Dr. Awkward's page

Is this still being manufactured? I'm trying to order this in to my FLGS in Canada, but they don't know when they'll be able to restock. I then found out that the pawns line is being discontinued. I've just started playing Pathfinder 2E, and it'll be disappointing if I can't get pawn sets for the books I just bought.

Hey folks,

I have a question for you (for research purposes and all that):

Do you notice any performance difference between when you open the file containing the adventure (i.e. the biggest file) versus the other (smaller) files?

I'd like to hear from you folks with drek-hot, super-fast, monster machines, as well as folks with 98lb weakling computers (like mine at home).

I've got a fairly middle-of-the-road system, and I don't see any difference. I do see a difference when I open really big (like, 350 page) PDFs.

Pathfinder is much less chewy then that, and I'm sure an unbroken Pathfinder PDF would work like silk for me.

I started with 5 2nd level characters. I may bring in a 6th later. For the moment, I'm operating on the assumption that I essentially have a 3rd level party, so I advanced the encounters based on the guide from the modules as though they were 4 3rd level characters. In order to compensate for both the small gap between their actual average level and the level I'm using, and the fact that they're surprisingly reckless, I've added action points. They're going through the APs like popcorn, but they're putting them to good use. No deaths in the latest session, but I had two in the first when the PCs split the party in the sarcophagus room. That was before I added the Action Points. If they were careful, they'd do better, but I figure they're having fun so I should roll with it.

Now on our second session of the Whispering Cairn:

Michaelo Minx, Human psi rogue 1/erudite 1
Lavathac, Goliath barbarian 1
Orocka the second, Dwarf cleric 2
Lamaraith, Grey Elf wizard 2
Popuk, Halfling duskblade 2

R.I.P. circa session 1:
Orocka the first, also a Dwarf cleric 2
Vlanse, Human paladin 2

I bought the Kaladrax, and I must say, it is impressive. I just wish it came painted, as I really don't have the time or desire to paint it myself...guess I'll have to find it

If you've got enough time to assemble it, it's easy enough to paint a skeletal anything, using a nifty technique I picked up.

1. Prime the whole thing white with spray primer
2. Make a quantity of "magic water" consisting of 1 part Future brand acrylic floor polish and 3 parts water. This will be your base for washing the mini, since the polish helps to get the pigment down into crevices and away from high areas.
3. Dilute about 1 part dark brown paint or brown ink to about 4 or 5 parts magic water. The wash should have about the consistency of thin skim milk. Wash the bones with this mixture.
4. Drybrush with a bone white (off-white yellow) for highlights, especially around the joint balls, leaving the crevices browned. This will give the effect of old bones.

I've done skeleton warriors really quickly using this technique. On a large figure like this, it should save a lot of time. I learned it from Jennifer Haley's website at http://www.wegotgame.net/jen/tricks.html

Absolutely. The boldness of my reply was a shaky attempt at a tempered response to what I found to be an irrationally brusque defensive. I have friends who pirate and when the subject comes up, I am sure to let them know how I feel. I think the people who blow up at the mere assertion of wrong doing are those who must already feel a bit conflicted. Or not. I really don't know.

Actually, personally, I'm just sick of seeing Americans trying to tell Canadians that their way of life is best and that we all must fall into step behind them in every issue. You guys keep exporting bad economic theories up here, our copyright laws keep getting changed by the Disney lobbyists who pressure both the government and the American diplomats to Canada to muck up our laws so that Mickey Mouse never falls into the public domain, and you even tried (unsuccessfully) to drag us into that idiot war in Iraq. So maybe you'll forgive me if I'm a bit oversensitive to people declaring that they way they do things at home is the way things ought to be everywhere, especially when it carries the additional message that if things aren't the same way everywhere then the people who aren't getting with the program are reprobates.

I certainly can make generalizations to all Canadians. Each of us pays the same levy on blank media regardless of whether we're actually downloading media. That means that we're either getting ripped off by the music industry, or we're getting our value back by downloading music. The country has recently looked over the issue of downloading music, and we have decided collectively that we think it's fine. If you disagree with that, I don't think that trying to marginalize the position will work, considering that we, as a country, have decided to keep our laws the way they are despite pressure from the big recording companies. They laid out their case and we heard it and decided to disagree.

Now, if an individual artist is not seeing any of that levy, it's not an issue for the average Canadian to worry about. That's between the artist, his publisher, and the government. Once I've done my part by paying for music, it's none of my business what happens to that money. That's just as true for the levy system as it is for an artist who isn't seeing a penny of the price of his CD because his publisher is screwing with him. I've done my part as a consumer by shelling out cash. What more can I do than give money in exchange for product?

As for buying music online, I think it's a dumb idea. You pay, you get something that isn't really a product and often can't be moved from computer to computer (something which keeps getting worse as technology changes), and which could be eliminated by a hard drive crash. You're always better off paying for something you can actually own and make your own copies of, especially when the data is as expensive as a physical CD anyway. However, if I don't really care about owning a CD because I don't expect I'll listen to it more than once or twice, or because I only want a track or two, it makes more sense to download it. If I want to own a CD, I'll buy it. Not only do I get the actual disc, which won't be subject to the kind of age degradation that a burned disc will, but I'll also get the packaging, which is usually a good thing to have if you like the artist. I recently picked up Blam by Ridley Bent, a Canadian independent artist whose work I just discovered. I now have his CD in my collection, just like the hundreds of other CDs I own and which are immune to the vagaries of hardware failure.

Also, you apparently have some kind of a problem with the levy distribution plan. Maybe it could use some work, but there are proper ways to go about fixing it up to make it a more ideal solution, and any flaws in the system don't render it immoral. It's the way we decided that Canada was going to deal with this whole Napster thing a few years back, and if you have a problem with it then you have a problem with Canadian democracy, because that's where the laws came from.

The bottom line is, we do things differently here. It's just ridiculous to suggest that because we do things differently we're somehow immoral. And when you attack something like filesharing, which is as legal for Canadians as driving under the limit, and which lots of Canadians are legally involved in, and which we have recently decided to keep legal, you are in fact attmepting to slander the good name of Canadians in general, for deciding to enshrine in law something that you personally have a problem with. But we're not Americans and we don't play by American rules. We decided to do something different.

To be honest, I don't know how much Ridley Bent gets from the levy system (although I'm pretty sure he has to actually apply for his share, which I don't know if everyone does). If he's not getting enough, I don't blame downloaders, and I don't blame the system. I'll go out on a limb and guess that probably the big recording companies have annexed most of that money and don't pass it on to their artists, much less independent artists. If that's the case, the distribution scheme should probably be changed to send the money directly to musicians, but that's not a slam on the system overall, just the execution.

Anyway, I'm not going to lose much sleep because some foreigner doesn't like the way we do things in my country. If you don't like it, move to Canada, get your citizenship, and get your MP to propose a legislation change. Otherwise, keep your accusations inside your own borders. You live in a place where filesharing is illegal and where no monies are collected to distribute to musicians to compensate for the filesharing that is apparently going on regardless. That's the choice that your peers made to govern the distribution of media. That's fine. You don't see me coming online and trying to say that just because I don't like that system somehow all the people who follow it are immoral.

When people toss out their rationalizations for stealing intellectual property, missing out on the whole right/wrong thing we were supposed to be taught as kids… I wonder what the end result of this self serving, mob rules logic will lead to.

Here's my rationalization: it's legal. I live in Canada, and I pay a levy for each piece of blank media I buy, regardless of what I put on it. It's handed over to the government, who throws it at the recording industry based on some master plan. As a result it's perfectly legal and ethical for any Canadian to download music. I pay extra on every CD I buy regardless of whether I'm downloading music (and I go through a lot of blank media), so I'm hardly going to feel bad about some file-sharing going on.

Still, there are plenty of Canadians that don't know that it's legal to download music. They continue to do things like buy from the iTunes store. But if they download an album from iTunes and then burn it to a CD, they're paying for it twice. Once to iTunes, and once to pay the levy attached to the CD. DVDs too, I believe.

Anyway, try to rope in your generalizations before you offend someone. I hardly think that the law of a democratic country regarding intellectual property counts as "mob rules", simply because it differs from the law where you happen to live. Or were you not trying to say that Canadians don't know the difference between right and wrong?

You want metal for Kyuss? There was this Norweigan group named after that stoney field in Iceland that looks like the surface of the moon. What was that name? Aaa... this is gonna kill me trying to remember.

Their music was truly epic. Not my thing, but epic.

Well, heavy metal isn't usually my thing either, but I do appreciate the value of appropriate mood-enhancing environments. And epic metal seems about right for an undead god like Kyuss, about to manifest his destiny and throw the world into eternal darkness. Hell, even the undead in World of Warcraft throw up the horns when they dance. As far as I'm concerned, the more epic the better. This is the end of the world we're talking about here. :)

Sorry to hijack the intent of your post. Back to the heavy metal soundtrack idea, people! ;)

There must be more Evil-undead-god-themed heavy metal out there. I just don't know what it is. It would be a lot of fun to set it up so that every time a kyuss minion is "on camera", the soundtrack for the game makes a quick shift to metal. Maybe make the Ebon Triad use dark ambient, and the creatures guarding the tomb of the Wind Duke could be speed metal... What music would make an appropriate lizardfolk soundtrack? Lounge?

Last time I was in Arizona I wrote a palindromic song in rhyming couplets. It's the same from back to front. Front to back. Well, you know how it is... insanity.

Yeah, palindromes tend to make more sense in Chinese.

If you go here you'll find the character sketches of the party, but I haven't discovered any writeups yet. Go to the board mentioned above and search for "Erik Mona" and you'll find a thread in which they discuss their characters. I haven't dug very deep, but I assume there's more in there.

Hey, Dr. Awkward! That's the same nickname I use when authoring palindromes.

A good name too. It influences the way I think. For example, the car I drive: A Toyota. Race fast, safe car. A Toyota.

As for the band... I'd have to sign in to hear them but I can't see trying to explain environments and events to players over a screaming metal god.

Yeah, I was kinda thinking it might set the mood for the final battle... :D

I just thought that you all might find this amusing. Would it make a good soundtrack to The Age of Worms?

Kyuss