cwolf.org

Sometimes I know where I'm going

Tue Mar 06 14:06:23 +1100 2012

It's a weird thing, writing.

Sometimes you can look out across what you're writing, and it's like looking out over a landscape on a glorious, clear summer's day. You can see every leaf on every tree, and hear the birdsong, and you know where you'll be going on your walk.

And that's wonderful.

Sometimes it's like driving through fog. You can't really see where you're going. You have just enough of the road in front of you to know that you're probably still on the road, and if you drive slowly and keep your headlamps lowered you'll still get where you were going.

And that's hard while you're doing it, but satisfying at the end of a day like that, where you look down and you got 1500 words that didn't exist in that order down on paper, half of what you'd get on a good day, and you drove slowly, but you drove.

And sometimes you come out of the fog into clarity, and you can see just what you're doing and where you're going, and you couldn't see or know any of that five minutes before.

And that's magic.

Neil Gaiman

Hidden FTP server in Mac OS X Lion

Fri Oct 14 15:14:32 +1100 2011

I'd been using the iOS5 betas for a few months before it was released to the public earlier this week. While most of the Apps worked as you'd expect, there were a few little bugs here and there, or in some cases features that just didn't work.

In the GoodReader App for example, the WiFi webdav feature stopped working completely. This meant that if I wanted to upload entire directories I'd have to do it file by file through iTunes; not a good solution.

Luckly, GoodReader has built in FTP support (and SFTP etc.) which meant that all I needed now was an FTP server for Lion. A quick google revealed that there are a few FTP server applications out there, but they all cost money. I wasn't able to find a free or trial version.

Damn. Back to the drawing board.

Wait. Doesn't OS X have a Unix backend? Then surely there is an FTP server somewhere in there.

There is! Yay! But it's not immediatly obvious how to turn it on.

To turn on the FTP server run the following command in Terminal.app

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

It will prompt you for your password and then Voila! Your filesystem is being served via FTP. Use your OS X username and password to authenticate to the server from your client.

To turn off the server you can run the following command

sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/ftp.plist

I didn't have any luck with that command (the FTP server was still running), so I had to kill the process manually with kill -9

Problem solved! And a useful hidden feature of Lion discovered.

GOTGC S03W05 - An excerpt from Nyx's journal

Tue Sep 27 09:48:23 +1000 2011

frog people coming
caravan man is waiting
guess we'll have to fight

big dragons fighting
a massive epic battle
lifeless body falls

dragon still alive
balista shot to the face
azroth makes the kill

GOTGC S03W03 - In which Nyx takes the stage

Mon Sep 05 15:06:34 +1000 2011

"I challenge you to a duuuuuuuet!"
Colm challenging Nyx

After returning from the Mine, we had a few days downtime before we had to meet with Gunter again. He suggested, as there was no accommodations available at the Barracks, that we make our way down to the "Hammer and Anvil", the local tavern. Kriv, the Dragon Born Paladin, bought the first round.

Kriv (formally John) was a human for the last two sessions, but the DMs suggest to John (the player) that he change his character to one that speaks Draconic (as the party had none, and the campaign is going to rely on it.)

Taking the mead from Kriv, I took a seat in front of the makeshift stage. There was a Halfling on stage playing a lute; not anywhere near as well as I can. The people around seemed to not be paying too much attention, it was more background noise than a main attraction.

My attention was drawn to my Knight companion at the bar. The waitress had a very surprised look on her face. Turns out the Knight had ordered a whole gold's worth of mead, four jugs, and drank it all. Either fighting the Dragon has taken its toll on him, or he just likes the sauce.

As I was watching the Knight attempt to order more mead, I notice that the Halfling from the stage is at the bar. Seizing my chance, I climbed on stage with my lute and played a little number. It was about a minute before I earnt the attention of a few patrons; and the Halfling. Making his way towards the stage he yelled, "Sir, I challenge you to a duuuuuuet!"

If memory serves, it was at this point the table erupted in laughter.

Introducing himself as Colm, he climbed up onto the stage. He started playing; a lot better then he did before. Completely taken aback, when it came to my turn to play, my fingers slipped a little and I played a wrong note. The crowd indicates that he won this 'round'. "Picking up the slack" he started to play again. He got few notes in and then snaped a string on his lute. The crowd leant in my favour. As I played I looked out onto the crowd, every person in the tavern was crowding around the stage now. I lost concentration for a few moments and ended up breaking a string.

It was getting to the end of the song, only about a minute left. Colm started to play his final phrase, it all came down to this. He was playing wildly, building up towards a crescendo, but snaped another string! He put his lute down in defeat; I looked up to his face and he was wearing the biggest smile. I started playing right where he left off, building up the crescendo and almost reaching the end of the song before I too broke a string. The crowd erupted in laughter. Putting my lute down I grabbed him into a embrace, it'd been a long time since I'd had that much fun.

This was one of my favourite moments at the table in a long time.

Joking, we walked towards to bar; many patrons stopped us to congratulate or thanks us. The bartender gave us a round on the house.

We spent the next few hours taking and joking; swapping stories of our past. Just as I was about to leave he handed me a coin. He told me it is a lucky coin and that it lands heads up more often than not. I thanked him and headed upstairs to bed.

The DMs said to record on my sheet as "Colm's Coin" -- I'm curious to find out what it really is :)

GOTGC S03W01 - In which Nyx meets his fellow adventurers

Sat Aug 27 22:09:15 +1000 2011

"Your name is Eric?"
"Yeah,"
"and you're a cleric?"
"Yeah."

An exchange between Nyx and Eric

It was a few days travel before I reached the town of Coral. Sent here to report on the war, I had my hesitations.

After stopping a local for directions, I headed up the hill toward the barracks. Surrounded by stone walls, there is only one gate leading in, facing the south. Four sentry towers stand in the corners of this less than intimidating structure.

As I entered the barracks (there was no one standing guard) I was met with the sight of a small group gathered around a rather tall Goliath. He seemed cranky, and a little uninterested in the group. The group seemed to be split in two; with everyone standing away from a Bugbear and what appeared to be his Half-Orc handler. It would seem that most of these people weren't used to this type of scene.

We stood and listened to the usual speech, "It's a great honour to work for Bahamut," I looked around the faces of my fellow initiates. There was a mix of excitement and trepidation in their eyes.

Gunther, as we learned the Goliath was called, explained that our first mission was to clear out an old disused mine that some Kobolds had taken as a stronghold. We were to "remove the Kobold threat". Gunther advised that we should all visit the armoury before heading off, motioning for us to follow a guard.

The guard led us down a few stone corridors into the armoury where a very slim blonde haired half-elf stood waiting for us. She looked as though she had just turned 18. Madeline, as she introduced herself, produced a box containing a ring for each of us. She advised us to wear them at all times, suggesting that they held magical abilities to heal. The guard, showing us his hand (on which, of course, he was wearing a ring), said that it is a mark of honour, and should we run into any trouble with the locals (finding a place to spend the night, etc.) we need only show them the ring.

With that (a few of the others selected some weapons from the armoury) we headed out. After a few hours (during which no one spoke) we found ourselves heading into a dense forrest. Not so dense that you couldn't see, but dense enough to provide cover. The half-orc must have a keen sense of sight; it wasn't long before he yelled "Brinjin, Fetch!" pointing into the forrest ahead. Before any of us could react the bugbear had taken off at a wild pace, dragging the half-orc behind him.

By the time the rest of us had caught up the bugbear was, rather oddly given what just happened, hiding behind a rock. The half-orc, moving towards one of the creatures while pointing to some of the other creatures up the hill, ordered the bugbear to "kill". Noticing for the first time that we were surrounded by creatures, that I assumed were Kobolds (they look a little odd), the others broke out into battle poses.

The Mul (Broda I think his name is) was the first to act, charging the closet (and largest) Kobold, bringing down a strong hit. The Kobold hit back with it's spear, but missed.

There are was a small group further up the mountain that started swinging rocks down at us. The half-orc took a hit but seemed unfazed.

The human Paladin, John, moved forward charging the kobold Broda hit moments before; bringing his long sword down splatting blood across the ground.

The half-orc was the next to act, in some kind of jump charge he attacked one of the kobolds up the hill. Brinjin followed suit, charging up and decimating the kobold.

Erik (the cleric) moved forward and killed the larger kobold.

The remaining kobolds fell with little effort.

As we collected ourselves after the battle the bugbear took the opportunity to have a small meal; turning around I noticed him holding half eaten kobolds in each hand. I can’t imagine it was a tasty meal (based on the smell).

We rested for almost half an hour before venturing further up the hill. Eventually we reached the remnants of a small entrance to the mine. Moving some boulders we were able to make the entry a little larger.

John was the first to enter, cracking a sunrod as he did. The rest of us followed in single file. As John moved forward, the light not reaching either wall or the roof, he triggered a trap. The floor gave way underneath him and the two people immediately behind him.

It took a few seconds for the rest of us to realise what had just happened. Upon inspection we saw a five foot hole. There was nothing else down there. Warryn, obviously expecting what I did, tied rope around himself and jumped down. The hole was an illusion, and he slipped all the way down, well past the the five foot mark.

We called out for him, but there is no response from Warryn. Those of us remaining up the top decided to try our luck with the rest of our group down the hole.

By the time we reached the others, they were surrounded by dead kobolds.

Part two of this journal (the events of which took place over two sessions) to come.

EDIT:: Part two of this journal is likely to never come. I didn't take extensive enough notes, and because I left it too late, I'm not complete sure of what happened.

What I do remember, Is that we met a Kobold, who was rather well spoken, more so then normal Kobolds, who advised us that there was a Dragon who was commanding them (the Kobolds) to attack the city. We made a deal with him that we would kill the Dragon, freeing his people, and he would no longer attack the city. I left the session early but as I understand it (as all my party was alive last week) we rid the Kobolds of their Dragon overlord.

So it's been half a year (give or take)

Fri Aug 05 19:21:32 +1000 2011

"Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do and only
So many hours in a day"

Vienna
Billy Joel

How did I stack up against my NYE Resolutions?

Write more (short films, a novel?)

Not so good, as you can see this blog is updated infrequently (a thing that I'm always trying to fix). I have some ideas for a short film I'd love to write. And I have found a writing partner, Jeremy (who is also an actor), for the web series I've been talking about for years. So with a bit of luck that will get off the ground this year or into next.

Start a podcast

Short answer: no. Excuse/plan: The web series will benefit from a lot of research, talking to different people about their experiences growing up in Canberra, so the plan is, with their permission, to release those interviews as a podcast. But again, we'll wait and see.

Learn to play piano

I bought a midi keyboard. I toyed around with it for a week or so. And haven't really touched it since. I think once again this ends up in the "one day" pile.

Work on more films

Not yet. Jeremy has put me in contact with some people working on a few films, so I plan to help out where I can.

Read more

I purchased a Kindle and more books then I've read. I did finish The Council Of Dads however, and really enjoyed it. I'm currently reading The War Of Art and plan to re-read the Hitchhikers series again. My friend Mark is also planning on starting a book club on G+.

Get in shape (lose some weight)

Not so much. Is waiting for summer a good excuse?

Game more

Pretty much the opposite. I started a new job earlier in the year and it's kept me really busy. But at the same time, I've been enjoying not gaming. There is a D&D game starting up on Monday nights that I will be playing in, and I hope to run a StarGate campaign soon, so I'm getting back into it.

See more movies in the cinema

I'm not sure I could name a movie I've seen in the cinema this year.

Care less about what people think

Bingo. This one I have done.

House Rules (or The book also says GMs discretion)

Mon Jul 11 21:12:42 +1000 2011

Not that long ago I was gearing up to run a Serenity campaign for some friends of mine who are new to tabletop gaming. After an email discussion about how I like to run games, and what the players were expecting, we organised a time to generate characters.

I sent them blank copies of the character sheet (so that when we sat down at the table they were already familiar with it) and a 3x3x3 template for them to fill out. I asked them to bring concepts for their characters with them, so that they knew what their character was about before we started.

A few days later everyone came around to my house. They had brought their concepts with them, and most had pre-filled the 3x3x3. "Excellent!" I thought, "They're really getting into this."

There were some awesome character concepts brought to the table, and the 3x3x3's provided some useful background ties I could use to add flavour to the campaign. Unfortunately (you'll soon see why) one of the players had brought a completed character sheet with him too.

It's at this point I should explain, for those that don't already know, that Serenity uses "Assets ¹ and Complications ²" to provide not only mechanical advantages, but roleplaying flavour, to the characters.

My friend had included five assets and five complications on his sheet. I explained that as a house rule, I normally only allow the equivalent of two major (there are also minor) per side of the sheet (assets, and complications). He proceeded to quote the Core book at me saying that he's keeping his sheet like that because it's in the rules. I explained my reasoning behind the house rule (even experienced players can find it hard to play that many interlinking assets and complications, it adds a lot to the character; and that I like to leave room for the characters to grow naturally through game play. By leaving empty slots, the character can gain assets/complications throughout events in the game (think Amputation)).

He still wanted to play with five assets and five complications. He argued that the character he'd thought up required all of the Assets and Complications and that taking any away would alter the character too much. Not wanting to upset and possibly make his first tabletop experience a bad one, I relented and allowed him to play with the full sheet.

A week later we met for the first session, which wasn't that great (my fault). Wanting to give my players a fun session I tried a different approach to a first session, and I think it failed. But that's another article.

Should I have stuck true to the house rule and had him alter his character? Should I have told my players of the house rule in the initial email in anticipation of them bringing created characters to the character generation sessions?

What house rules have to had to bend/ignore in order to keep your players happy? What's your opinion on "but the book says I can"?

eg. Lightin’ Reflexes (Major) which grants you a bonus to initiative ↩
eg. Blind (Major) which obviously means your character is blind; as such suffering negatives to things normally involving sight, such as moving through unfamiliar environments. ↩

tomorrow it begins

Fri Jun 10 23:29:24 +1000 2011

Just a quick post tonight before I sleep -- big weekend ahead -- Pheno weekend!

Tonight, walking into Pheno, I was surprised at how comfortable I felt. I first attended Pheno three years ago and still felt a little out of place, I had really only just started to get into Role Playing and the idea of actually attending a con both excited and frightened me.

"What if I'm just no good?"

"What if they laugh at me?"

Turns out I had nothing to worry about, the culture at Pheno (and as I found out in subsequent years, gaming in general ¹ ) is amazingly welcoming to new-comers. I've met some amazingly interesting people through my short time RPing, and many have become close friends.

I'm really looking forward to absorbing a weekend of gaming culture, and enjoying good games with good friends.

I intend to post daily reports of the games I'm playing, but as my con schedule is almost completely full, it might not be until after the con.

Heading to bed now, the first session starts at 9am and I need sleep.

It's true that gaming has it's fair share of people who break Wheaton's Law ↩

she makes some valid points

Tue May 24 22:26:01 +1000 2011

She makes some very valid points towards the end.

in which a bitch was rocked

Wed May 11 23:32:46 +1000 2011

"we took a small flight
in the middle of the night
from one tiny place to another"

Lullabye -- Ben Folds

Just got back from seeing @BenFolds in concert -- in two words; Fucking Amazing!

And yes, before you ask; I yelled, he listened, a bitch was rocked.