Microblogging Journal through 4/29/2024

Dispatches from @ultrviolet@gts.endgameviable.com:

Tuesday 04/23

• 09:50 # Can we just talk about how good The Witcher 3 soundtrack is? It’s really good. In a world where game and movie soundtracks all sound kind of the same, because everybody just uses Generic Action Music Volume #23 off the shelf, it stands out so, so much. I was trying to play some music in the background so I could focus on programming but this music is so captivating I can’t use it for that.

• 15:16 # I’ve only just realized that my Verizon data plan has changed so much that I have to redo it. No wonder I couldn’t listen to podcasts in the car anymore. As per usual, I have literally no idea how to use the Verizon web site to update my plan because it’s the worst designed and maintained web site in human history. I have a theory that they only hire COBOL programmers to do web development. (More likely they obfuscate it intentionally to make self-service impossible and drive people into the clutches of salespeople.)

Wednesday 04/24

• 11:05 # I’m just learning about this concept in ttrpgs called OSR or “old school revival,” which is when they make a new ttrpg that is basically the same as D&D bare bones pre-1st edition rules where you mechanically can’t do much except fight monsters in dungeon crawls. I guess it’s sort of a backlash against the Critical Role era where everyone expects ttrpg games to be more like an improv troupe than a game. Anyway it makes me wonder why people don’t just play D&D pre-1st edition. Maybe licensing reasons.

• 22:15 # I thought buying all the D&D stuff was an expensive and confusing proposition but then I started looking through Pathfinder stuff. It’s almost like they try to make it confusing so you’ll accidentally buy the same thing three or four times. Perhaps this is why they have these semi-official Pathfinder Adventure actual play shows, because nobody can possibly afford to buy the books to play themselves.

Thursday 04/25

• 10:19 # Watching some Glass Cannon campaign 2 Pathfinder actual play episodes. Funny stuff. Glass Cannon has such a New York flavor. It’s interesting to see the regional influences in the various actual play media conglomerates. Anyway Pathfinder actual plays are very different from D&D actual plays. Pathfinder is roughly composed of 95% super-complicated rules, with the remaining 5% being completely impossible-to-understand rules, so every combat round is a dissertation about actions and bonuses and feats and whatnot and then maybe a roll at the end. It’s a very rules-heavy system, in other words. I thought D&D 5e was pretty rules-heavy but it’s nothing compared to Pathfinder. You can definitely see why all the actor-types gravitate toward D&D.

• 16:06 # This spring a pair of house finches built a nest under the awning over my back door. The little dudes are just about to go from nestling to fledgling, jostling and bobbing around in the little nest like they’re about to fall out, looking around wondering what to do next. Bird nesting is pretty fascinating for some reason. It’s a very methodical, orderly process. I can always see the mom and dad hanging out near the back door somewhere, and I can always hear them yelling at me whenever I go outside.

Friday 04/26

• 09:10 # Looking into the Pathfinder 2e rules after D&D 5e rules is sort of like going from the Windows world to the Linux world. Everything is just so many layers and layers of complicated systems and rules. They all make sense (if you’re a programmer and accustomed to dealing with complex systems and rules every day, that is), it’s just that there’s so, so many of them, and based on this one actual play that I’m watching at least, most of the gameplay appears to be talking about rules and how they interact with each other and discussions and debates about rules lawyering, and then maybe a roll every now and then. In my youth I was really into complicated rule ttrpgs, but in my old age I’m a lot more meh about it.

• 11:29 # I keep forgetting to review the titles of the videos that I upload in the yaml file that indexes those things. The default is the same as the filename, and sometimes I put extra stuff in the filename that I don’t really want in the YouTube title. Hence the string of uploads lately that have “(rendered)” in the title, which is the file tag I use to indicate that it’s one that I loaded the original OBS files into a video editor (usually a boss fight). Another tag I use is “(edited)” which is usually one where I cut some boring parts out of the original OBS file with something like Avidemux. Usually I save those boring bits to a different file for posterity, or keep the original unedited file somewhere, and I’ll tag those with something like “(unedited)” or “(original)”.

Saturday 04/27

• 21:26 # Speaking of Pathfinder, I get why the Remaster exists and all but it strikes me as amusingly petty. “We’ll show YOU, you greedy corporate overlords, now it’s Reactive Strike instead of Attack of Opportunity!” There’s a a not-so- subtle anti-corporate undercurrent in the whole Pathfinder community, it seems to me. Again, it reminds me of the Linux/open source community.

Sunday 04/28

• 21:58 # Another weekend in a weird rabbit hole of playing with Foundry VTT, Pathfinder 2e versus 2e Remaster, Glass Cannon podcast (on video), OGL versus ORC, and all things related to those topics. I don’t dislike Pathfinder (it seems to have been tailor-made for the deeply systemic programmer mind) but it sure is a pain to understand, especially now, when everything is in a weird state of halfway between original 2e books and remastered 2e books. “What do you mean it’s not called magic missile anymore because WotC is an evil empire?” That kind of thing is rampant. There’s a constant state of confusion over terminology. I get the reasons but it’s not terribly consumer friendly. Makes me think it would be far easier to simply play D&D 3.5.