time, and I will be posting another article later this week. So, we’ve spent about two weeks laying out the basic ground rules for the game. We have some overall thematic, conceptual ideas that we want the game to use, and we have a set of more concrete rules that we would like our dice rolling mechanic to follow. Let’s take just a moment to lay them out here.

General Guidelines

Make an Action Game

Make a ROLE Playing Game

No Combat Swoosh

Active and Reactive Combat and Conflict

Freeform Magic

Simple and Quick Dice Rolls

Strong Lore Framework

Remember these from article one {link}? These general guidelines are just that: general. They are thematic ideas to keep in mind while I work. Obviously definitions of an Action Game might differ, or I might create Lore that some people don’t like. That’s okay. These guidelines are not hard and fast rules. This is some Pirate’s Code business: more like guidelines than rules. I will keep these ideas in mind so that as I work on the game, I can check back in with my guidelines to see if my decisions are falling in line.

As an aside, I just noticed that my second rule might cause some confusion. The role playing community likes to use the slogan, “role play, don’t roll play”, which means that the players should play their characters, not the dice. It is a bit vague, and absolutely not what I mean. Players must use the numbers they have and an understanding of the probability of the dice in order to make decisions. These are the laws of the universe in a tabletop game. Just like I would decide if it was safe to jump over a gap based on my understanding of my physical strength and the laws of physics, so too can a DnD player decide based on their character’s Acrobatics skill and the DC of the check. Refer to [this Angry GM article] if you want a better breakdown of why it is important for players to have an understanding of their chances. What I mean by ROLE play is that I want players to play their character, and only their character. I do not want them to have to make poor decisions based on character quirks or to decide things about the scenery and the game world. That is the GM’s job. Players play their characters, the GM manages the game world and presents situations. I want the GM to have plenty of hooks to give players hard decisions, but I do not want a FATE style compel mechanic to make players act outside the interests of their character. Got it? Good.

Dice Rules

The Valkyrie Must Be Able to Pass Dice to Empower Rolls

Binary Success and Failure On Most Rolls

Only One Dice Mechanic

Encourage Diversity of Strategy

Enough Dice to Power Runic Magic

And these rules are from [the last article]. These are more specific, and lay out some concrete things that I want to be able to do with my dice. Checking in with these will be a bit easier. If my dice system is not Binary success or failure, I can tell that right away. Easy. So I will be keeping these rules in mind when making the game. I might even make a separate post to hold all of these rules as we go through the project.

Learning from History Part Uno

Hold up. I thought we were talking about battle systems today. Well, we are! But first I need to get a bit historical on you. I know, I know. This is a fantasy game about a mythologized Scandinavia, but how can I properly build a mythological world without some grounding in reality? Besides, history is cool. All my best ideas come from history. So, while I have been writing these articles, I have begun doing research. Nothing too crazy. Right now I am just listening to a podcast on the history of the viking age. It’s called The Viking Age Podcast [link to podcast], conveniently enough, and it is definitely worth checking out. In twenty or thirty minute episodes, Lee runs through all of the history leading up to the viking age, why it might have happened, and how it influenced both Scandinavia and the greater European continent. It rules. I studied mostly Japanese, Wild West American, and Jewish history in college, so it is great to get some exposure to a culture I spent little time reading about. And, I have already learned something that will be hugely important for our project: not all of the Norse were Vikings.

I know! It’s crazy right? Okay, maybe that doesn’t seem crazy to you, but it felt like big news to me. Here was this word that I used so very wrong for my whole life. It’s not a slur or anything, it is actually a word used to describe the people who went to raid outside of Scandinavia. Vikingar: the people that went Viking. This may not seem like a huge deal. After all, it is just a terminology change, but facts like these can paint our project in a whole new light. I do not intend to be authentic every step of the way. Again, we are talking about a world in which Ragnarok has happened and the Valkyries are left to run the show. But, the best fantasy takes inspiration from reality. Knowing that the Vikings referred to a specific group of raiders changes how I might write this world. Why not, if I can, use a more authentic representation of Scandinavian culture during the viking age in order to create a world that is both more authentic and more unique.

So, what does this new information do for our battle system? Well, not a lot if I’m being honest. I know that this is the battle article, but I started listening to this podcast while writing the last one, and got excited about some of the new information I was learning. So, this kind of aside might become more of a regular thing. Every now and again, if I have learned something particularly cool, I might pop up at the beginning of an article to share it. And, while this information might not pertain to the topic of the article, I can promise you that learning about this period of history will get my wheels turning for other aspects of the game. Finally, you never know when inspiration will come to you. I talked in the first article about inspiration as a seed, something that you must tend to for it to grow into something useable. Well, I am going to need a lot of inspiration for a project like this, and historical facts are going to be the manure for my inspiration field. Yes, sometimes it will be kind of gross, and sometimes it will be tedious to get all that manure spread, but at the end of the day, the inspiration planted there will grow all the stronger. See, I brought that metaphor around.

Now Can We Talk About Fighting?

No! Actually, I’m just messing with you. Yes. Now we can talk about fighting. I have thought a lot about the combat system in Vikings and Valkyries. I have planned whole imaginary fights in my head, detailed mechanic after mechanic, and worn a hole in my apartment floor pacing back and forth for so long thinking about it all. This article is my chance to codify some of those ideas. I need to make the basics of this combat system material so that I can stop jumbling it around in my head. It’s picked up some good ideas in there, but the system needs to get some fresh air. A lot of things need to get decided in this article, and when I went through the fist draft it got really long, so I am shortening it down to just regular long by making these sections a bit more efficient. That might mean that some of the decisions I make are not as well explained as others, and that is okay. I am going to be testing this game as soon as possible, and it is entirely possible that the quick ideas I have here will get revisited. So, if I seem a touch cavalier about this combat system, that is because I am.

Here there be Dragons. And Over Here are Some Kobolds.

The first thing any combat system needs to know is will it use maps and minis, or be a “theater of the mind” kind of affair. How the players are expected to visualize a fight will affect how complex and deep things like positioning and terrain can be. First off, the combat in VnV will not be “theater of the mind” by default. I voiced my complaints about those systems in the first article, and I stand by those issues. I can create a much better tactical combat experience if I have some kind of battle map. What does that battle map need to look like though? Dungeons and Dragons uses a set of 1 inch by 1 inch squares that each represent 5 feet of space. Savage Worlds throws the mat away altogether and just tells you to use a ruler. Most characters can move about 6 inches on a turn, and 1 inch is equal to 1 meter of distance. FATE even has a battle mat. Instead of granular inches or squares, FATE uses Zones. Zones are kind of cool. When laying out a conflict area, the GM (called the Judge in FATE, which is kind of dope) writes the zones on a handful of index cards or post its or something. Then, the GM lays them out to create a simple map. Characters can move from one Zone to another on their turn. Some Zones might have a tricky challenge in the way to cross them, others might provide cover, others might have some hazard that makes fighting in them perilous. I kind of like Zones, they are a neat way to abstract out the tactical movement of combat and create compelling maps quickly.

Too bad we aren’t going to use Zones in VnV. They might be quick and easy and elegant, but they abstract combat too much for my tastes. It works fine in a game like FATE where combat is not the main driving factor, but combat will be important in VnV, so we are going to want a more granular system. That granularity will add some complexity to the game. After all, we talked about not having too tight a distinction between combat and non-combat conflict in VnV, but now GMs will have to break out a battle map and pens in order to transition to combat encounters. What gives? Well, what gives is that despite wanting to avoid the combat swoosh, I want deep tactical combat more. Movement and positioning is incredibly important for that kind of combat. Games like FATE and Edge of the Empire do a solid job of creating a semblance of that depth, but the systems they use to replace maps feel just as complicated. This is a bad trade in my opinion. I want players and GMs to be able to see exactly what is going on in a battle so that they can make the best tactical decisions possible. I do not want to limit them to simple imagined scenes. Say what you will about the complexity required in setting up a map, it allows GMs to create much more engaging encounter spaces. Trying to run complex encounters with multiple moving parts in a game like EotE takes way too much brain power, and leads to arguments about where characters and objects are positioned more often that not. I want my players to be able to know right away where things are.

As for what type of battle map, I am going to go with a standard mat. The squares will be 1 inch by 1 inch, and players can use either the square side or the hex side. My reason? Well I want granularity, as I said above, and I don’t feel any need to reinvent the wheel on this one. Most tabletop players will have access to a battlemat for DnD, and so I am going to go with that format. Measuring things with a ruler and finding terrain is kind of a pain in the butt. Usually when I play Savage Worlds I would end up using the hex grid side of my battlemat anyways. So, 1 inch squares it will be. For now, I don’t feel any need to define the distances on the squares. DnD calls them 5 feet by 5 feet, and that seems pretty reasonable. I have some ideas about weapon ranges that we will get to in a later article, and that might necessitate smaller distances on the squares. For now though, it does not matter. I will define ranges and player movement in squares, and leave the distances until later.

Taking Turns

Now that we know we want a mat, let’s talk about initiative. This, I promise, will be a bit different than the standard initiative of DnD and Savage Worlds. The reason for this? Reactions. See, I want players to be able to make decisions both on and off turn. When attacked, I want the players to be able to decide if and how to defend themselves. This means that the concept of a player turn is a bit more nebulous. For a great example of this kind of nebulous Initiative, look at Dungeon World and other Apocalypse Engine games. The Apocalypse Engine has no concept of structured combat time. Instead, the GM presents scenarios to the players, and the players decide how to react. Now, in a DnD game, this would be massively unfair. See, DnD runs on what I call an Opportunity Action Economy. Basically, the players get a finite amount of opportunities to do stuff during structured time. If I am playing DnD and attack a goblin, the only thing that I am risking is my turn. If I fail, I simply deal no damage, losing my opportunity to act. Apocalypse Engine games run on a Risk Action Economy. If I attack a goblin in Dungeon World, I will make what is called a Hack and Slash roll. In a Hack and Slash roll, I might damage the goblin, but the goblin may also damage me. I am taking a risk by taking the action. This also applies when the goblin is the one directing the pace of the scene. In DnD, I would simply hope the goblin would miss me. In Dungeon World, if a goblin attacks, I can decide to try and avoid all damage, which would lead to a Defy Danger roll where I have no chance of hurting the goblin and less chance of being hurt myself, or I could fight back for a risky Hack and Slash roll. This means that structured time is less important in Dungeon World, because any time my character is acted upon, I get to make a choice about how to act and might gain the upper hand because of the risks associated with rolling.

In VnV, Reactions will not be equivalent to Actions, but the fact that the player will be able to make decisions and take unique actions when it is not their turn changes the power of Initiative. Going later in a round might be beneficial for players who are opting for a more defensive strategy. So, what does that mean for our Initiative system? Well, it means that Initiative is going to be a choice. Reactions are not like armor class in DnD. The player will not just be picking which defensive option they have the highest numbers in. Reactions are going to be strategic moves, moves that can only be done off turn, and that will have their own value depending on the character’s strengths, and on the situation at hand. So, I want my players to be able to influence when in the turn they will be able to act. Maybe they cannot decide it exactly, but it must be a decision. How will that work, you ask? Well, first I need to find my dice system, so for now we are just going to say that Initiative will be influenced by player choice combined with a roll of the dice, and figure out the specifics when we have our dice.

Still with the Dice System?

I know I warned you about this, but I want to reiterate: the goal of this article is to design the pieces of the combat system separately from the dice system, so that I can change the dice if need be down the road without having to rebuild the game from scratch. That means that I will need to make ambiguous statements about the specifics of mechanics until that dice system gets nailed down. The good news though, is that by working on the initiative system for this article, I have started to see the dice system in my head. It isn’t fully ready yet, and I don’t want to distract too much from the combat right now, but know that by thinking about initiative as a decision, and about the mechanics of Actions and Reactions, a dice system idea is coalescing. This was my idea all along, if you can believe it. I mentioned that I wanted to be able to go back and change the dice if need be, but I also needed an idea in the first place. I knew what I wanted some of the systems to feel like, but had no idea how to resolve those systems with dice. That is partially why I started working, so that the systems could show me the dice that I needed. Now, I can push forward through the rest of this article, and get the rest of my systems down. Who knows, maybe I will get some more good ideas.

He Does this, So I do That

Reactions are going to be moves that the characters can perform when attacked. The first thing I want to do is to figure out what kind of reactions I might want to have in the game. In a sword fight, the defender has myriad options when deciding how not to get hit, but we want some more limited options to present our players. For inspiration on this, I am going to look to the Infinity Tabletop Miniatures Game. Infinity is the game I mentioned in an earlier article that inspired the idea of Actions and Reactions. When a unit is fired upon in Infinity, its controlling player can decide to Counterattack or Dodge. Counterattacking is risky, but if the unit succeeds, it can damage the attacker. Dodging is less risky, and allows the unit to move a bit, but does not allow the unit to do anything else. There are some other options for reaction in Infinity, but let’s focus on these two for now.

Counterattacking is an aggressive defense, or not really a defense at all. A unit that decides to counterattack opens itself up for damage in the hopes that it can damage the attacking unit. I like the idea of exchanging safety for damage as a reaction. So, in VnV, a counterattack is a reaction where the defending character sacrifices all defense for the chance to hit the opponent. To accomplish this, the players involved in the attack-counterattack exchange must roll off or compare scores in some way. The winner will hit first, resolving all damage, and if the loser of the roll is still alive, they will hit. On a tie, damage is resolved at the same time. Notice that this means guaranteed damage for both sides so long as the first attack does not kill. This will be a high risk high reward move where the counterattacker is hoping that the attacker will die from one hit.

Dodging seems like a move we will want to have in the game as well. When attacked, a defender can decide to dodge. The attacker and defender roll off, and if the defender wins, they move out of the way of the attack. They can then decide to take a follow up action by spending some resources. Notice how this reaction still allows the player to do something to advance their cause, but at the cost of more resources. While a counterattack allows the player to hit back right away at the possible cost of health, a Dodge will allow the player to follow up by spending some other kind of resource. Again, right now we don’t know what that resource is. It might be action dice, stamina, magic, whatever. All we care about is that resources will be spent. I also want characters to be able to use their weapons or shields to parry. After all, that is a huge part of sword fighting. So, what if Dodging and Parrying are basically equivalent, but require different stats and allow for different follow up actions? Both of these defensive moves will be less risky than a counterattack, but will require extra resources to be followed up on. So, to update the rule above: When attacked, a defender can decide to dodge or parry. The attacker and defender roll off, and if the defender wins, they move out of the way of the attack or deflect it with a held weapon. They can then decide to take a follow up action by spending some resources.

Now, this seems like a solid reaction system. All we need to do now is decide on the actions a player can take after a Dodge or a Parry, right? Wrong, me! I want to include one extra type of defensive option. See, both counterattacking and the parry/dodge actions allow the defender to take a follow up action with some risk involved. What if a player does not want to follow up, but instead wants to hunker down completely in order to avoid damage at all costs? This is partially inspired by the video games For Honor, and Dark Souls as well as my time spent fencing. In those games, parrying and dodging are risky actions that allow for follow ups, but the player can also simply block incoming attacks, or dodge away from them, disengaging from the fight. So, let’s add a Full Defense option. Full Defense allows the player to block or avoid incoming attacks. If the player does a Full Block, they stay in place, but ward off damage. If the player does a Full Dodge, they disengage from the fight. These actions cannot be followed up. These moves will be less risky than a Parry or Dodge, but provide less reward. Also, the Full Defense options still have some risk associated with them. The player can still be hit if they lose the roll. This is just the best way to avoid damage entirely.

Notice that this format has created a divide between blocking an attack, and moving out of the way of the attack. This is useful to note because we can use it to help create focused character builds and strategies in the game. Some characters might be better at dodging, others at blocking. Maybe different weapons will be easier to dodge or block. We won’t be getting to character creation until after the first playtest, but for now, keep that idea in mind.

Responses

So what can a character do after a successful Parry or Dodge? After a Parry a character can: Riposte: the character makes an immediate attack roll against the attacker, Cast a Spell: do that, Shove: the character can make an opposed check to push or pull the attacker into another square, Disarm: the character can make an opposed check to knock the attacker’s weapon out of his hands. Sunder: the character can attempt to damage or destroy the weapon used to attack her. Let’s call that good for now. Some of these actions might require specific abilities to use, but for now let’s say that all characters can do this.

After a Dodge, a character can Riposte: see above, Cast a Spell: also above, Adjust: the character can move up to half her movement (rounded down) in any direction without invoking another attack from the attacker, Sweep: the character can attempt to trip her attacker. And that will be all for Dodging for now. Notice that Riposte and Cast a Spell can be done from both a Parry and a Dodge. Also, Dodging has one less action, that is honestly because I cannot think of another good one. If anyone has ideas, let me know. Otherwise, Adjusting seems pretty powerful, and that might be good enough.

Action!

Now we know what characters can do when it is not their turn, but what can they do on their turn? Well, this is going to be a bit more standard. As much as I like the idea of shaking things up with the action economy in a tabletop, some things just work, and are worth sticking to. On a player’s turn, they can take 1 Action, and as many Free Actions as they like. Free actions will include moving up to that character’s move speed, talking, dropping something, taking something from a willing target, and giving something to a willing target. I might add more later, but those are it for now. In terms of how far characters can move, I am leaning towards 5 squares. It works for DnD, and I don’t see a reason to shake it up until a playtest tells me otherwise. So, 5 squares. As for talking, most games limit talking to a short sentence on the player’s turn. I like a little in combat banter, and I want players to be able to move a conflict out of combat dynamically, so I am going to be more lenient than that. If a player wants to talk to another character, that character can respond with one sentence of their own. If all participants in the combat stop to talk, move out of structured time until hostilities resume.

Now, as for the Actions a player can take: attacking with a weapon, throwing something, running more distance than the character’s movement speed, drawing a weapon, sheathing a weapon, casting a spell. These are all going to fall into pretty standard tabletop territory, so I won’t spend any time on each action.

Damage

Getting hit by a sword will probably kill you. I hate to break it to you, realism buffs, but if we want to go full realistic, characters would most likely die in one hit and that sucks. Most games include some kind of system to mitigate damage coming in or to allow characters to survive some hits with little or no consequence. After all, no matter how well our players play the tactical game, whether they get hit or not comes down to a roll of the dice, and a single die roll killing your character isn’t any fun. So we want to have a resource that can be spent to keep characters alive. Savage Worlds uses the Shaken state and Wounds, and while that is my preferred system most of the time, for this game we are going to use Hit Points.

Now, a lot of you might be lamenting right now. Hit Points lead to drawn out fights! Hit Points don’t make any narrative sense! Hit Points ate my parents! Is that last one just me? Okay. As much maligned as they are on the internet, Hit Points serve a useful purpose: they provide a consequence free damage mitigation resource. In Savage Worlds, the Shaken state prevents players from acting until they make a roll to remove the state. Wounds are even more devastating, causing a bane to all rolls and movement distance. Hit Points don’t have that problem. Hit Points provide a small amount of consequence free damage for each character. Notice the phrase “small amount”. While DnD HP increases work well for a game about characters gaining massive leaps in strength, this is going to be a lower powered game. The protagonists will be skilled, but ultimately human warriors.

What happens after a character loses all of his HP? Does he just die? Well, in other games, that might be fine, but this is a game about Vikings, and what are Vikings known for? Berserking. Well, not every Viking is known for that, but toughing it out through grievous injuries is a huge part of the Viking narrative. So when Hit Points are reduced to 0, the character will receive 1 wound, and make some kind of endurance roll to see if they can fight through the pain. If they succeed, do not roll on the wound chart. Instead, simply mark down the existence of the wound, and continue fighting. If they fail, roll on the chart adding up extra wounds as a modifier, and lay the character prone until combat ends. After combat ends, roll on the wound chart for any character that has 1 or more wound and is still standing. Right now, I am figuring wounds will be rolled on a chart, and cause long term effects. For inspiration, I am looking at the EotE wound chart. This chart does something brilliant, which is it increases the severity of the wounds the more wounds that a character already has. A character cannot be killed the first time they get reduced below 0 hit points. The worst that can happen is that they start to bleed out. I want to copy that idea. Characters will not be in risk of dying right away, instead, they will be able to decide how far they want to push themselves in order to prove their Viking strength. Dropping out of a fight early will help ensure that they do not die, but might cause the party to lose, and lose confidence in their ally’s bravery.

Gear

After stealing liberally from EotE in the last section, I am going to do it again now. I want to avoid having a damage roll in this game. In EotE, there is no damage roll. Instead, each weapon has a fixed amount of damage, that is improved based on how well the player rolls on the attack. I like this idea, and now I am going to steal it. All weapons in the game will have a fixed damage number that is improved based on how well the attacker succeeds. Notice, that this does break the Binary Success and Failure rule. Also notice that when I established that rule, I said I might break it at some point. Here it is. I have broken it. For now, I am going to have variable damage. Why? Mainly because it is fun. Hitting an opponent well and taking them out early feels good, and rolling low and plinking an enemy, while it feels bad, can add drama to the fight. Besides, if I balance the numbers out well, I could always go back to fixed damage and not have the balance change much at all. If I use the average damage dealt by each weapon as its fixed damage, then it will be roughly the same as if the damage varied.

To go along with my damage rule: Armor will grant Damage Reduction to any hit that strikes the armor. So much of the combat in VnV is about using tactics to avoid damage, and taking risks where applicable. I want armor to provide some DR so that heavier armored characters can take more risks, potentially at the cost of movement speed, but I don’t want it to add to a character’s chance to avoid a hit like in DnD. Honestly, it just makes the concept of hitting and missing confusing when the armor would need to be struck to help, but if you don’t hit hard enough it is called a miss and yes this is incredibly nit picky, but it’s my game so there. Besides, acting as DR means that it will act as a second layer to avoiding damage. If the character wears heavy enough armor, they have a chance to avoid damage against weak hits entirely.

In terms of hits that strike the armor, I do need to make an aside here about Called Shots. These are a huge problem in a lot of tabletop games, because sometimes the designers do not seem to consider them. Called Shots are when players pick a specific target on an enemy to attack. Usually, rules make the attack roll harder, but allow for secondary effects or increased damage. Savage Worlds has a great Called Shot system, where it is assumed that all attacks are aimed at the torso and will be hitting the torso armor unless otherwise specified. I am going to take that rule. If players want to make a Called Shot, they can reduce their chance to hit, in exchange for striking a specific body part. Otherwise, all hits hit the torso. I do not want to bother with complicated hit location rules unless I think it will be very funny. The only other stipulation I have for my gear system is that gear will be of varying quality, and better weapons and armor might do or absorb more damage, along with having other effects. I like finding new and exciting weapons. This does not mean every sword will need to be enchanted, instead, think of it like a classic JRPG where you can buy better made swords in each town. Sometimes the players will find a haul of well made steel weapons that can outperform their current equipment.

In Conclusion

You are probably exhausted by now, and I do not blame you. That was a very long article to read through and not get all the specifics of the system. The great thing is, this document can now provide the basis of any combat decisions going forward. Unless my playtest goes disastrously, I now have a combat system that I can adapt to any numbers that I need. Join us later this week for a hopefully much briefer article on viking raids and how they will helo structure the game.

#making a game #rpg #vikings and valkyries #tabletop

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yahoo-puck-daddy-blog · 8 years ago

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Hockey Day in America, the Calder race and the Panthers (Puck Daddy Countdown)

SUNRISE, FL – FEBRUARY 3: Jonathan Huberdeau #11 of the Florida Panthers heads out to the ice for warm ups prior to the start of their game against the Anaheim Ducks at the BB&T Center on February 3, 2017 in Sunrise, Florida. (Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

(In which Ryan Lambert takes a look at some of the biggest issues and stories in the NHL, and counts them down.)

7. Putting your foot down

Shout out to Brooks Laich, a player who has a $4.5 million AAV and six points in the AHL this season, who got put on waivers Tuesday because he wasn’t in the Toronto Maple Leafs’ plans and wants the chance to play for a contender.

A Stanley Cup contender.

Which, come on, man. It’s important to have a big drive to compete as a professional athlete. That much is obvious. But when that drive to compete is also, like, making a 33-year-old with six points in the AHL and a huge contract say things like, “I want to play for a competitive team,” well, maybe it’s time to re-evaluate. Put another way, when the lede in the story about your demand throws shade like, “Brooks Laich is convinced his NHL career isn’t over yet,” that’s pretty indicative of your situation being not-good for you.

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Even if you could add a player with Laich’s contract — and not all true Cup competitors can — why would you do that? He’s not going to help you, full stop. He clearly won’t even help your AHL team. So why entertain this?

The Leafs did the right thing. Put him on waivers, make it known he’s available. “Hey bud, we tried, you know?” Laich can’t ask them to do more than that. But it’s not like there’s going to be a line around the block. There’s probably not going to be a line at all. Hell, the one team that employs him doesn’t want him that badly.

On the other hand, a lot of teams like Grit and Leadership, so I guess you never know. The Leafs are too smart to give him that kind of role. Maybe someone isn’t too smart for that. It’s the NHL, after all.

6. Minor trades

Yeah sure it’s officially trade season. Hooray hooray. But so far we’ve got two prospects who are really only notable because of who their dads are, and a just-okay defenseman for a third-round pick. No one is going to be satisfied with this. Not even the teams that made those trades.

How thirsty is the hockey world in general for an even somewhat notable trade? Radko Gudas brought some sticks home and Twitter lost its mind for an hour. Uncle Bob had to come in and come everyone down. It was wild.

Meanwhile the NBA has a team trading one of the 20 best players in the league for Buddy Hield and a middling first-round pick, then another team’s owner firing the GM and her own brother to install Magic freaking Johnson as the new GM. How do we as a sport achieve such everyday excellence?

5. Hockey Day In America

Wysh wrote about this Monday, the whole thing with Hockey Day In America being a pale, diminished version of Hockey Day In Canada — which was the freakin’ day before, so we didn’t even have to harken back to a month before to remember how much better the OG Hockey Day is.

But like, man, this is the “Why isn’t there a White History Month?” of Hockey Days, right? Almost every day is Hockey Day In America, and we don’t need six hours of Pierre McGuire to remind us.

Hockey Day In Canada is always from some little town in Saskatchewan no one has ever heard of, and it feels like an amazing thing to bring the big lights of Sportsnet to these little hamlets that need a new rink.

Meanwhile, Hockey Day is just six hours of, “Warroad, Minnesota, ever heard of that?” Yeah, I have. A lot. Because I am a hockey fan living in the United States. There’s a lot of mythologizing about Minnesota hockey in particular in the U.S.

Hockey Day in Canada was in Kenora, Ontario, this year. Who’s from Kenora? Mike Richards. Anyone else? Not that I can think of. Warroad is where T.J. Oshie is from, as well as the Christian family that won the Olympic gold medals USA Hockey won’t shut up about. Pay the slightest attention and you will hear this again and again on American broadcasts.

Hockey Day in America needs to not be on the same weekend as Hockey Day in Canada, broaden its focus, or just not exist. Literally any of those options would be preferable to what we have now.

4. It would be this mat that you would put on the floor, and would have different conclusions written on it that you could jump to.

Gotta love the hockey media sometimes.

Claude Julien loses his first game back in Montreal and people are trying to make pronouncements. Oh uh yeah they lost but Carey Price looks a lot better! I dunno about all that.

Same with the guy who replaced Julien in Boston: Bruce Cassidy has the Bruins on a big ol’ winning streak. It’s probably gonna last forever, and this is evidence they needed a new voice. Yeah, that’s it. For sure.

3. The Calder race

I think if I had a vote I would be leaning Matthews right now, but it’s hard to argue that neither Laine nor Marner deserve consideration. Any one of them winning the award would be perfectly understandable and deserved, but Matthews being a No. 1 center with impressive possession numbers and much more sustainable-looking stats is the reason to vote for him.

Anyway, I don’t get the outrage or the controversy. Whatever, they’re all great. And this isn’t a “Everyone gets a trophy” thing. You’ve seen me get plenty worked up about dumbass awards voting. But for real, they all deserve some amount of recognition. If all current patterns hold — and they won’t, by the way — then whatever Q-list actor opens the Calder envelope at the NHL Awards in June and says literally any name, my reaction will be, “Well, tough to argue that.”

The PHWA rightly gets a lot of stick from fans, but this is a hard one to screw up because of a plethora of options, rather than the usual situation: there’s one clear winner that a bunch of people don’t vote for because they don’t understand the sport. Pick any one of these three guys (and for-sure not Zach Werenski) and you’re good. Whatever.

2. Bonus overages

How about this one, folks:

https://twitter.com/CapFriendly/status/834081377054232576

Damn. That’s brilliant. Not only do the Coyotes reap benefits for taking on all these bad contracts and retaining salary when they move guys in exchange for a few draft picks and prospects, they also go over the cap ceiling, meaning they don’t have to spend money next season either.

That’s next-level tanking. This Chayka kid is like five steps ahead of the curve.

1. The Panthers

Okay let’s not all whip our heads around at once, but have a peak at those Atlantic Division standings.

The Very Bad Florida Panthers Who Fired Their Nice Coach Who Was A Good Hockey Man And Marginalized Their GM Who Is Another Good Hockey Man And No One Knows Who’s In Charge And Isn’t That So Bad For Them are currently third in the division after winning eight of their last nine. They have the same number of points as the Bruins with one fewer game played.

Turns out getting really good players back from injury is a thing that helps you win. Turns out trusting the process put in place by a bunch of smart people who understand the game in a different but equally-if-not-more effective way than the old school guys is gonna give you a good return or three in the long run. Pretty crazy.

[Join a Yahoo Daily Fantasy Hockey contest now]

Are the Panthers great? Nope. Are they going to reach their point total from last year? Almost certainly not. Are they trending in the right direction? You bet. Is that what’s really important here for a team with a healthy mix of effective players both young and old (and also very very old)? Hmm, seems like yeah.

Far be it for me to put too much stock in a team winning eight out of nine games but the Panthers were never as bad as they were to start the year, nor are they as good as all this. But if being the third-best team in that division three-quarters of the way through the season seems reasonable, that’s because it is. And always was. No matter what else happened this year. Weird. Wild.

(Not ranked this week: Telling your six fans what to do.

I just don’t get stuff like this:

https://twitter.com/ArizonaCoyotes/status/833896728826830848

Like, the Coyotes have negative-a-thousand fans. How does scolding any of the hapless unfortuantes who stumbled confused into a Coyotes home game accomplish anything? Well, I guess I’m talking about the Coyotes, aren’t I? Damn. They’re good.)

Ryan Lambert is a Puck Daddy columnist. His email is here and his Twitter is here.

(All statistics via Corsica unless otherwise noted.)