Thursday, June 30, 2016
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Monday, June 27, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
Monday, June 20, 2016
Monster Ecologies
Man I love my youtube subscribers and all their excellent comments!
I really do, it is the main reason I started making monster ecology videos, because that was the feedback I got from people.
This morning, I woke up and checked my comments feed, and there was a series of fairly abusive remarks from Alexis The Dragon, which started out kind of constructive, with corrections on how to pronounce Baator and Acheron, and comments about the conflicting tales of the origin of the Nine Hells, the version of the cosmology of the planes.. but, then it sort of went off the rails and ended up being just abusive, saying I was pulling information out of my ass, that I should not be making lore videos if I was not presenting canon information, etc.
Well, comments are a privilege, it is, after all, my channel, and rather than get into a pointless argument with someone who seems to expect me to be something I never claimed to be, that is, an expert on monster lore, I just blocked the comments and publically notified the channel what had happened.
See, I never claimed to be presenting nothing but absolute facts, a lot of what I draw from is wiki articles, blogs and such, also, the subject matter is far more complex than even my lengthy videos can cover.
Alexis pointed out that the Asmodeus lore is conflicting, and said he could not recall the other version.. yeah, which one?
The one where he was the archangel of a god who he killed and the Nine Hells was that former god's domain?
Well that is fine, as long as you ignore the complete rewrite that happened to all of that in the 80's due to religious persecution of the hobby.
Look at a first edition monster and compare it to a fifth edition version.. a lot of changes!
Which one is factually accurate?
Not important, because I am making videos about the current edition of the game, I may reference older information, but I try to stay on track with the current edition and just enrich the current world view.
So with the infernals and demons and fey and divine lore, it is going to be very muddled, but, people want to hear about it, so, I will do my best.
I never claimed to be the best, I have no obligation, my videos are just entertainment, designed to inspire ideas and allow DM's to sit back and think about the creatures, examine all the angles and bring interesting new facets to the game for the players. and themselves, to enjoy.
I am not a monster encyclopedia.
I'll answer questions as best I can, from the resources available to me, that is the best I can offer.
I really do, it is the main reason I started making monster ecology videos, because that was the feedback I got from people.
This morning, I woke up and checked my comments feed, and there was a series of fairly abusive remarks from Alexis The Dragon, which started out kind of constructive, with corrections on how to pronounce Baator and Acheron, and comments about the conflicting tales of the origin of the Nine Hells, the version of the cosmology of the planes.. but, then it sort of went off the rails and ended up being just abusive, saying I was pulling information out of my ass, that I should not be making lore videos if I was not presenting canon information, etc.
Well, comments are a privilege, it is, after all, my channel, and rather than get into a pointless argument with someone who seems to expect me to be something I never claimed to be, that is, an expert on monster lore, I just blocked the comments and publically notified the channel what had happened.
See, I never claimed to be presenting nothing but absolute facts, a lot of what I draw from is wiki articles, blogs and such, also, the subject matter is far more complex than even my lengthy videos can cover.
Alexis pointed out that the Asmodeus lore is conflicting, and said he could not recall the other version.. yeah, which one?
The one where he was the archangel of a god who he killed and the Nine Hells was that former god's domain?
Well that is fine, as long as you ignore the complete rewrite that happened to all of that in the 80's due to religious persecution of the hobby.
Look at a first edition monster and compare it to a fifth edition version.. a lot of changes!
Which one is factually accurate?
Not important, because I am making videos about the current edition of the game, I may reference older information, but I try to stay on track with the current edition and just enrich the current world view.
So with the infernals and demons and fey and divine lore, it is going to be very muddled, but, people want to hear about it, so, I will do my best.
I never claimed to be the best, I have no obligation, my videos are just entertainment, designed to inspire ideas and allow DM's to sit back and think about the creatures, examine all the angles and bring interesting new facets to the game for the players. and themselves, to enjoy.
I am not a monster encyclopedia.
I'll answer questions as best I can, from the resources available to me, that is the best I can offer.
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Friday, June 17, 2016
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
Plans within plans
What many who know me personally are aware of, is I love Frank Herbert's Dune series, I watch the movie on my birthday, every year, I have read all the books, played all the games, I think Herbert was a genius.
What many may know is that Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson and Jack Vance were all very good friends, and the magic system of Dungeons and Dragons is based on the concepts of Jack Vance.. this trio of authors wrote some of the best science fiction and fantasy stories in the world.
There is something to be said for writing as a team project, particularly for good friends who really inspire each other, without writing teams, we would never have had the Dragonlance series, for instance.
Currently, I am exchanging ideas for a writing project, which is all I can really say about it for the moment.. but the body of work includes some stuff which, I hope, will be fundamental concepts which go on to inspire others to create some really amazing things.
On my own, I can write a passable story, or design a fairly good set of twists and turns on an adventure, but when I am riffing with another creative and motivated person, I seem to act as a catalyst.. same thing with my monster ecology videos on Youtube, I am largely just collecting information in manuals, wikis and blogs or forums, and presenting a unified concept of a creature, according to how the larger body of D&D players have envisioned it.. this info is often contradictory and alters a lot between editions or even game systems (such as a creature shared between D&D and Pathfinder) but I have a knack for finding, filtering and presenting the information, and I can do this fairly quickly.. the bulk of the time in vid creation is finding image files, then there is a read through of the current manual listing, a search through popular and well archived wiki pages and following links listed as sources, which is a process that is just a matter of speed reading and looking for non-repeated information, this all gels in my head, and I turn on the mic and it all comes out of my head, as you hear it on the vids.. then I grab all the image files and slot them in, before making a title page and uploading it all.
All up, a vid usually takes me three to four hours, and I aim to upload twice a week.
Aside from the monster vids and collaborative writing, I have a few personal writing projects on the back burner, not really getting a lot done on those, but not dead, just.. simmering. I also get sculpting projects, and those typically suck up eight or nine hours a pop. I really have not managed to sell many, which is OK, I like having them around, and I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I have to churn out the same thing over and over again for a pay check, as that grind is the reason I don't draw very much.. I can draw, but I don't really want to draw for anyone, other than me... I tried an art career in graphic design and it was clearly not my artistic strong suit.. I should have just stuck with sculpture the whole way through.
Anyway, while I spent the last few years heavily involved in online forums, chats and facebook groups, that sucked up a crap load of my time and ended up being pretty damn vicious, so, no more of that shit.. There are some great places to contribute and participate, but I am done with creating or running social media hubs or running video chat games or writing guest articles for other people's sites.
Been there, done that, got the sweat shirt.
Time for other plans.
What many may know is that Frank Herbert, Poul Anderson and Jack Vance were all very good friends, and the magic system of Dungeons and Dragons is based on the concepts of Jack Vance.. this trio of authors wrote some of the best science fiction and fantasy stories in the world.
There is something to be said for writing as a team project, particularly for good friends who really inspire each other, without writing teams, we would never have had the Dragonlance series, for instance.
Currently, I am exchanging ideas for a writing project, which is all I can really say about it for the moment.. but the body of work includes some stuff which, I hope, will be fundamental concepts which go on to inspire others to create some really amazing things.
On my own, I can write a passable story, or design a fairly good set of twists and turns on an adventure, but when I am riffing with another creative and motivated person, I seem to act as a catalyst.. same thing with my monster ecology videos on Youtube, I am largely just collecting information in manuals, wikis and blogs or forums, and presenting a unified concept of a creature, according to how the larger body of D&D players have envisioned it.. this info is often contradictory and alters a lot between editions or even game systems (such as a creature shared between D&D and Pathfinder) but I have a knack for finding, filtering and presenting the information, and I can do this fairly quickly.. the bulk of the time in vid creation is finding image files, then there is a read through of the current manual listing, a search through popular and well archived wiki pages and following links listed as sources, which is a process that is just a matter of speed reading and looking for non-repeated information, this all gels in my head, and I turn on the mic and it all comes out of my head, as you hear it on the vids.. then I grab all the image files and slot them in, before making a title page and uploading it all.
All up, a vid usually takes me three to four hours, and I aim to upload twice a week.
Aside from the monster vids and collaborative writing, I have a few personal writing projects on the back burner, not really getting a lot done on those, but not dead, just.. simmering. I also get sculpting projects, and those typically suck up eight or nine hours a pop. I really have not managed to sell many, which is OK, I like having them around, and I don't want to be stuck in a situation where I have to churn out the same thing over and over again for a pay check, as that grind is the reason I don't draw very much.. I can draw, but I don't really want to draw for anyone, other than me... I tried an art career in graphic design and it was clearly not my artistic strong suit.. I should have just stuck with sculpture the whole way through.
Anyway, while I spent the last few years heavily involved in online forums, chats and facebook groups, that sucked up a crap load of my time and ended up being pretty damn vicious, so, no more of that shit.. There are some great places to contribute and participate, but I am done with creating or running social media hubs or running video chat games or writing guest articles for other people's sites.
Been there, done that, got the sweat shirt.
Time for other plans.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Friday, June 10, 2016
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Friday, June 3, 2016
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