Saturday Night Stock Characters

During COVID, Matt Johnson hosted a series of Collabo Dungeons. Participants selected a room and posted a description and a possible encounter on Matt's website. 

Here is what I posted in 2020. 

Location Seven. The Twins.

There are two women, twins, in the pit. They are identical in all ways save one. One woman wears a lead ring. When they become aware of the characters, they will both shout out for help. When the characters look in the pit, they will hear the following orders:

Twin with the ring: "Kill her! She's a demon!"
Twin without the ring: "Kill her! She's an idiot!"

They are both at the bottom of the pit and represent no threat to the characters in this state. They are both bloodied and bruised from the fall and each has a blackened right eye.

If the party rescues them, they will find out the following information. Twin One, the one with the ring is named Meredith. She entered the dungeon with her friends in search of treasure. She found a gold ring in area 8 and after discerning no purpose to it, put it on. She was pushed by a monster into the pit.

Twin Two, without the ring, was a doppelganger hiding in Area 8. To take on Meredith's form, she ambushed her by pushing her into the pit. Unfortunately for the monster, Meredith grabbed it's wrist as she fell and both ended up at the bottom. As the doppelganger took her form, Meredith shouted "Begone!" which the ring of wishes interpreted as a command against the monster. Since the doppelganger was in mid-transformation into Meredith, the ring fixed it in that form before turning to lead. The doppelganger is now an exact copy of Meredith.

The twins have found combat against each other to be profoundly lethal, as they mirror each other's moves perfectly, hence the matching black eyes. They will not fight each other. They will join the party to escape the dungeon.

At the time, I posted Meredith as unstated. I had envisioned Meredith as a young character, one who needed more wisdom. I supposed that she was an accursed thief or perhaps a mage. In rolling them up, I decided they were fighters. 

Them... They... In the room description, we find out how Meredith became a twin. 

I've given one of them a new name, Mercy. They have matching stats, experience and class, plus a few other surprises. In their time adventuring together, they have found a pair of Bracers of Defence, AC 4. In addition to this, they both have magic swords. These hand-and-half swords are also a matched pair like the Bracers. Each woman is vaguely annoyed that every treasure they find is a matching set. This is because they both want and value the same items. In reality, they have ignored other treasures as worthless because it wasn't what they wanted or valued.  

Meredith wields the sword Nine Lives. It is only +1 but it prevents her from being flanked or backstabbed. If someone attempts to flank or backstab her the attacker must make a saving throw versus parayzation. If the attacker fails this save, Meredith magically spins to face the attacker, negating their bonus. This can happen as many times in a combat round as there are flanking attackers. This does not allow Meredith an extra attack unless the person flees. 

Mercy wields a sword named Calico. This sword also has powerful magic. On the first swing in combat it is a +1 to attack and damage. On the next swing, it is +2. This continues until Mercy receives a +3, at which point the sword resets to +1. Mercy is a brutal fighter. She often draws Calico and makes two flourishing swings, which sets the sword to +3 from the get-go.  

The Bracers and the Swords are meant to be used by a single person, florentine style, not two different people. The Swords' special abilities work together, making the wielder nigh unstoppable. 

The Twins have several other nasty traits. First, Meredith is the original human and is identifiable by the lead ring. This is a helpful trait, sometimes. 

Next, the ring cannot be removed by any mechanism except a wish. Grabbing at the ring will unleash woe on the thief. They must save versus death, or collapse in a seizure for 2d6 rounds. They take no damage but will be horribly sick once the seizures end.  

Heaven help the person who tries to use a tool to get the ring, like a bolt cutter or knife to cut the ring (or finger) off. They will also need to save vs. death. If they succeed, they merely have the seizures described above. If they fail, they burst into flames for 1d6 points of damage per round AND have 1d6 rounds of seizures. Unless someone helps them, they will burn for the entire duration of the seizure. 

The third dangerous trait is Mercy only uses that name in Meredith's presence. In Meredith's absence, she reverts to using "Meredith". Since she is an exact copy of Meredith (except the ring) and knows everything she does. This can cause chaos for a party. Or a lover. Mercy does this to assume Meredith's place as if they were the same person. She does not intend harm to the people she fools, she only wants her rightful place the original woman. 

For this reason, the real and original Meredith is unperturbed by Mercy's behavior and ignores it. She will honor Mercy's promises in her stead and will easily forgive and forget other's missteps regarding Mercy's unseemly behavior. Mercy's adoption of Meredith's place is confusing, not malicious. They are effectively the same person and have the same goals and desires, but do not intend to share anything. 

Mercy and Meredith are pseudo-cursed to stay together. Since they are a matched pair, they always assume the other will be there for them. Separated, they suffer shortcomings from this expectation. Together, they are far more powerful and successful. 

Occasionally, circumstances cause them to come to blows. They will only slap, punch, and kick as their blows land on each other unerringly. They will not use weapons on one another as it would be instantly fatal. This quirk can foil charms, illusions, and other mind-altering magic as they see each other as the same person and will be resistant to interpreted self-harm. 

Content Preview - August 2024

I am back from hiatus and led with a post about the laser I purchased. My intention for the laser is to come up with new and unique content to support my gaming habits. I have no intention of transitioning to "Laser Dude", but the laser will help me transition to new types of content. Models and such. 

Here is a content preview which is my guidepost: 

As you can see, there is a lot of game content there. On the right is Dungeonland hiding under B1 and L1, a trio of favorites. On the other side of the image are the DragonLance modules. I would expect to see a couple of module reviews soon.  

Next to these are two Battletech products. My game plan is to alternate Mech Monday with Module Monday, so I don't burn out on one type of content. This will also drive me to do some painting. I hear some people actually paint models and figurines. I figured I'd give it a try and see if it's as rewarding as I hear. 

If you take black and white pictures,
painting skills don't matter.

Since I lost all of my game books, I have been carefully replacing the best of the best. I was mad at the loss of my D&D 3.x books. I took a step back and rather than replace them with difficult to find, out of print books, I figured I'd dive into Pathfinder. 3.x was my favorite generic ruleset as it was a toolkit for every 'verse. Yes, it's D&D but it can also be Star Wars, Farscape, Top Secret, or anything else you'd care to do. It's a very nice set. 

This isn't say my B/X content will disappear. I am hoping to get a weekly game going using the modules and my OSE sets to supplement content. 

As I figure out how to use this laser, I can squeeze laser content into my gaming and modeling posts. It seems reasonable. I have also signed up to be an affiliate for Creality company so there is an aspect or two monetization here. If I am able to crank out some nice gaming products and accessories, I would be happy to sell them to you. 

There is another aspect of monetization here. If you look to the right, you can see a small image of a game and a massive image of a bottle of wine. Unless something interesting happens, that large image will disappear. These types of links don't perform at all. 

I am formulating an idea for that space. Future you will see a bottle of wine in that space, but it won't be an ad. It will be something else. 

I hope you join me on this new adventure. 

Back with Frickin' Laser Beams!

I am back. And now I have a laser. 

I purchased the Creality Falcon2 22-watt laser with all of the trimmings. I have used a laser in the past, however, that machine was very next-level and way out of my price point. If you have the means, the Epilog series of lasers are amazing. I do not have the means but I set one up for the Buffalo Science Museum in 2013. 

I have dreamed of having my own machine and the Falcon2 was at my price point. 

Delivery was super quick and set up was "easy". I've had this machine for nearly two weeks and thanks to the Crowdstrike issue nuking every computer at work, I didn't get to unbox the Falcon2 for 12 days after delivery. 

I wanted to do an unboxing video, but I was too excited to film it and unboxing videos are not a habit I want to start. I will say the packing is excellent for both shipping and unboxing. They really thought out the consumer angle of this product. 

Setting up the laser is simple, but I would like to share some tips based on my background experience. These tips will draw on my time at Mattel/Fisher-Price and my experience with the Epilog laser. 

First, the Falcon2 has 60% of the power of the Epilog 35-watt system. This means the Falcon2 has less power needs and fewer protective systems. The Epilog is in a massive metal and glass box with specific venting methods set right into the frame. 

The Falcon2 only needs a tent with a fan to separate you from the laser. Additionally, the Falcon2 requires protective glasses despite having a plastic window on the tent AND a shield around the laser. Seriously, you only have two eyes so 3 layers of protection is good. 

Let's start with two issues I had with the tent. The tent sits on a plastic frame. The frame parts appear to be 3d printed plastic. It does require a bit of care assembling. Me and my hulk hands snapped one of the support tubes. 

This was laziness on my part. I could have used a little care or a dot of soap. 

The second issue I had was with the fan assembly for the tent. It comes with a fan shield.

PUT IT ON! 

Fans are devices with spinning blades. Despite everything Star Wars has taught me, they usually have covers. This prevents items like Jedi from jumping through them to destroy your Imperial Plans. 

It is a little-known fact that if you stick your fingers into a tiny fan to see if it is sucking or blowing, the blades always SUCK! 

In addition to the Falcon2 laser, I also purchased a very nice set of bandaids. If I had put the shield on the fan from the start, I could have saved a couple of bucks on bandaids.

Live and learn. 

Now we are to the third issue I had with this product. On my first try, the laser didn't work. It wouldn't even move. This indicates a firmware update is necessary. The process is pretty well documented, you simply load the file on to the provided SD card and stick the card in the SD card slot. This updates the main driver motors. 

Next, you load the laser head file on to the SD card and plug that into the laser head unit using the provided SD to USB-C connectors. It's odd, but it works. 

Having completed the update, the laser head moved and the air assist worked. But the laser would not fire. This one flummoxed me. I reached out to support to get help.  

They were ridiculously fast. I emailed at 9:45 pm and they responded by 5:00 am the next day. I was taken aback by the speed and the comprehensive support. They had me disassemble the laser head and check the internal connectors. This would have been daunting, but for the fact they provided all of the tools necessary to perform this check. They provided tools! 

Sadly, this was not my problem. 

Let's back up a bit and go to the same problem I always have... me. Remember how excited I was to assemble the product? I disassembled the whole thing and started over. This was not that hard. 

Before I go any further, I would like to explain the symptoms as they presented. 

Symptom One: the laser head and arm wouldn't move until I updated the firmware. Also, all of the lights blinked oddly. This was the red herring. After the update, the head and arm would move correctly including home and frame, and all of the lights gave correct/ready indicators including the laser, but the laser would not fire. 

On reassembly, I noticed something was off. There connector box on top of the arm for the laser head. When I pushed the connector in, it felt squishy. It also has a locking tab that would not lock. I couldn't see anything wrong until I used my camera.

In my haste, I bent a pin. It wasn't all that hard to push the pin back into place. I first tried the provided tweezers. That didn't work, they were a smidge too big. 

The next tool I reached for was an X-acto blade. It seemed like it would work, but I had just slashed my finger open on the fan so I put that down. What did do the trick was a clay sculpting tool. It has no sharp edges. 

I pushed the connector in and got the same squish. I thought I was being ham-handed again. Considering I already broke one part and stuck my finger into a spinning fan, this was highly probable.  

I fixed the pin again and took a better look at the problem. 

There are three cable management clips on the arm and the third leaves barely room to push the connector into the plug. Remember I mentioned they sent tools with the laser? 

One was an Allen wrench, the right size to remove the cable management clips. With that one clip removed, the connector was easy to fit, click and all. 

The last step was to put the clip back. I gave myself a lot of slack by homing the laser head and pulling the lines out of the way. The clip went back home and I had good cable management again. 

My Mattel/Fisher-Price training tells me they could have put this in the instructions but this isn't the typical consumer product. It's not like you are expecting a child to survive first contact with the beam.  

Since I was in troubleshooting mode, I simplified testing by loading one of the sample images to the SD card and disconnecting the laser from my computer. One problem at a time, right? 

I was immediately rewarded with the air assist powering up, the laser head homing and framing, and a brilliant blast of light. 

Within a few minutes, I had my first engraving. 

The image to the left shows the final product, not the process. You need to have all of that safety gear in place to use the laser. 

Like so: 

And so: 

And, also so: 

Ok. The smoke and CO detector was not actually provided with the device and is more of a nod to the fire that burned my house down once before. 

While you can read that as humor, it isn't. With the tent and fan in place and one window open, you can run this thing in your home without terrible odor problems. Even if your home includes 3 survivors of a fire who are sensitive to burning smells. So long as you have good ventilation. I would also like to point out the laser doesn't trigger a smoke detector 10 feet away in the same room. 

I suspect when I goof, it will trigger the detector, but I'll have to try harder to do that. Also, the product does have a built-in fire detector, so I'll have to try real hard. 

I polled four people on the smell and got some surprising reactions. 

Me, the guy who was not at home for the fire: It smelled alarming bad, like I was going to send my family into PTSD mode. 

Nathan, the kid who was outside but present for the fire: "The laser smells like smoke."

Catherine, the girl who got out last: "It smells like incense."

Kitty, my wife, ran back into the fire to save the cat and collapsed from smoke inhalation: "I can't smell anything." 

So, it does clearly smell funny but not that bad. 

I'd like to close with a final image, an improperly run speed vs power test. 

I cannot wait to get the hang of this and start making products. 

Spherical Hex Map

My last post generated two types of responses: 

"How did you wrap the hex map onto a globe?"

"You actually can't. It's been a quest of the computer games industry..."

This is a case of me working forward and backwards with some assistive tech to get a result. I want a globe covered with hexes and I already know that doesn't work so how did I do this? 

"Well, believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid... and I went ahead anyway."

"Map" and "hex" have specific mathematical meanings that don't apply to what I intend to do. The final image will be a drawing that might (I hope) look like a hex map on a globe. I am constrained by the paper's dimensions - 13 hexes wide and 9 hexes high (and each hex will be subdivided) to represent a drawing of a hex map on a hemisphere. 

The image on the left was a standard subdivided hex, distorted to look like it was bulging out of the page. It's constructed by a distorted hex, you can see where it literally becomes sketchy. 

The image below is a more refined and localized example of the same idea with some minor changes. 

The computer-generated hex map from Worldogragher is distorted to a hand-drawn globe with hex-like shapes. I used the simple icon set so I get a sense of how shapes distort like this. Virtually none of the points from the Worldographer map match the hand-drawn hex globe points. I am going to "bend" both images to something in between.

I am hoping for a piece of artwork that looks good and is compelling. 

Aside from the initial subdivided hex map that is flat, there is no math or code. It's done by hand to look good. 

You can download a set of normal hex map templates from DriveThruRPG here. 

          The Hex Pack

        The Hex Pack

I'm Still on Hiatus...

 I'm still on hiatus, but have a test file to share. 

What do you think?