Twenty Years Before the Blog

Not a Hopper piece, but Van Gogh -"Two Crabs" (1889)
I just liked the way it looks.

Today, Grubb Street turns 20. The first test post was made at Thursday, 14 August, at 1:50 in the afternoon, PST, followed by this one, which talked about where the name came from (with more info about it here). And it is a surprise that it has lasted 20 years, particularly in such an ephemeral media as the modern Internet.  Other platforms for medium-length writing have blossomed and faded/disappeared over the two decades - Myspace, Google Plus, Livejournal, Twitter, yet this trusty little Blogger has survived (perhaps Google don't realize they are still running it). Though even this has diminished, as the practice of blogging has receded into the depths of hobbyist activity, like model railroading or HAM radios. Those hobbies are still around, but you never hear from them anymore.

Part this reduced throw-weight is Facebook. You look at the blogroll over to the right and you see a sudden drop about in entries starting in 2011. That was about the time I started in on Facebook, and those spur-of-the-moment bon mots that I dealt with HERE suddenly went over THERE. But mostly, I use Facebook to send people HERE when I make a new posting, chiefly because there is an easy link at the bottom of the entry to do so. Ditto X/Twitter. I actually only have a Twitter account because Stan! set one up for me. And I use it to send people HERE.

But I do pay attention to Twitter, even in its now-diminished times. There are enough people that I find interesting that I follow there, in particular Gail Simone, Jennell Jaquays, William Gibson, and Paula Poundstone. And I find the New York Times Pitchbot amusing (It does headlines you'd actually believe seeing in the NYT - "Cure for Cancer discovered - Why This Is Bad for Biden" plus REAL headlines that sound like the Pitchbot made them up) If they go away, I will probably go elsewhere as well. No, I would never pay for a blue check, and have so far been spared the whackos.

I do pay attention to Facebook, and do my part to train the algorithm. I've been liking every Edward Hopper painting I see, so as a result I'm getting more Edward Hopper (and other art) links. And every so often there are a raft of promoted right-wing links pushing books of dubious nature ("Slavery - think of it as a long-term internship") - they all get reported. I put this down at the level of weeding a lawn - mildly irritating but necessary.

I am paying attention to Reddit more as well. Their /news subreddit gives me different versions of the same story of the day. And I pay attention to subreddits about flags, maps, and leopards eating people's faces. There are two Seattle subreddits - /Seattle if you live in Seattle and like it, and /SeattleWa if you live in Bellevue and want to tell everyone that Seattle is dying. 

Will I join the new kids like Mastadon, Post, and BlueSky? No idea. They may join the roster of Dead Media like MeWe and Tapatalk or not. Haven't gotten a Bluesky invite yet. And I would still use it to post links back to this blog. 

In general, though, it feels like the environment of the Internet has gotten worse. The web pages are laced with pop-ups (which are a relic of the 80s) and adverts, crowding out real content. Useful content moves behind paywalls. Wikipedia and Internet Archives have survived, but seem to be under constant threat. Library access has gone up as a result. 

And lest you think I am just bagging on the newer tech, "traditional" television has pretty much died as well. I haven't been a "sit down and veg in front of the tube" guy for years, but when I do get on, there always seems to be SOME cable station that is running Harry Potter, LotR, or the Pirates movies. Those channels which used to have some sort of theme are all doing the same thing, and those that remain are just doing blocks of old content. I don't remember when the last time there was music on MTV or heres-how-you-cook shows on Food Network.  I still pay attention to television for sports, but even that has diminished with Apple+ taking the rights to Major League Soccer.

And when they split the cable feeds to create new channels, those feeds filled up with cheap reruns of old shows from the last century. Yeah, that's where the H&I, Retro, and ME TV stations came from. Cheap content. But, on the good side, Son of Svengoolie is back, who I haven't seen since WGN stopped broadcasting out here. 

I know, I'm sounding like the new age version of the old guy shooing kids off the lawn. So be it.

The blogroll has shrunk over the years. Colleagues and friends have slowly drifted off from media, but I keep them there only because they may sometime come back to life. I keep most of the other links available since I check on them semi-regularly. A lot of the local news links have soft gates - after visiting a certain number of times they cut you off and hit you up for a subscription. And the comics section is still there, though webcomics can be sporadic as well, since they're mostly run by the creatives. 

Does this environment have a future for me? I dunno. I'll probably keep going. I have a couple books in the till that need to be review. I do plays, book, and game reviews. I cannot avoid continuing my look at collectable quarter designs, which is something that I just can't seem to break the habit. Politics I tend to deal with in election season, and then keep it to stuff I can actually vote on. There are still SO many political blogs out there, so I don't think you need one more, and watching the GOP fall down the stairs yet again is SO EXHAUSTING after a while

And that's about it. I think I'm in this until they shut down the service, and doing this primarily for my own amusement. You're more than welcome to tag along.

More later, 

Classics Illustrated

So, in my wanderings, I found a site that allowed you to make a cover that looked like one from Penguin Classics or Oxford World Classics, which have very distinctive looks. So I made one, and the result is over on the right. And I thought it was pretty good for five minutes work.

And the universe being what it is, I posted it to my Facebook, and got a lot of response. Some of it was from people who really loved the original book (which is greatly appreciated) and those who played the computer game based on the book (which is also nice) and those wanting to know if it was a real book, and was Penguin about to release on the world the old FR books from decades back.

Which is, alas, untrue (so far as I know it). It is a little amusing, in that, back in the day, Penguin WAS the British publisher/distributor of the books (I don't know when/if they stopped, but I had a number of British editions in the basement at one time). But it would be interesting if some small press picked up all of these old volumes and put them back into print (and, you know, paid the authors).

But as for me, I have taken a solemn vow not to speak untruths, even in jest, nor to taunt people with such tomfoolery. For more about this solemn vow, please click here. 

More later,

Meanwhile, Out on the Internet ...

Well yeah, with the release of Guild Wars 2 coming on top of Midgard and Star Wars: Scourge novel earlier this year, I'm in a bit of dry period. So let's see what some friends are up to -

Stan! (yes, that exclamation point is supposed to be there) Brown has been doing a Kickstarter for his cuddly cthuloid Christmas story The Littlest Shoggoth. The book has already made its basic numbers, and with about a week to go, is into stretch goals. If he gets to 10K, you get color interiors. If he gets to 13k, there's a stylish hardback in your future?

But wait, there's more! Check out the latest video!


Also, Tracy and Laura Hickman are writing their own Christmas tale, in process and available on-line. They are writing it as a serial novel (shades of Dickens) and making the entire project available as an e-book on completion. Go can go check it out here.

And since I am talking about private artistic-based operations, old friend and mighty TSR artist Larry Elmore. What began as a modest Kickstarter to create a Complete  Elmore Artbook has blossomed into a cascade of ever-shattered stretch goals (the most recent one being an invite to drop by the house and go for a motorcycle ride with Larry).

And finally, while I was writing this up, I was surprised to discover that Midgard (the world I've been working on with the likes of Wolfgang Baur and Brandon Hodges) has its own potential miniatures line on Kickstarter. Yeah, I probably missed a memo or two in the process, but go check THIS one out as well.

I swear, I have to get back in the saddle again. More later.

Recent Interviews

Had I known I would be slashdotted, I would have put a new blog entry up (maybe something on collectible quarters).

However,  a new interview with fantasy author Thomas A Knight is burning up the cyberwaves, which is kind of nice. One of the nice things about my career is that I have been all over the place, a Forest Gump of game design, so I never know what the questions are going to be.

Here's another one, just a little bit earlier, with Cape Rust at Roleplayers Chronicle.

And if you want more regular Guild Wars type of coverage, here is a podcast with Wartower.de (The site is German - the interview (about the nature of the norn) is in English).

I am rather busy (for reasons that will very soon become clear), but more later,

White Out

No, I'm not talking about the upcoming Megastorm about to hit Seattle, but about SOPA and PIPA.

SOPA is a bill in the US House. It stands for Stop Online Piracy Act. PIPA is a similar bill in the Senate, and is short of PROTECT IP Act, which in turn is short for Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Threat of Intellectual Property Act. I swear, there's a job in Washington for coming up with names like this to provide cover to bills like these.

I'd normally send you to Wikipedia to learn about these bills, but Wikipedia is down for the day, in protest. So are some other sites. And if you scan down this page, you'll see a whole lot of nothing (I hope - I just set the text to white against a white background). Because that's the direction these bills will take us.

These bills, despite their cute names, do not protect content creators, but rather further empower content owners, a different class of beast, and gives them greater control over the Internet you enjoy. So here's what you'll get once bills like these become law. A whole lotta nothing.

More (maybe) later,

Update: And we're back up. Future readers will wonder what this is all about, but for one day, I whited out all the body copy on my site in protest of a horrible pair of proposed laws - SOPA and PIPA (as noted above). Now, I was not alone in this - a few other sites like Wikipedia and Reddit went blank, along with a lot of personal sites. And the interesting thing was that the bulk of the sites doing this were content creators - supposedly the very people these laws were (on paper) to protect. Google gave a strong head-nod. Twitter and Facebook noted it all, but stayed open, allowing the entire 'net to compare notes.

And this thing is, it was fairly successful. A lot of congressmen came out against the bill. Some of them were the original backers. A couple admitted that they hadn't read the damned things but were assured that it would be a good thing. The president has come down on it. Not bad for a buncha nerds.

Oh, and the spokesperson for the Motion Picture Association of American, a former congress-critter himself, complained, without a sense of irony, that everyone taking their free information off the 'net was an 'abuse of power'.Like having ten films up for "best picture" isn't.

This isn't over - not by a long shot. They are already talking bout floating this bill later once the heat is off, or it showing up later under an even cuter acronym (Freedom Respecting Every Action and Knowledge). And our Supreme Court just declared that stuff out of copyright can regrow its copyright (though not necessarily under the original owners). There's going to be a lot more of this going on as we go forward. But for the moment, this has to go down as a win.

More (definitely) later

Busy Season

Wrapped up with a lot of work all of a sudden, both in the day job and in the rest of my life, including, but not limited to, Norwescon this weekend.

I almost gave you a picture of a cat with a pithy saying beneath it that would make you Laugh Out Loud, but I restrained myself.

Instead, enjoy this enigma.

More, later

Update: The amazing Stan! posted a link to this, and despite all of the April Fish swimming about, I like this one the best. Heck, I would write this comic.

Buck Rogers

I've worked on a lot of Buck Rogers projects in the 80s and early 90s, and I have to say, I really LIKE this. The writing, the acting, the sepia tones - yeah, this is a web series I want to tune into:



Oh, you want a rocket ship? Here, have a rocket ship.



The site for all this is here.

More later,

The Perils of Publishing

On the announcements here and here, I've gotten two questions:
1) Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?
2) Didn't I read somewhere you were working on a Star Wars book?

Here's my answer to the first question: A lot of writers post about their ongoing writing projects. I'm not one of them. Now, I admire those who keep the public informed with word counts, with the state of revisions, with feedback, and with each and every twist and turn on the way to publication. But I dislike raising false hopes, and in particular I hate admitting that a particular project "just didn't work out" or that I can't find a home for the cool work I've been telling you about.

In my long years toiling in shared world fiction, often while working for companies that manage those worlds, I've seen a lot of stuff happen. Ideas that sound good turn sour, or move down unintended passsageways. Good writers have bad patches. Bad writers have worse turnovers. Writing teams at the start of the project are no longer speaking to each other by the end. Computers crash. Deadlines loom and are missed, and sometimes by large margins. Cover art and artists switch. There are sudden changes in direction. Companies discontinue lines that novels are created for. Companies disappear. Plagues of locust. Rains of blood. Cats and dogs, living together.You know the drill.

I have a trunk book for a line that was published but the novel support was killed. I have another one for a publisher that has since vanished. I have had a project I referred to as Schrödinger's Book for the amount of time it spent simultaneously alive and dead. I have had projects in limbo. I have had things disappear into the aether, never to be seen by mortal man again.

For this reason, I am very wary of announcing things way in advance. Too much changes, even after an announcement. We all work on shifting ground, whether we are writing or editing. I usually keep my peace until there is some type of formal announcement, and even then, I hold my breath until I have the physical book in my hand, or the pixels on the screen.

And if it means that I am late to the party talking about, say, that I have an essay in the upcoming Family Games: The 100 Best, at least you'll know you're within guessing distance of holding the book in your hand, which strikes me as being better for both you and me.

And as far as the second question is concerned: Yes. You've heard somewhere that I'm working on a Star Wars novel. And that's where I am leaving it for the moment.

More later,

Funny Pixels

A couple new things over on the linkbar to your right that bear mentioning.

First off, the unsinkable Stan! has launched a new site, 10' by 10' Toons, in addition to his continuing Doodle-a-Day site. 10x10 is more gaming oriented and worth a look every Friday.

Second, I've added Tree Lobsters by an anonymous and entertaining skeptic a while back, but haven't mentioned it here. But now I have.

More later,

Bits and Pieces

So, the results from the King of the Monsters contest, which I helped judge, are up and running over at Kobold Quarterly. So far we have revealed the new Afanc and the Echidna (the mother of monsters, not the marsupial hedgehog), with eight more to go, followed by a vote for the King of the Monsters.

Meanwhile, the podcast at Dial P for Pulp reviews the short story collection Worlds of Their Own and gives a nice mention of my story "Catch of the Day". "Catch" was one of my favorite stories, and I always want to get back to that world and write more. Dial P also takes a good look at AE Merritt's "Ship of Ishtar" and features "Two Minute Danger Theatre", with a bit that could very neatly into an episode of "A Prairie Home Companion". Check it out.

And finally, Leo Lynn posted a letter which cartoonist Jon Kovalic posted on his site and Jessica Stover made a video and Stan! brought to my attention by his blog. It covers some of the same ground as Mike Selinker's own most excellent musings (which is why I sometimes list my faith as "Peanuts Presbyterian"). Ain't the Internet Grand?

More later,

Will Success Spoil Dr. Horrible?

So this is all over the Internets this morning:



So, where to begin, for those not paying attention? First off, Neil Patrick Harris is Doctor Horrible, who starred in "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" with Nathan Fillion and Felicia Day and was made during the writer's strike by Joss Whedon and released to the Internets to a collective nerd-gasm. And Neil Patrick Harris was ALSO the host of the Emmys this year, and DHSAB was nominated in the "Best Regalia" category (at least, I think so - I didn't watch), so it makes sense to see the character turn up there.

And the Emmys are in the throws of a discussion that is well-known to gaming professionals - are awards to recognize individual achievement or to promote the general product (See the last 25 years of discussions about the Origins and GenCon Awards)? But that is an argument for eternity. Instead, the bit presented picks on the Internet, with Doctor H going on at length of the superiority of the Nets while showing the flaws of the current system.

And I was suddenly reminded of Tony Randall. Yeah, from the Odd Couple, but before that he was in a lot of romantic comedies of the late fifties and sixties, most of them set in New York City in corporate environments and were based on Broadway Shows (as opposed to now, where all Broadway Shows are based on Old Movies). Anyway, he was the lead in "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?" with Jayne Mansfield, playing an ad executive, and extolling the virtues of television while revealing its flaws.

Now the original Broadway play of "Will Success..." attacked Hollywood screenwriting, and in no way resembled the eventual film, which mocked the new technology of TV. Right down to pointing out how small the picture was. But of course the studios embraced the new tech while mocking it, with the end result that the relationship between TV and the movies is only one of choice of the delivery system.

And so it will be with the Net. While we are busy posting on our "tweety pages and biggidy blogs", the dark shadows of larger corporate predators are moving beneath these waters, enclosing the net into their delivery system. Its already starting, despite declarations that no one knows how to handle the 'net. And who knows. Fifty years from now, there will probably be a net show complaining about mind-beam technology, with all its crass commercialism and limited bandwidth.

In the meantime, more later,

I Talk to the Kobold

Readers of this journal already know I have a face made for radio. Now discover that I have a voice made for the printed page as I do a podcast with Ed Healy and Wolf Baur over at Kobold Quarterly. Yes, I'm trying out all this newfangled technology!

More later,

Any War In A Storm

My co-workers are a fickle group, as a rule. They fall hard for the latest new arrivals in games, play the heck out of it, analyze it to death, then move onto the next new coolness. They played Team Fortress into the ground, have played all the big MMOs upon release, and of late have been cutting a swath through a host of Tower Defense Clones.

And occasionally I get sucked in. I'm usually trailing edge, playing City of Heroes or Civilization into the ground as opposed to getting involved in something new. But give me a new game, an interesting game, a FREE game, and I get swept up in it all.

In this case the game du jour is Warstorm, a deck-building online fantasy card game. You build a deck made up of cards with particular summoning times, attacks, defenses, and special abilities. Then you play them. HOW you play them is completely inconsequential - the machine plays out the game with very strict rules on who attacks who. Individual choice exists only in what you put into your army. You can play against AI opponents (most of whom have abilities you don't get at the outset) or in challenges and tournaments against other live players. And since the "game" is really just a formality, you can watch it at any time (sort of like taping a football game - it isn't going to change after you tape it). Your opponent doesn't have to BE there, so it makes it a little leisurely, and does not put those with reduced available time at a disadvantage.

The human and elf armies, in relatively slow-casting versions, are free. If you want good stuff - reanimating undead, flying dragons, and the like, you've got to pay for some of the "non-basic sets". And though I've been having a good time with the basics, I find it extremely tempted to work through some of the more advanced packs.

For the moment, I'm trying to wrap up the basic (free) mission chains, and doing the odd challenge. I can be found as Horgarth on the net, and will gladly take on all challengers.

For the next week at least, until we all move onto something else.

More later,

Your Game Link for the Day.

Here, let me destroy your productivity for the week.

More later,

David Byrne's Electronic Ghosts

Weird. Over the past few days, I've been visited by the phantoms of former Talking Heads front man David Byrne.

Mind you, I haven't encountered the man himself, but rather a variety of his electronic avatars. Sort of like things happen in threes? From random corners of communication, David Byrne suddenly appeared in my life. And it wasn't David Byrne, but rather a host of phantasms of Byrnes past and present, a bow wave of his presence. All occurring without any direct action from the singer himself.

First off there was a bit in BoingBoing about his latest album, which is not out of the question since they cover that kind of stuff. Then, while I'm working at home, the Lovely Bride is watching a tape of "Heroes" where there is a snatch of "Psycho Killer". Then the meatspace Byrne is in town, and the local weekly's blog talks about him as a celebrity spotting.

And then two friends from work had tickets to his show at Benaroya downtown. Great seats, an energized performance, and those in charge weren't particularly fussy about people taping, so as a result, she posted her experiences on youtube.

All of this without any additional effort on Mr. Byrne's part other than just doing his (normal, superlative) job.

I seem to be living in David Byrne's world. I'm just passing through.

Facebookery

It's been about a month since I lost my mind and started a Facebook page. So how do I like it?

It's been pretty interesting, but definitely a mixed bag. It is a living example of Your Mileage May Vary. But it is very effective because it understands the simple fact that not everyone communicates the same way.

And this last bit, I think, is the reason for Facebook's "overnight" popularity. People communicate differently, using different tools, and FB tries to get as many of those tools into play all at once.

Me? I tend to feed my blog over into the notes section from RSS. It's not a bad little method of using my FB page as a relay transmitter, picking up people who might not otherwise link to my blog (slackers). I'm comfortable with that. In addition, FB gives me a bit of control in allowing comments to friends (now that you know, don't abuse the privilege).

I also tend to use the "status" section, laying out whatever is on my mind at the moment (which is usually a song fragment or a movie quote). It is actually kind of fun just throw out a line and see how many people respond to it (if any - I'm not particularly vain about it). And it is fun to see the streams cross of acquaintances. One thread was responded to by a younger friend in Chicago, followed by a former co-worker from WotC, followed by a former editor from DC, followed by a current RPG-playing friend, followed by a former co-worker at Pokemon, USA. I think #2 and #5 know each other, but otherwise we're all over the place.

That said, there are features I do not use much. Email I am comfortable with, and see other long-time friends on. IM? Not so much, and I don't respond unless I am comfortable talking to you in person (IM is a "cold" medium which does not allow much in the way of emotional subtext - while in these entries I can consider and revise a bit, the time pressure of IM does not allow it).

The apps? I was buried initially in Monte Pythons gifts, free drinks, offers to join knighthood or a mafia gang or whatever. After thinking about it long and hard, I chose to ignore these. Dond't be offended - I don't dislike anyone who sent one (and do pick up the occasional Cthulhu Mythos bit), but I don't communicate that way. But its cool if that's the way YOU communicate. It is good to hear from you, even if I say no.

Similarly pictures. I have one. I really should get around to a Flickr account, but that picture is just about all I need. Until I get bored with it.

I like the "Home" and "Friends" pages because it gives me a way of casually stalking my friends without being intrusive. What, you don't do that as well? Again, it's a different way of communicating, and potentially one of the creepier ones.

Anyway, the numbers are probably topping out from the "new friends" list, and while I will probably keep monitoring it, I will concentrate on this blog. So I would say that it is a case of so far, so good.

Oh, and of course while I was working on all this, it comes down that Facebook has unilaterally changed its terms of service, to the tune that ANYTHING posted on the page, regardless of origin, becomes theirs. It sounds like someone was sleeping while the lawyers were making their last presentation to the board. There is a massive push-back at the moment, with people cutting accounts left and right. The brass is assuring that despite this language, they would NEVER use that information for badthings. It's just a legal thing.

Uh-huh.

Here's a little Terms of Service of my own. Feel free to attach it to your facebook notes as well.

"The information within this post, including the content, phrasing, spelling, alphabet letters used, and font choice is the sole ownership of the original poster. Reposting for any reason the original poster does not like (as determined by the original poster) can result in any and all recourse, not limited to Big Louie and Knuckles coming over and having a friendly chat with you in the dead of the night."

Not that I would EVER use this type of unilateral power. It's just a legal thing.

More later,

Update: in the face of a massive user uprising, Facebook has declared it all a misunderstanding, declared they never intended to do what they were doing, and shelved any changes until they decide how to sugarcoat it better. Yeah, the lawyers who pushed this through probably have some 'splaining to do.

Department of Teh Cute

Because I wish to destroy your productivity, I give you Puppy Stalker!.

Ooooooh - whoozah puppy? Yes you are! Yes you are!

More later

Songs of the States

So the question came up in the office: Are all 50 states represented in song? And then we had to define further - we would exempt all official states songs, as well as all fight songs. We started with "Sweet Home Alabama" and soon rolled in "Country Roads" and "There's a Pawnshop on the Corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" (which I remember from my youth), but hung up on New Hampshire and some of the more esoteric states.

Well, the net provides. Norman Geras has done the work so we don't have to.

Thank you Norman. Thank you, Internet.

More later,

All Fools Plus One

So yesterday was April Fool's Day, and there were mild pranks. Guild Wars turned everyone on the server into stick figures, while WoW announced its new character class, the Bard, which uses a Guitar Hero interface. One friend got me entirely by announcing she was leaving for Africa, and since she is usually such a level-headed individual but we haven't talked for a while, I bit on that one totally.

And I discovered Rickrolling.

OK, I'm going to spoil the joke right off the bat - it is a long-standing Internet tradition to send your buddies a link with disturbing information, or a picture of a duck. Over the past few months, this has evolved into sending people links to Rick Astley's one-shot hit Never Going To Give You Up.

So yesterday, the meme went completely viral, and everyone sent links about it. My first warning was when the wall to the art department started vibrating with the song. They loved it, and every time they got a link, they cranked it. But the best one caught me, labeled Hilarious Muppet Bloopers made me laugh.

Future generations will look back to this era and wonder how any work was actually accomplished in those carefree days before the robots took over.

More later,

Memes for Sunday

You are what you own:

Your Score: The Cat

You scored 55% domestic, 33% gregarious, 39% trickster, and 55% intellect!

Domestic, Solitary, Serious, Intelectual: you are the Cat!

Cat represents a balance of strength in both physical and spiritual, psychic and sensual powers, merging these two worlds into one. Curious, intelligent, and physically adept, cat people tend to live in a world all their own.


This test categorized you based on four different axes of personality, which were then associated with a different animal. The four axes, as well as all possible results are explained below.



Wild/Domestic: This first axis categorizes you based on how much you are drawn to the outdoors, versus how much you are drawn to civilized situations. Domesticity has many shapes and forms, and varies from the joy of dolphins leaping next to a ship to the steadfast loyalty of a family dog.



Gregarious/Solitary: This axis measures how solitary you are. If you scored high, it means that you enjoy the company of other people, while a low score indicates that you prefer a more solitary lifestyle.



Trickster/Serious: This axis measures how well you line up with conventional trickster archetypes. People who fall into this archetype have a sense of humor and an excitable, highly chaotic streak. Scoring low doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor; it just means that you probably don't think dynamite is very funny.



Intellectual/Emotional: This last axis determines whether you are more emotional -- acting based on feelings and instinct, or rational and intelectual -- acting more on thought than on your gut feelings.

Link: The Animal Archetype Test written by crumpetsfortea on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

Plus - Crud, It turns out that I'm Elminster.

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Wizard (7th Level)


Ability Scores:

Strength-13

Dexterity-14

Constitution-13

Intelligence-15

Wisdom-17

Charisma-16


Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.


Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.


Class:
Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.


Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?