What Worries Jeff Dee?

Choosy Humans Choose Science

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:11:00 +0000

Some folks seem to think that their *ability to choose* between what science says and what their religion says on any given topic proves that there's no conflict between science and religion. What they need to understand is that *having to choose* between what science says and what their religion says on various topics IS the conflict.

Game Design As Art

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 15:33:00 +0000

For years I've been both an artist and an RPG game designer, and as I see it, game design is just another artistic medium. When I draw a picture, I'm trying to depict a certain subject and convey a certain story or feeling, visually. When I design game mechanics, I'm trying to depict a certain subject and convey a certain story or feeling, through the experience that people will have when they play.

Yet for some reason, visual arts tend to be respected as the special creative expression of the artist, while the art of game design tends not to be granted a similar level of respect.

I've been thinking about this since Gary Gygax Day, when someone posted a quote from Gary where he criticized D&D 3.5 - and some of the reactions showed complete contempt for Gary as the ARTIST who created D&D. Imagine if someone took the Mona Lisa and modified it, and then when DaVinci complained he was told that it's none of his business. (I'm not comparing D&D to the Mona Lisa. I'm using the Mona Lisa as an example of a piece of visual art, simply because it's well known. The same principle that I'm trying to get at, here, would apply equally if someone modified a napkin doodle by your aunt Matilda).

I realize that the needs of tabletop role-play require additional GM input to a degree that looking at a picture doesn't, but still. If things were done to works of visual art analogous to what's commonly done to works of the art of game design, we would all be (rightly) appalled.

Sexual Harassment Amongst the Unbelievers

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Mon, 02 Jul 2012 02:03:00 +0000

There is a kerfuffle going on in the Atheist community. I've been pretty silent about it, but somebody asked me my opinion so I wrote the following response, which I would like to share. Non-atheists will find nothing of interest here; move along, you folks have your own problems ;-)

Okay. So just to be clear, the kerfuffle I'm talking about is the ongoing flame-fest over the issue of sexual harassment policies at Atheist conventions. So here's what I think.

I think what we're seeing is the consequence of trying to form a community out of a bunch of people who have abandoned our culture's default (Christian) rules of behavior. I'm not saying it was a mistake, I'm saying we all ought to face up to the fact that we have some work to do.

Some who've dumped Christianity feel that in the absence of its archaic sexual taboos, we should now all be free and open about our sexual impulses. Others who've dumped Christianity feel that in the absence of its patriarchal biases, we should now finally respect the absolute equal rights of women and have zero tolerance for unsolicited sexual advances.

I don't think the problem is that one side or the other is wrong. I think they're both mostly right. The problem, in my view, is that we lack a clear new cultural standard for behavior that accommodates both of these views by adopting reasonable limits to enable them to co-exist. Both sides are being a bit shrill and defensive, and that's entirely understandable, because both are fighting to make sure that the new emerging standards of behavior place as few limits on their side of the dispute as possible.

So while it can be unpleasant to listen to this infighting, I think we need to accept it as inevitable. I also think it could be healthy in the long run. Because if we never work through these differences then we won't be one community, we'll be two.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:41:00 +0000

Cavemaster: The RPG that cavemen played is now available!

Book: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/uni_games
PDF: http://www.rpgnow.com/index.php?cPath=8663

Lolth sighted in Melnibone!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 23:11:00 +0000

To carry the Melnibonean Deities & Demigods art re-creation project to its funding goal, I've added a super special bonus!

Everyone who pledges $45 or more will ALSO receive an autographed 8 1/2" x 11" print of the re-creation of this drawing - 'Lolth in Amber' - from D3 Vault of the Drow! http://fav.me/d4vgjze

The funding deadline is midnight Central time on Sunday, April 15. So if you've been meaning to pledge and haven't yet, or want to increase your pledge to get the Lolth in Amber drawing - now is the time! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-melnibonean-art-from-deities-and-de

-Jeff Dee

I get mail.

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:37:00 +0000

From: Anthea
Subject: Hide the Bible

Hi Jeff – just come across your website and in some ways it is highly amusing. In others, however, I find it upsetting and I hope you will read on to find out why. I know of some members of the Gideons movement; I know of the huge sacrifice in time and money some of them make to fund and place Bibles in hotels for those that want to make use of them. You can guarantee that amongst the donors there are plenty of elderly widowed women living on a meagre pension who want to do this for the benefit of others. Could you not show some respect for them?

So you don’t want to read it? Fair enough. I understand. Plenty don’t. Why not just put it back in the drawer? Your game seems quite funny, but as it extends itself and encompasses more and more Bibles, you are in a way insulting and rejecting the love and concern of hosts of people who care about others. You may not like their way of caring – but that is what it stems from. If you ever read some of the Gideon bulletins, you will hear of some of the heart-rending stories of those on life’s knife edge who have been helped in a significant way by finding a Bible in a hotel room – people who previously would never have touched one yet remain truly grateful that they did. Your game may the reason that some people miss out on some help at a crucial moment in their lives. You may never know.

Please re-think what you are promoting. I am sure you are a reasonable person (as well as obviously a fun one) so please have a re-think.

Best wishes,

Anthea

Dear Anthea:

If elderly women are wasting part of their meagre pensions to put Bibles in hotel rooms, then THAT is the problem. Instead of hassling me about interfering with those Bibles, why not hassle the Gideons organization for weaseling money out of those elderly ladies?

You ask why I don't "just put it back in the drawer". I don't do that because I think Christianity is harmful. I'm sure the love and caring those elderly women feel is real. I encourage them - as should you - to channel it into something that actually helps people in need, instead of sucking them into a cult when they're at their most vulnerable.

You refer to testimonials by people who say they were helped by finding a Bible in their hotel room. Fair enough. Have you ever read any of the testimonials by those who've thrown off the shackles of religion, and felt so much better for it? Yet you won't find atheists taking advantage of hotel patrons by slipping our literature into their rooms. It's not that we care any less than those elderly ladies. It's that we think taking advantage of a captive audience like that is crass, manipulative, and WRONG.

Thank you for presuming that I'm a reasonable person. I try to be. And that's WHY I come up with stuff like the Hide the Bible game.

-Jeff Dee

Melnibinean Art Kickstarter Begins

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 01:07:00 +0000

Please help me re-create my lost Melnibonean artwork from the 1st edition of Deities & Demigods for AD&D, and get signed prints of the re-created artwork! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-melnibonean-art-from-deities-and-de

Old School Gaming

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 16:03:00 +0000

Somebody on Facebook asked, "what does 'old school gaming' mean?". Here's my response:

‎"Old School" is a buzzword that (to most self-professed old-school gamers) just means "Good". And there are as many definitions of what constitutes a 'good' tabletop RPG as there are tabletop role-players.

For some it's pure nostalgia for the olden days or for early editions of their personal favorite game system. For some it's a preference for simpler, sketchier, more primitive rules sets - never mind the fact that high levels of complexity started appearing in TTRPGs very early on in the hobby. For some it's a preference for story-oriented role-playing over 'winning'. For some it's an expression of distaste for new-fangled innovations like being able to build a specific character concept.

I had my first TTRPG experience back in the OD&D brown box days. I've played (and designed) many different systems since then. So at the risk of muddying the waters even further, here's my own take.

I reject pure nostalgia as 'good' because some later games are better written and more playable than some early ones. I reject the 'sketchier is better' view in favor of a recognition that while some simple systems are extremely powerful tools, others are a complete waste of paper. And usually, the more recent simple systems tend to be the better ones. I agree that in-game efforts to succeed (i.e., 'role-playing' or 'story') is a worthier goal than meta-level player success ('winning') - yet as a simulationist I also reject game systems with meta-level story mechanics. And I have no objection whatsoever to 'newfangled innovations', IF they are useful tools which promote the kind of RP/story-oriented simulationist play style that I prefer.

Introducing Cavemaster: The Stonepunk RPG!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 00:58:00 +0000

My Cavemaster RPG Kickstarter project has launched! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/cavemaster-rpg

Re-Creating art from Queen of the Demonweb Pits!!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 02:16:00 +0000

I have launched my new Kickstarter project, to re-create my drawings from AD&D module Q1 "Queen of the Demonweb Pits" - which were destroyed years ago (thrown in a dumpster, they tell me) along with almost every other original piece of art I created during my time at TSR Hobbies. Please take a look, and help me make this happen! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-art-from-q1-queen-of-the-demonweb-p

Re-Creating the Egyptian Deities and Demigods!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 01:36:00 +0000

I've launched a Kickstarter project to re-create my drawings of the Egyptian gods from the original 1980 edition of the classic Dungeons and Dragons book, "Deities and Demigods" - which were destroyed years ago (thrown in a dumpster, they tell me) along with almost every other original piece of art I created during my time at TSR Hobbies. Please take a look, and help me make this happen! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jeffdee/re-creating-my-egyptian-art-from-deities-and-demig

Role-Playing Game Design Rant: 'Hero Points'

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:47:00 +0000

I very strongly dislike ‘hero point’ mechanics, in almost all their incarnations. The only exceptions are things like a Star Wars RPG, where ‘the force’ is an undeniably inherent part of that specific setting. Otherwise, no. Here’s why.

First there’s my argument from game design philosophy. There are two broad, largely opposed schools of thought about RPG design. I’m what they call a ‘simulationist’, as opposed to a ‘storyteller’. Since ‘storyteller’ sounds nice and fluffy, while ‘simulationist’ sounds cold and cruel, I’m pretty sure those terms were coined by ‘storytellers’. But anyway, as a ‘simulationist’, I believe that the job of a set of RPG rules is to serve as the physics of the game world. Period. The rules should make actions that the setting defines as ‘easy’ easy, and actions that the setting defines as ‘hard’ HARD. ‘Storytellers’, on the other hand, believe that the paramount concern is the ‘story’, which for some reason they believe translates into making sure that the players – the ‘heroes’ of the story – are absolutely guaranteed some minimum number of ‘heroic successes’ every episode – physics, ‘realism’, and common sense be damned.

Second there’s my objection from role-playing philosophy. I think the idea that ‘the players, being the heroes, should be guaranteed some minimum number of heroic successes every episode’ is completely backward. If the players are there to take on the role of heroes, then their heroism should come from them, not from a safety net provided by the rules. It’s the players’ job, as role-players of (supposedly) heroic characters, to fight ‘heroically’. Which brings me to…

…My argument from philosophy philosophy. In ancient times, ‘hero’ pretty much meant ‘someone who succeeds at big things’. Hercules is a great example. He accomplished many mighty deeds… but he was also pretty much an ass, and many of his ‘heroic deeds’ were really self-serving. A more modern, and I think deeper, understanding of ‘heroism’ is that it is the choice to take on important challenges in spite of personal risk. This is why we refer to those firefighters who died on 9/11 as ‘heroes’, and not ‘schmucks who ran out of hero points’.

Anyone really concerned for ‘the needs of the story’ would, I think, recognize moments of dramatic failure for what they are. Not just ‘failure’, but DRAMA. Failing to succeed at what appears to be a crucially important task does not mean that whoever tried it wasn’t a hero. What a hero does, after dramatically failing, is dust himself off, pick himself up, and keep fighting. The story goes on just fine, thank you very much - no special bonus points required.

Dungeons & Dragons

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:43:00 +0000

Somebody emailed me, asking my opinion of original D&D/AD&D. Here's my response:

I think that a role-playing game designer's job is to give players a set of rules to function as the physics of the game world, and to make those rules as simple as possible - but not overly simplistic to the point where stuff happens that just doesn't make sense.

And I don't think the AD&D rules strike that balance very well at all.

Here's one example. Having the amount of armor a character wears make them less likely to be hit, without reducing the damage they take when they get hit, is a simple rule that achieves the desired result of having armored characters take less damage over time. But it also leads to what I call the 'grapple problem': the chance of grabbing a character has nothing at all to do with how much armor they're wearing. Now, you can try to work around this by ignoring worn armor, and that's not too difficult when you know what the target is wearing - you can take that away, leaving just the target's natural ability not to get hit. But what if the target is a monster, whose natural armor and dodging ability are hopelessly jumbled together? Okay, then you can fake it. But the fact that the GM needs to shoehorn these extra steps back in, in order to work around this problem, means that the rules (in my opinion) are TOO simple.

There IS a good answer to the grappling problem, and that's to treat the ability to hit (or grab, or touch) a target and the ability to harm the target after you've hit it as two entirely separate things.

Other major problems with AD&D (in my opinion) are: character classes (which unnecessarily force characters into similar niches), experience levels (instead of a smooth progression of ability over time), and the fact that 'hit points' are treated as such a nebulous concept that you can't exactly say whether they represent injuries, or luck, or fatigue, or what - which makes it problematic to assign damage from falling, for example.

That being said, D&D was the first RPG, and so it gets a ton of special credit. It's also completely understandable that the first RPG would suffer from a lot of problems - they didn't have previous games to look at for ways to improve. I certainly don't say that Gygax and Arneson were incompetent. Nevertheless, later designers HAVE had that advantage, and luckily some of them have even taken advantage of it. That being the case, those are the games I prefer to play.

The Secret of Exum

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 21:50:00 +0000

I have an article in the latest issue of the Burroughs Bulletin (#83) (http://www.burroughsbibliophiles.com/index.html), wherein I demonstrate (conclusively, I think) that Edgar Rice Burroughs not only relied on Percival Lowell's hand-drawn maps of Mars for inspiration when he wrote his John Carter of Mars novels, but that he left us a clue - the ruined Martian city of Exum - to unlocking the secret of how to properly place the Martian cities from his stories on modern-day NASA maps of the Martian surface.

At some point I'll post the article online. I'm kind of proud of it, considering the fact that fans have been struggling to reconcile Burroughs' Mars geography with the real thing ever since his first story was published in 1912.

FOLLOWUP:
My article is available online at http://www.prismnet.com/unigames/Secret_of_Exum.pdf

Why do people have to DIE before con men go to jail?

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 16:10:00 +0000

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — Months after authorities focused a homicide investigation on James Arthur Ray, the motivational speaker was indicted on manslaughter charges that could land him in prison and topple his self-help empire.

Ray was arrested Wednesday in Prescott, Ariz., on three counts of manslaughter for deaths of participants in a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona last year.

Ray has built a multimillion-dollar empire as a self-help superstar who teaches people about financial and spiritual wealth, and uses free seminars to recruit followers to more expensive events. He soared in popularity after appearing in the 2006 Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," and he later was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live" to promote it.

"The Secret" was a steaming pile of BULLSHIT. We arrest people for fraud when they fraudulently sell the Brooklyn Bridge. Why do we not arrest people for fraud when they sell a scheme for success that is a complete fucking LIE? Seems to me, three people are dead because our society tolerates fraud when it's disguised as spirituality. Can we please stop doing that? Thanks.

PRESS RELEASE: Closed testing begins for the giant monster MMO Gargantua

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:03:00 +0000

Contact: Jeff Dee
jdee@nemesisgames.net

For Immediate Release

Austin, TX, November 10th, 2009
Closed testing begins for the giant monster MMO Gargantua

Beginning on Sunday, November 1st, Nemesis Games began limited testing for their upcoming giant monster game.

Jeff Dee, President of Nemesis Games, said: “Our initial test went quite well, helping us to identify places where we can make improvements while demonstrating that our overall direction and underlying technology are sound.”

Closed testing began for playtesters that had emailed Nemesis Games asking to be included in the first early tests. Further tests will be forthcoming to balance and tune new content that is being added to the game.

About Nemesis Games
Nemesis Games LLC is a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for computers and the Internet. Based in beautiful Austin, Texas, as well as on the Internet at www.nemesisgames.net, Nemesis Games was created in 2009 by Jeff Dee, Brian Adams and Bruce Adams to bring their unique creative visions to life.

About Gargantua
The free to play giant monster MMO is being developed and published by Nemesis Games LLC. The game is being developed using If-Else Software’s proprietary Elderlands™ game engine. Additional details on Gargantua features, gameplay and release dates will be announced on www.gargantuagame.com

Gargantua, the Gargantua logo, and related properties are trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries owned by Nemesis Games . ©2009 Nemesis Games LLC. All rights reserved.

Life's Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:41:00 +0000

I promise I'll get back to that Edgar Rice Burroughs/planet Mars thing, but something just came up in an email discussion that I'd like to share.

A fellow atheist asked me, "How do we keep from being depressed believing life has no purpose?"

Here is my reply:

I agree that not having a purpose can be unsettling and depressing. But purpose doesn't require a god. Anyone can declare the purpose of anything they do.

Here's a simple example: yesterday I stopped at a gas station on my way to work. What was the purpose of that? To put air in my car's tires, which were getting a little low. I could have chosen to stop there for any number of different reasons. I could have put it off, or asked my spouse to do it, but I didn't. This was my choice.

You may be thinking, 'hold on, I meant ULTIMATE purpose, not mere transient achievements'.

What's the difference? It's true that the tires will lose pressure again, over time. But it would be silly to say that my visit to the gas station had no purpose, just because the tires won't remain inflated forever. The purpose of the visit was completely valid despite the fact that nothing permanent or 'ultimate' was achieved. Heck, if I'd gotten there and failed to get the tires inflated (because the gas station's air pump was broken, for example) I would STILL have had a valid purpose in going there.

Life is exactly like that. Why are you here? For whatever purpose you decide. Look around - I'm sure you can find something you think needs to be done. When you pick it, that becomes your purpose. It will be a completely valid purpose, even if you change it later, even if it doesn't result in any permanent or 'ultimate' achievement, and even if you wind up utterly failing.

No god could do any better job of choosing a purpose for you than you can choose for yourself. If God Almighty had personally commanded me to get air in my tires, would that have made the purpose of my visit to the gas station any more valid? Of course not. Exactly the same thing would be achieved, and the result would be just as impermanent and just as prone to the risk of complete failure.

Some people do find it easier to see validity in orders they receive from someone they feel is wiser or more important than themselves. Maybe you're like that, and that's fine - you certainly have the right to decide that your purpose in life is to assist some other person, organization, or cause. That's just as valid a purpose as any other that you might choose. But again, no god could provide you with a more valid purpose than any human leader or organization could.

I hope that helps!
-Jeff Dee

Announcing Gargantua, the Giant Monsters MMO!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:56:00 +0000

Press Release

Nemesis Games announces their upcoming MMO Gargantua, a little game about giant monsters. Play for free. Play with or against your friends. Destroy towns and cities. Satisfy your monster’s hungers and collect achievements for your lair. Destroy and eat things…like shopping malls. Life is good.

Austin, TX, August 26, 2009: Gargantua is a retro style massively multiplayer game being developed and published by Nemesis Games LLC. PVP will be a featured part of gameplay. Players will be able to play as Giant Saurians, Giant Apes, or Giantesses. Other classic giant monsters will be available to play at a later date. Closed testing will begin in the Fall of 2009. The game is being developed using If-Else Software’s proprietary Elderlands™ game engine. Additional details on Gargantua features, gameplay and release dates will be announced on www.gargantuagame.com

About Nemesis Games
Nemesis Games LLC is a developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for computers and the Internet. Based in beautiful Austin, Texas, as well as on the Internet at www.nemesisgames.net, Nemesis Games was created in 2009 by Jeff Dee and the Adams brothers to bring their unique creative visions to life.

Gargantua, the Gargantua logo, and related properties are trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/or in other countries owned by Nemesis Games. © 2009 Nemesis Games LLC. All rights reserved.

Episode 21

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:05:00 +0000

The Nemesis Games web site is up at www.nemesisgames.net! If you want to know more about the semi-secret MMO project I've been babbling about, go there and sign up for an account on our forum. Cuz from this point on, if I have stuff to say about that I'll mostly be saying it there.

My air conditioning is on the fritz again, just in time for the 4th of July weekend. Funny how my pal, Mister God, arranges these things for maximum annoyance. Or is it just me? Yeah. Just me. And punctuated equilibrium.

My renewed fascination with the Barsoom novels, written beginning in 1917 by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs, continues unabated. I just discovered that the entire series is available to read online (I'd thought it was just the first 5 books, on Project Gutenberg). You can (and SHOULD) find 'em here:

http://www.barsoomian.net/

So great is my fascination that I'm hard at work, in my copious free time, preparing to run a Barsoom RPG for my gaming group using my Pocket Universe RPG rules. It's been fun doing the research to accurately model Barsoomian telepathy (wow, is it WEAK!), coming up with wierd science invention rules, writing up Barsoomian equipment lists, figuring out how to handle Mars' lower gravity, and working up a map of the planet.

Burroughs left only a single, not very detailed map of Barsoom's two hemispheres:

http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/ebmar2.jpg
and
http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/ebmars.jpg

And now, thanks to the wonders of modern science, we have quite detailed maps of the actual surface of Mars:

http://ssed.gsfc.nasa.gov/tharsis/Mars_topography_from_MOLA.new/

So Burroughs fans have been hard at work, trying to make the two things mesh. With, in my humble opinion, poor results:

http://www.erbzine.com/mag28/marsmap.jpg

What's the problem, you ask? Well, for starters, the darker areas on that map are the Martian lowlands. The creator of this map has placed the ruined city of Thark - clearly described as being at the edge of a 'dry sea bottom', out in the middle of the frickin' Martian *highlands*.

But hey, the fans have done their best. The problem is that Burroughs had no idea whatsoever what the real surface of Mars was like.

Or did he?

Tune in next time when I reveal the startling truth! Seriously.

-Jeff Dee

Episode 20

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 12:25:00 +0000

We humans tend to see special significance in big round numbers, due the to completely arbitrary fact that we have 10 fingers, and therefor developed a base-10 counting system.

Not that '20' is all that big, but it's getting there. Feel free to allow your imagination to conjure up images off all sorts of amazing significance when I get to Episode 100.

I can just imagine my hypothetical 11-fingered readers going, 'what's he talking about? Surely he means Episode 121'.

Major progress on the Semi-Secret MMO. Combat is in, and I'm just finishing up a pass on the combat system to make it balanced the way we want. We're also starting to get ambient sound and musical theme tracks from my friend Jason Rosenblum, and they're terrific. He has a blog at http://adaptablearts.com/, though he hasn't updated it in a while, the scoundrel!

What else. Oh, I'm gonna be the co-host on today's Atheist Experience show. The public access studio is closed for renovations, so we're webcasting from Matt Dillahunty's place. Should be interesting.

We went to see 'Drag Me To Hell' this past weekend, which was quite good despite not being a carbon copy of Raimi's earlier 'Evil Dead' movies. And no Bruce Campbell. But STILL, very good indeed!

Until next time... um... do whatever it was that you were gonna do anyway.

-Jeff Dee

Episode 19

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 14:59:00 +0000

Curious. It seems like the longer I procrastinate, the easier it becomes to continue procrastinating. What an amusing little experiment this has been! But now, back to blogging.

Let's see. What have I been up to? Mainly, I've been dealing with car troubles. First my beloved red PT Cruiser (with the flames down the sides) developed electrical and brake problems. I had those fixed (at the dealership, no less!), and two days later the transmission died. I mean, completely. That has turned out to be hideously expensive. But hey, once I'd opened the veins of my credit card, it became easier and easier to say 'yes' to the mechanic. I'm just glad he didn't suggest that I needed him to strap on some JATO engines, because I'd probably have agreed to that, too.

The good news? The dog's medical issues seem to have cleared up. So I have a much happier doggie. Oh, and Lulu Press, the web-based print on demand service that I use to publish my paper RPGs, just put Living Legends and Quicksilver on Amazon.com. If any of you have played (or at least read) these books, I'd really appreciate it if you'd post reviews:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AD73UU

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002AD5KKA

The Nemesis Games crew is still hard at work on the Semi-Secret Mini MMO project. We're *very* close to getting combat to work, which will be a major milestone. Right now we're having trouble getting both sides in a fight to attack each other. We're not sure whether the problem lies in the AI or in the combat code. Anyway, we hope to be at a point where we can launch our web site [nemesisgames.net] and make an official announcement to the press by the end of June, followed very closely by closed alpha testing.

Have a good one!
-Jeff Dee

Episode 18

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 26 May 2009 00:42:00 +0000

Despite the fact that I'm working on one o' them eeevil MMO computer games, I'm a paper RPG player at heart.

My eldest brother first mentioned the original Dungeons & Dragons books to me back when I was in grade school. He tried to explain what it was like, but I wasn't invited to attend his gaming club with the older kids. So I tried to play D&D with a friend, based just on my memory of how he'd described it. Boy did I not get it right. For one thing, the 'dungeon map' I drew was a cutaway cross-section. As I recall, that made it very hard to describe things to my player.

I did eventually get to participate in a one-shot game with my brother's group, but not of D&D. They were playing Chainmail, the miniatures game from which D&D evolved. I got to control one very tiny unit of troops, led by a knight. The troops all got wiped out, but my lone knight leader figure tromped all around that map, and I role-played my heart out through that little guy.

The first paper RPG I ever ran was TSR's wild west themed Boot Hill. Not because I'm particularly interested in the genre, but because it and Empire of the Petal Throne (which I mentioned in a previous blog) were all that my brother left behind when he left for college.

I still remember a moment in that game when a skilled gunslinger, armed with a shotgun, managed to miss an enemy who was standing right in front of him. That was the moment when I first understood that the rules of an RPG are important. If they allow ridiculously improbable things to happen, they can spoil the fun.

A lot of paper RPG players denigrate the rules, thinking of them as (at best) a necessary evil, or (at worst) an actual impediment to having a good time. I disagree. To me, the rules of a paper RPG are the physics of the world. They're what enable the player to grasp what we all feel instinctively in real life: a sense of the odds. If the rules can provide that in a way that feels right, without being very complex, then that is (in my opinion) a GOOD set of rules.

-Jeff Dee

Episode 17: Transhumanism

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:31:00 +0000

I'm a transhumanist. Transhumanism is the view that our finest destiny lies not in merely embracing our humanity, but improving upon it.

This video beautifully portrays the transhumanistic outlook:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

The Wikipedia transhumanism page offers an excellent overview:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism

-Jeff Dee

Episode 16

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Wed, 20 May 2009 22:44:00 +0000

I missed a day. That was very bad of me.

Today we tromped on down to the lawyer's office to sign the final paperwork on Nemesis Games. We're officially & completely in business! Except that we don't have a company bank acccount yet, we haven't lined up an accountant yet, our web site is still blank, and on and on... but it's another step forward.

Been a while since I dropped any hints about the Semi-Secret MMO project, so here's another one: it is NOT based on any of my previously published paper RPG games. Though I think Teenage Demon Slayers could make a pretty cool MMO. Maybe someday...

You know what's pretty cool, that you probably never knew about before? This:

www.jasonhackenwerth.com

If you can't be bothered to go take a look, I'll tell you: the man makes amazing balloon sculptures - and costumes! - of weird undersea creatures. Is that amazing, or what?

-Jeff Dee

Episode 15

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Dee) — Tue, 19 May 2009 04:34:00 +0000

Another cool thing you might not already know about:

Tekumel
http://www.tekumel.com/
This is the most fascinating fantasy setting ever devised, in my opinion. Published materials include novels, treatises on history, culture, religion and warfare, maps, and several different role-playing game systems. I spent most of my spare time last year adapting the previously published game material to my own tabletop role-playing rules, Pocket Universe. For a while I was running three concurrent Tekumel campaigns. If you have any interest in this sort of thing, you should check it out.

-Jeff Dee