Son of Random Friday Links

I love the first sentence of this article.  I guess this goes under "our cool century".  (Hm, need to create a category for that.)

Speaking of things that are Awesome, I urge all American readers of this blog to write or e-mail their Senators in support of H.R. 392.  That is, of course, the bill that would extend the State Quarters beyond the fifty states, by issuing six additional quarters for Guam, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Northern Marianas Islands, and the District of Columbia. 

Yes, it was introduced by Eleanor "gummy residue of the Civil Rights Movement" Holmes Norton, but so what?  It's a great idea.  Think about it: if this bill doesn't pass, then after next year there will be no more new state quarters.  That tiny little thrill you feel sorting through your change, when you see a state quarter you haven't before?  That thrill you've had about forty-five times now?  It will end forever, unless H.R. 392 succeeds.

And if it does pass, the number of people who are aware of the existence of the Northern Marianas Islands will increase tenfold!  That has to be good.  So, if you have a Senator on the relevant committee, go now and do your civic duty.

(One caveat: the bill says that if a territory becomes a state or leaves the US before its coin is issued... then they lose their quarter.  So Puerto Rico will have to put that discussion on hold until 2010.)

This is about a video game, but it's how my first six months on this job felt.

Here's an article about arbitration, and how it's being used to screw consumers.  I find this interesting (because I've worked with arbitrators) and plausible (because I've worked with arbitrators).  It's Mother Jones, though, which means it's kind of a crappy article -- much indignation, not so many good cites.  I'd like to learn more. 

Isn't this one of those stories that should be getting more attention?  Who were these guys, and where did they get the stuff from, and how were they caught?  Will we ever know?

Okay, too serious.  Let's talk about Dungeons and Dragons.  The Fourth Edition of D&D will be out next May.  I started playing D&D in -- swallow hard, now -- 1979.  I thought Third Edition was good-to-excellent and I'm a bit worried that Fourth will, no way to put this nicely, suck.  This guy shares my concerns. 

(We'll put aside the question of whether, as a fortysomething guy who will probably be moving to someplace like Mongolia or Turkmenistan next year, this is in any way relevant to my life.  That's not important.  What's important is that D&D should not suck.)

Finally, here is what a page in Armenian looks like.  What do you think?

Comments

[Doug (not Muir)]

What's good about Third? Tho I'm not sure I even made it into Second as an active player. In things D&D and RPG-ish, I'm definitely old skool; I think I could still lay hands on accessories for Empire of the Petal Throne. On the othe rhand, I never actually owned the three little brown books but played with sets owned by friends' big brothers.

[Andrew R.]

Doug not-M,

3rd Edition is pretty darned elegant in its mechanics. The only number crunching that a player needs to do is basic addition, which the character sheet walks you through. I still am not entirely sure about the battle-mat, which I think in the hands of a sub-par DM can move it into tactical board game territory, but on the whole, the battle mat-centric combat avoids a lot of the ambiguity of:

"I stab the orc chief."

"No, you can't do that, you're standing behind Bob's character."

"No I'm not, I said last round that I step up in front of the orc chief."

"No you didn't..." &c.

My great worry with 4th Edition is that from all reports of what it's supposed to look like, they're going to World of Warcraft-ify it beyond all recognition. And then I'll be forced to quit in disgust and be left with only White Wolf (and I'm still not entirely sold on the new redaction of the World of Darkness).

[Doug (not Muir)]

"tactical board game territory"

You say that like it's a bad thing...

Ok, we generally had miniatures, or at least something physical to move around when combat happened, so there was reasonably clarity about whether or not Bob's character was between the stabber and the orc chief. Unless magic got involved and confused things...

(And for the record, I'm also a Doug M., just not Muir.)

[Gareth Wilson]

The problem with the fourth edition seems to be that they're trying to simultaneously upgrade the rules and create a new default campaign setting. The new game mechanics don't seem too bad but the details of the setting they've released are rather uneven. Some interesting ideas, but lots of silliness. They've got a tin ear for naming things too. Of course those are the problems which are most easily fixed by a DM.

[Doug (not Muir)]

Default campaign setting? I mean, why?

[Gareth Wilson]

They're probably trying to ease the creative burden on their customers. Not everyone is interested in worldbuilding, so it's understandable from a business point of view. But it's natural for the more serious gamers to find it a bit grating.