02.09.10

Soteriology

Posted in orthodox at by mountzionryan

A quote:
Hell, after Christ, is no longer the place where the devil reigns and people suffer, but first and foremost it is the prison for the devil himself as well as for those who voluntarily decided to stay with him and share his fate. The sting of death was abolished by Christ and the walls of hell were destroyed. But “Death even without its sting is still powerful for us…Hell with its walls destroyed and its gates abolished is still filled with those, having left the narrow royal path of the cross leading to paradise, follow the broad way all their lives.”

From Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, “Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent of Christ into Hades in Eastern and Western Theological Traditions” November 2005. Accessed here. PDF here.

02.03.10

The Most Important Book

Posted in orthodox at by mountzionryan

In a series of talks given at the OCF College Conference 2009, Metropolitan Jonah had some pretty important things to say about learning and knowing the Scriptures. He said that the best book you can read for your spiritual life is the New Testament, followed closely by the Old Testament. As Orthodox Christians, he continued, we should know the scriptures inside and out, left and right, through and through. We should know them to such an extent that any Evangelical would be impressed.

It is easy, as an Orthodox Christian, to think I’m getting my quota of Scripture simply by attending the services. I mean aren’t like 75% of the services comprised of the scriptures? (I made that number up, but I think we can agree the Orthodox Services, use a lot of scripture).

This attitude is a trap. It is simply a rationalization for me to avoid reading the scriptures. I’ve tried in the past to make a habit of daily scripture reading…and always failed. Maybe I didn’t have the right translation. Maybe I needed some annotations, maybe the annotations are distracting. Now I need more “correct” annotations. Exactly how many excuses can I come up with? And the evil one simply laughs at me.

Last night I was reading about Elder Sophrony giving a disciple an obedience of reading the entire Gospel According to Saint John every day. Whew! But wait, exactly how much reading is that? By pasting the King James version into Word, using Times New Roman 12 Pt font, I get 25 pages. Not too bad.

If I am to make a habit of reading the scriptures, I need to start small, just like my prayer rule. So instead of the whole bible, I’ll concentrate on the Gospel According to St. John. And instead of the whole book, I’ll try three chapters. At 21 chapters total, that means I’ll get through it in a week.

01.26.10

On the Teaching of The Church

Posted in orthodox at by mountzionryan

In a comment1 over on his blog, Fr Stephen made this statement:

We should all be careful not to be in too much of a hurry about theological things. The point, always, is to truly know God. We should not hold doctrine as an opinion – a thing to be proved or argued. We should work and pray towards perceiving doctrine as a “verbal icon of Christ” (to use G. Florovsky’s phrase). In approach a dogma of the Church we should move with fear and trembling, and beg to know the mystery which has been given to us. Such knowledge changes us, works salvation within us (to some degree as we pray and fast, etc.).

The longer I am Orthodox, the less likekly I am to engage in apologetics with non-Orthodox folks, much less to debate theology. I am happy (when asked) to answer any questions I can, and direct those I can’t answer to a source for an answer. But even for the questions I can’t answer, I don’t fret or worry that I can’t answer them, especially questions about why we believe something. There is no “why”–save that it is the teaching of the church. For me this is enough.

Frankly, I have to struggle hard just to do the simple things: “Remember God. Say your prayers. Go to Church.”2

1-The post itself is worth a read and has little to do specifically with the comment I’m quoting.
2- This is the advice Fr Tom Hopko’s mother reportedly said to him when he left for seminary.

07.21.09

Music For My Friends

Posted in music at by mountzionryan

The first Icelandic musician I liked wasn’t Björk. In all honesty I’m still not really familiar with her work. No, the first Icelandic musician to hit my radar was Sigur Rós. Namely their song Starálfur from the The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Soundtrack. Oddly enough this coincided with my facination with Iceland in general.

Calling out all the music from particular country is somewhat silly. I mean, what is common in ‘American Music?’ Johnny Cash, Brittney Spears, and Philip Glass? But as I listen to it, much Icelandic music shares a sense of magic and wonder, even if I can’t understand what their singing about.
So here a collection of

Icelandic Music

Sigur Rós
Ágaetis Byrjun (1999) All of their albums are great, but this is where you should start. This is the album that had Pitchfork claim that “they are the first vital band of the 21st Century.”
My favorite is “Staralfur” or “Ágaetis Byrjun”.

múm
Summer Make Good (2004) After the ethereal quality of Sigur Ros, múm has a rougher, more urban sound, but they could definitely sit in the same rotation. Call it experiemental, electronica, or glitch, I don’t know and don’t really care.
Check out “Weeping Rock, Rock” and “Nightly Cares”.

Ólöf Arnalds
Við og við (2007) Ms. Arnalds was/is a member of múm, but her debut album bears almost no resemblence. She sings in Icelandic, so I can’t help with what the songs mean, but they are fantastic. [I previously featured Ólöf Arnalds in MFMF Around World 5 Albums, which I will now shamelessly copy] Ms. Arnalds is Icelandic and perpetuates the notion that Icelandic musicians are weird (Sigur Rós, Björk, Múm). These lovely minimalist folk songs are almost always just her voice and her spectacular finger picking (guiter and charango).
I really can’t pick one or two favorite tracks, but here’s some samples from YouTube. “Klara” , “Vittu Af Me´r” or “Í Nýju Húsi”.

Lay Low
Farewell Good Night’s Sleep (2009) Lay Low is the stage name of Lovísa Elísabet Sigrúnardóttir. (So we’ll call her Lay Low, alright?) The songs are a country/folk/blues/jazz managerie. She has some of the breathy voice of Ólöf Arnalds or Björk, but I put Lay Low in the same category as Loretta Lyne or Patsy Cline.
Lend your ear to “By and By” and “Last Time Around”.

Seabear and Sin Fang Bous
The Ghost That Carried Us Away (2007)
Clangour (2009)
I debated about putting these two together because Sin Fang Bous is the solo project of Seabear frontman Sindri Mar Sigfusson. It might be folk-pop with glitch thrown in for good measure. Seabear/Sin Fang Bous is Iceland’s answer to Sufjan Stevens and frankly I think I prefer the former. Sin fang Bous also sounds similar to Radical Face (an American one-man group I’d call folk-pop/glitch).

For Seabear check out “Seashell”, “Arms” (here’s a live version which is really nice) and “Hands Remember”

Sin Fang Bous shines on “Clangour and Flutes”, “Advent in ives garden” and Sinkership. (I couldn’t find a video but it’s my favorite track.)

Sprengjuhöllin
Bestu Kveðjur (2008) & Sprengjuhöllin (2008) Another double-shot here. First of all sprengjuhöllin translates as “Palace of Explosions”–which is just awesome. Sprengjuhöllin has tastes of 60s pop, psychedelic rock, and I maybe a hint of New Wave from time to time. Several songs remind me of the Beatles. The Self titled album has a roungh sound (in a good way) but suffers from being all over the place stylistically. Bestu Kveðjur, on the other hand, is more focused, more ambitious, and more produced. Sprengjuhöllin smashes the fairy/nature/trippy stereotype of Icelandic music. They ROCK.
Highlights from Sprengjuhöllin include “Worry Til Spring” (the only song in English), “Glúmur”. I couldn’t find more decent videos, check out the samples linked above. These guys are great.

06.05.09

1 Page Dungeon Contest Entry

Posted in gaming at by mountzionryan

My entry for the OPD contest is called Tomb of the Sea Wraith and can be found below. the list of entries, many linked, can be found here.

I was really excited to work on this–a project whose scope I can handle! I even started working on a Temple of the Croc Gods. Crocs are my personal GMing trope. Nearly every campaign I have run with my current group has a croc somewhere. Even my Deadlands game had a friendly lady werecroc.

But then I realized I was making a very cliched dungeon-no way to win a contest. So I scrapped it and started from scratch. I asked myself what would make an interesting scenario. How about an combining things that don’t belong together..like ships…and dungeons. Oh and a giant squid monster.

So we’ve got an underground ship, the titular Sea Wraith, and a giant squid monster trapped together underground.

The other thing I did was to use a diamond grid (or whatever the technical term is) for a 3-D look. I think it works better for a ship, and gives me more real estate to add some flavor text and a picture.

Have fun!

Tomb of the Sea Wraith

06.04.09

Dokkodo Duels, cont.

Posted in Dokkodo, Uncategorized, gaming at by mountzionryan

Speaking with Jason at lunch and talking about Dokkodo duels. Had some positive feedback and interesting ideas. Because dueling is deterministic (no randomizer) he suggested adding a few more decision points (speed, feint, false attitude)

Current pieces of a duel:
Ryu: Determines values for 5 Attitudes
Ryu Rank: Added to Attitude Rank for final comparison
5 Attitudes: The 5 “techniques” of each ryu: Upper, Middle, Lower, Right Side, Left Side. Has a strike and defend value.
Strike: The offensive value for an attitude
Defense: The defensive value for an attitude.
Attack: A specific combat maneuver. If successful, does damage.
Probe: A specific combat maneuver. If successful, reveals a weakness (gives a bonus to next Attack, cumulative over multiple tests.)

I am considering making dueling like a card game: You begin with 5 Attitude Cards, 1 Attack Card, 1 Probe Card, and any other cards (okuden, special weapons, etc).

You lay your Attitude card face down (the reverse shows what attitude it is, obverse show the stats) and either the Attack or Probe card. You zen out your opponent and can change cards at any time. When one declares attack, the other gets to change cards one more time. Then revela all cards and compare.

I love the deterministic/fatalistic way this sounds (no randomizer) and the fact that a highly experienced bushi would have several attitudes that he was hittable by lesser foes.

Dokkodo Design Goals and combat notes

Posted in Dokkodo, gaming at by mountzionryan

Thanks to an Amazon gift card for my birthday I was reading some new (to me) volumes of Usagi Yojimbo last night. And this got me churning on Dokkodo.

I started by reviewing GRG’s Usagi Yojimbo RPG. I love this game–even though I’ve never played it. It reads really well and captures the feel of the game. Usagi Yojimbo’s Japan is perfect for an RPG, just enough depth to be satisfying, but with plenty of room for players and GMs to bend and stretch without “screwing-up.”

I also like the “rock-paper-scissors” combat mechanic. But parts of it don’t seem well integrated with Instant Fuzon and I am still not sure how the normal Instant Fuzion combat maneuvers work with rock-paper-scissors. Also, some of the special abilities aren’t mechanically well defined (Dog and pig for example)

So I made a character. I didn’t dig too deep, just species (dog), occupation (retainer), and extra skill points. As I was doing this I was also digging around the combat rules…which led to notes on Dokkodo.

Some Design Goals:

  • Edo Period
  • Fights are quick
  • vs. minions/mooks 1 hit=1 kill; also dispatch many easily
  • vs. named opponents combat is very deadly (what do I mean by very deadly?)
  • Duels have a “stare-down” phae with mechanical impact
  • Duels have a “testing oponents technique” options that look for a weakness. These techniques would kill a mook
  • lethality of combat encourages social solutions
  • culturally relevant mechanic (cho-han, shoji, go, prayer slips as inspiration)
  • 5 attitudes of Swordsmanship from Go Rin No Sho
    1. Upper
    2. Middle
    3. Lower
    4. Right side
    5. Left Side
  • Use of Ryu and Okuden
  • 21 Precepts of Dokkodo–this should be obvious

I immediately started thinking about how the 5 Attitudes could be used in combat. I am no martial artist, and hove no idea how these things really work, but as part of an RPG here’s my current thoughts.

Characters are trained in a specific Ryu. Each Ryu teaches some weapons and other techniques.
For combat each Ryu has an attack and defense rating for each attitude. So If you take the Upper attitude, you might have a 4 Strike and 2 Defense.

Oppents choose to attack or test. Test is a way of finding an opening in your opponent’s technique.
Opponents secretly choose what attitude they are using (playing cards would work well for this: Red for Strike, Black for Defend). Opponents compare the Strike and Defense of their attitudes (which are different for each Ryu) and determine the results.

If Attacking: Strike>Defense=Damage (difference of Strike and Defend as a multiplier?)*
If Testing: Strinke>Defense=Bonus to next turn (difference of Strike and Defend)
If Defense is greater, no change.

* I want single strike kills possible. Need to calibrate this so that minor strike is wounding, major strike is crippling, and a fatal strike is fatal.

I still need to figure out how ones skill in combat works. Perhaps rated 1-5 and added to the Strike/Defense values.

Before any of this, I want to have a sizing -up your opponnent, wherein you may get some indication of their abilities.

I love how fatalistic this is. There is no randomizer beyond the picking attitude in secret.

05.26.09

Dice Mechanic for Dokkodo

Posted in Dokkodo, gaming at by mountzionryan

Perhaps find a way to use Cho-Han as a dice mechanic for Dokkodo. From what Wikipedia says, it’s a very simple even/odds game. I wonder how a game of 50/50 odds became so popular.

System Notes on Dokkodo

Posted in Dokkodo, gaming at by mountzionryan

The Dokkodo contains 21 precepts.
Each precept is rated according to how well you have mastered it. Sensei 2, Student 1, Aware 0, unpracticed -1, fool -2.

If you act against a precept you must subtract a point from it. If it is already at -2, subtract from another, related precept.

Perhaps Precepts should be divided into categories:
Self/Others/Worlds
Self/World
Interior/Exterior

Perhaps based on the eight-fold path?
Right View
Right Intention
Right Speech
Right Action
Right Livelihood
Right Effort
Right Mindfulness
Right Concentration

05.12.09

Asymmetrical RPG parties

Posted in Uncategorized at by mountzionryan

A little Background:

A friend Jason and I were discussing asymmetrical parties in RPGs, movies, and literature. By asymmetrical I mean that the individual party members are not ‘balanced’ in the traditional RPG definition. Many movies and books that would serve as inspirational sources for RPGs feature this lack of party balance. I think party balance is overrated and would enjoy playing a game where the little guy has as much story power (as opposed to actual combat effectiveness) as the big guy.

A classic example is The Fellowship of the Ring. If played as a traditional RPG with rules that force “balanced” characters you either end up with Gandalf the Mighty 1st level push-over or Super Sam, Titan of Shire.

The basic idea:

Jason had the idea of Story Points. The number of story points available to a character is inversely proportional to how powerful they are. Story Points (SPs) can be used to automatically succeed a task, do max damage, or change the scene in a significant way (did I hear Eagles).

For example:
Gandalf is a badass demi-god magician and has 0 Story Points.
Aragorn is a superhuman fighter-soon to be ruler of everyone has 1 SPs.
Frodo has the ring but he’s still a hobbit so he gets 3 SPs.
Sam, Merry, and Pippen don’t have shit mechanically, but they have 5 SPs.

So a Merry can scamper around Pelennor Fields, avoiding orcs and such, then (spend an SP) deal a deadly blow to the Lord of the Nazgul.

I really liked the idea and decided to see how I could implement it in Savage Worlds (as yet untested).

Here goes:

  1. Begin with 5 Story Points
  2. Each story point may be exchanged for an advance (i.e. 5 Experience Points). Once spent for XP, they are gone forever.
  3. After Chargen, SPs may be exchanged for 5 xp anytime there is “training time” in the game. Once spent for XP, they are gone forever.
  4. Any story points not converted to XP may be used during play in the following ways
    1. To roll the maximum face for your roll. You may then continue rolling to see if they explode again. If trying to hit a parry of 10. You roll d8 & d6. Spend an SP to start at 8 and 6 then roll again to add. If you rolled a 7 and 5, your final total would be 15, hit with a raise!
    2. Narrate some significant change. This only only effect gear and the environment, not an enemies abilities or weaknesses.
    3. Regain all spent bennies.
    4. Out for the count. Reduce all damage from a Incapacitating blow, but still incapacitated.
  5. Story Points regenerate at the beginning of an Adventure/Chapter.

I haven’t really checked to see how well these jive with canon uses for Bennies, but I’d like to give it a try.

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