From “La Morte’s Guide to the Cultures of the West”, required reading for all aspiring diplomats in the Atharan diplomatic corps.
“Of all the cultures in the West, probably the hardest to engage with are the people of Rhythikos. Even disregarding their exotic appearance, outsiders generally find the Rhyth aloof, dismissive and incomprehensibly morbid, a perception the Rhyth themselves seem unconcerned with challenging. And indeed, unless one takes the time to understand the Rhythi world view, this opinion of them seems a rather fitting one.
But it is that unique Rhythi perspective which is the key to understanding the Rhyth as a people, a perspective rooted in a fairly simple, if somewhat unusual, idea. Most modern cultures see the chain of human life as beginning at birth and ending with death, a clearly defined span of years. We are here, now, alive and vital. When we die our families mourn, our remains are interred in whatever manner cultural ritual dictates and then the living get back on with living, leaving the dead to fading memory and rot. Our lives end in death.
Not so for the Rhyth. For them the distinction between living and dead is a minor one, death itself a mere transition from one state of existence to the next, as adolescence is a transition from child to adult. In fact, if you spend any length of time in their lands you will begin to suspect that the dead play a more vigorous role in events than the living in Rhythikos.
It is this lack of conceptual separation between life and death that truly distinguishes the Rhyth from the other cultures of the West. While yes, we may be inclined to hold up our many and varied religions and say that we, too, believe in an existence after death, our beliefs hold in their core a comfortable separation, a distinction between that afterlife and our own day-to-day existence. The dead may still exist, somewhere, but that somewhere is a distant, unknowable place, one far removed from the life we lead in the here and now. In Athar we revere our dead, remember them as they were in life and pray for their wellbeing. But the Rhyth, the Rhyth walk hand-in-hand with their dead, they speak to them, consult with them, they even make places in their homes and at their tables for them. For the Rhyth, the dead are as much a part of society as the living.
To see existence in light of this attitude is to begin to understand the Rhythi nature. If one were to enter the home of a friend and fail to greet his wife, or to treat his mother without the proper respect, how would one expect that friend to react? For the Rhyth a living wife or mother is no more worthy of consideration than a long dead ancestor. To enter a Rhythi home without first offering homage to the family ancestors is a sign of deep disrespect. No wonder Westerners find the Rhythi aloof, cold, to the Rhyth we must seem boorish and disrespectful.
With this new understanding, the relevance of the the careful ritual with which the Rhythi undertake even minor tasks emerges. A Rhythi warrior who takes up a weapon must first ask the blessing of those who wielded the weapon before him, lest those fallen warriors seek to wrest the weapon from his hands in battle and cause a strike to go awry. A Rhythi family must set aside food at their table for their ancestors or run the risk of angering those same ancestors with their lack of propriety, causing them to withdraw their blessings of protection from the household.
Perhaps it is this deeply ingrained sense of propriety which has led to Rhythi society being so rigidly hierarchical. While Rhythikos is arguably one of the oldest civilizations on this continent, the Rhyth have yet to embrace some of the more forward-thinking philosophies of the younger nations. Rhyth society is strictly divided along gender lines, the men concerning themselves with agriculture, politics and warfare, while the women tend to the home and household, as well as the social and spiritual needs of the broader community. While this strict division, together with the fact that in Rhythi society a man of status may take multiple wives, might seem to imply that Rhythikos is Patriarchical in nature, as Koeth is, the reverse is in fact true.
Again, remembering the importance that the spirits of ancestors play within Rhythi culture, it should be a point of no little significance that the Rhythi priest class consists entirely of women, women who have given birth at least once, no less. These Unanja, these “Spirit Tongues”, are the mouthpieces of the ancestors, the doorway through which the wisdom of the dead is passed onto the living. The Rhyth as a rule do nothing of significance without first consulting an Unanja, whether choosing a wife, building a farmstead or pursuing a diplomatic treaty, an Unanja is almost always in the periphery, advising, holding council with the ancestors. Make no mistake, Rhythikos is a Matriarchy, and a strong one. Do not forget that it is that strength of the Unanja and their connection with the Rhythi spirits that single-handedly held off the might of the Talurian Empire centuries ago. None who are wise would dismiss the Unanja as mere witch-women, or forget the their influence over the Rhythi way of life.
…
Rhyth encountered outside Rhythikos are almost invariably the so-called “Manadi”. The title, which means “Lost Child”, is a less than complimentary one bestowed on those Rhyth who choose to permanently leave their ancestral homes and families, to explore and settle in foreign lands. Their integration with Western culture at large is a matter of some conflict for the more traditional Rhyth, though there doesn’t seem to be any explicit prohibition against doing so in Rhythi law. These Manadi were almost unheard of in the centuries following the Talurian Occupation but have become somewhat more common in recent years. There have been rumors of some sort of growing movement for social change in Rhythikos, but the Rhyth themselves have been fairly reticent on the topic, even when pressed.”
One other thing. I did mention how my social life issues have sapped my will to engage in “creative output” for a while. Well, this morning, for the first time in 2 months, I picked up my pencil and did a bit of sketching before breakfast. 
So, for the handful of people who are interested, the Art Blog lives again. Enjoy. And it even has gratuitous nudity! 
Arbitrary filler post incoming! Sorry, I’ll do a proper SoW post tomorrow, I’m busy fixing bitmap gui texture swap code at the moment and writing up a decent post seems like a misuse of available resources (my time). But I will set aside some of that time tomorrow, spending all my time working isn’t going to help in the long run if everyone loses interest and wanders away. Juggling, not just for circus folk! If you really need a quick SoW fix have a gander at Zach’s Stealth Equipment thread on ITS, there is a pretty concept page to look at and some discussion. It’s degenerating into that old favorite “Mini-games suck!/Well I enjoy mini-games!” discussion, but ah well.
So instead of anything meaningful you get pictures of my birthday party, yay! I turned 27 last week. Yes, the march to 30 continues relentlessly. Gad, if I turn 30, what next? 40? 50? 18? No, already done 18, wouldn’t want to go back anyway, I was chubby and had pimples. Let’s not do that again. Also, I like buying stuff I want. Bit advantage of the not-18 state, buying stuff. Like my new TV.
Also, I get into clubs without being asked for ID now. Another plus. Especially when the theme is Zombie Strippers at the local alternate club. I’ll include a picture since Kris kept asking for one. Sadly it’s blurry and doesn’t actually have any Zombie Strippers in it. I was distracted that night and not even Zombie Strippers could grab my attention. A story for another time, perhaps. Anyway, a fuzzy picture of the metal band that was playing, this one is for you Kris :
Right, onto the birthday party. I went out to dinner with friends. Yes, I’m wild and original like that. Or I’m getting too old to really be arsed about celebrating birthdays much. Nevertheless, I had a lot of fun. Good company and all that.
Pics of the attendees :
Denbeigh and Shirley (you have to excuse her shennanigans, she is short. It must be the air down there, smells like feet all the time, I’d imagine.)
My brother Andrew and his girlfriend Chloe. Abject terror is the only appropriate response when confronted with that dreaded “let’s take a few photos of everyone” moment.
Hatish and Bhavna
Gareth squared (Gareth and another Gareth. Fear us, for we are Legion.)
Ian. Who usually manages to hide himself behind the camera. Not this time mate.
And then there was this pair of random hoodies who somehow managed to sneak into the restaurant and began stealing all our food. Filthy hoodies, is nowhere safe from their depredations? (Warwick and Sandra)
Denbeigh also made me a great cake. Mmmm, delicious. Luckily, it’s a well known fact that calories cannot be absorbed on your birthday.
Which reminds me, I still have some of that in the fridge…
Jay posted up a piece on his blog recently about whether old games, such as those offered by GOG.COM, are a threat to indies. It’s a claim that I’ve seen on forums before, the “why buy a Vogel title when you can pick up Fallout, Arcanum and Vampire:Bloodlines for the same price? Or the entire Baldurs Gate series?”.
After all, these old games have mainstream production values and resources behind them, their graphics, while dated, are more than competitive with what an indie can produce, they have existing word-of-mouth and critical acclaim as advertising and it costs their developers very little to release them as gold titles. How can indies compete with that?
I don’t know, how does the hamburger I’m going to eat now compete with the better one I ate 2 weeks ago?
People are forgetting that games are a consumable form of entertainment. Like movies, like food itself. You consume it, then it is over. Sure, some are replayable or have some other form of longevity like online competition but the fact is eventually you’re done with it. And this does not imply that you won’t get hungry for that type of “meal” again shortly. Me, these days I am ALWAYS HUNGRY, my primary taste is RPGs and I am starving here, they (the mainstream industry) just aren’t feeding me quick enough to keep me satiated. At best I get a decent “meal” once every 2 years then go back to feeling hungry again.
So sure, maybe I haven’t played some of those older games and can get some sustenance from them. Once that is done, then what? I’m still going to be hungry tomorrow. And the next day. And guess what, mainstream games are taking longer and longer to make, meaning the flow of games heading to the “golden oldie” pile is getting slower and slower. Which is also only meaningful if you assume I haven’t played the modern games. Since I am a fan now I play them as they come out, so the fact that they will eventually be on GOG doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. All GOG means is that I can play some titles I missed when I was younger and poorer.
I suppose there is the idea of the “new gamer”, the bright-eyed young thing who is going to be an RPG fanatic and doesn’t realize it yet. They will probably get the most from GOG, discovering enough titles to keep them entertained for a good while before they feel the need to consider indie titles. I suppose. But I remember my youth and I seem to remember feeling the same hunger even back then. Even when games were quicker and cheaper to make, they didn’t produce new games at anywhere near the speed at which I consumed them. So I’m willing to lay good odds that said bright-eyed RPG fan will quickly burn through the backlog of titles and then go looking for MORE to satisfy them.
And they will hit the same wall I have. And when they do, I will be waiting here for them. “Hey kid, you like RPGs? Take a look at what I’ve got here…”
Better yet, they will have cut their teeth on games whose graphics don’t match the current mainstream norm. So there will hopefully be less whining about the graphics. Well, maybe. I have learned not to underestimate the human capacity to whine. 
Hah. I am both surprised and impressed. Despite my lack of activity recently this blog continues to receive a fairly steady stream of visitors each day, hoping to find a new post up no doubt. Thank you, your interest and faith is appreciated.
I am not sure how it seems, from the other side of the “internet wall”. Perhaps I appear to have sunk into depression or something. That isn’t really the case. The simple reality is that the game dev and blogging is creative output, the key word being “output”. With the break-up I have worked to fill the hole left behind by the ex, filling it up with “myself”, the things and activities I enjoy. I have in fact gorged on those things, taking a vacation from all responsibility by playing games, re-dedicating myself to my exercise, going to nightclubs and dancing/drinking the night away, impulse buying, reading A LOT.
The point is that it is hard to give, to output, when I haven’t had enough for myself. I have needed to take for myself, to turn inward and heal the wound, before being really able to give.
Which is all a really overblown way of saying what could be said in one sentence, that I just needed some time for myself. But hey, I got a blog post out of it, right? Score!
His sword-grip slick with sweat, Perseus crept through the dank cavern. Sibilant whispers echoed softly around him, their source maddeningly unknown. She was here, somewhere, waiting. Despite Hades’ cap hiding him from sight, he could feel her watching him, that tingling anticipation of a blow between his shoulder blades, the incessant urge to whirl round and confront the lurking shadows.
The attack, when it came, was a relief. The cavern wall to his left shifted, cunningly-dyed cloth flung aside to reveal a womanly figure. With a scream of triumph, the Medusa flung back her hood, her terrible, petrifying countenance revealed as she leaped towards Perseus, vipers lashing her shoulders.
Luckily, Perseus made his saving throw versus petrification.
Grinning savagely at the look of surprise on the fiend’s face, Perseus drew back his blade for a powerful, two-handed blow. He’d thought about taking the mirrored shield with him but had decided to trust in the resistance granted by the arcane knick-knacks stored about his person. Besides, he did more damage with a two-handed sword.
A single cleaving strike and it was done, the beast’s head spinning away into darkness. Flicking his blade to clear it of black blood, Perseus prepared to search the cavern for the Medusa’s treasure. Had to be somewhere…
The terrible shriek behind him sent ice running through his veins. Spinning, Perseus saw his doom surge towards him. An Ultra-Medusa, similar to a normal medusa but green-tinged, a beast whose terrible curse is much harder to resist. Even as he lifted his sword, Perseus felt lethargy spread through his chest, his limbs refusing to answer his need. The world went dim, then very bright, then…nothing.
Has anyone every run into this problem, when playing Game Master? You setup some cool encounter with a clever twist required to solve it, like using a mirrored shield to target the enemy indirectly, only to have the player’s “brute force” the problem? And while you do want to encourage players to think of alternate solutions to your challenges, brute force is not particularly imaginative, is it?
The problem is one of quantification. By quantifying everything, you rob things of their mystery, make them less “special”. The legendary Medusa’s gaze isn’t universally deadly, it’s only deadly if you’re under level 10, otherwise it’s simply a minor inconvenience.
And sure, you could simply set the numbers higher. But any level you set them to implies that it is possible to achieve a protection that renders that insignificant. Some things shouldn’t have numeric values attached to them. They should be boolean, true or false. You look the Medusa in the eye and it’s garden ornament time for you, mate.
One of the joys of running low powered campaigns is that you can put in monsters like a Medusa and have their powers be effectively deadly, due to the low level of the player character’s “numbers”. With brute force not an option, cunning and roleplay comes to the fore. But, when the higher levels open up to players, what would have been an instant death encounter becomes a speed bump. So what happens? Design escalation. Since the Medusa wasn’t challenging, let’s introduce the Ultra-Medusa! Essentially the same beastie, just more potent and with some superficial variation to make it distinguishable.
But this simply compounds the problem with quantifying the Medusa’s power in the first place. By introducing Medusa v2.0, you rob Medusa of a feeling of uniqueness, that sense that this is a “special” or legendary creature. Now it’s just another monster.
And these days, most designers have a “more is better!” approach to design. More creatures, more spells, more magic items. If game A has 20 monster types, the sequel needs to have 50! Designers brag that their games have hundreds of thousands of magical items! That’s not something to brag about.
These designers fail to grasp their mistake. By adding more, they subtract value from the existing pool or enemies and items. Nothing is special or epic or legendary anymore, none of those buzzwords that people like to throw around.
In SoW, I am taking a different approach. Monsters are rare, special, and I hope interesting. And legendary creatures/items are legendary. Which, generally, translates into highly lethal. If people for a league around a cave talk about how dangerous the creature that lives there is, listen to them. I will warn players before instant death encounters, but it’s a warning you can miss or ignore if you want to. So pay attention
I’ll end with the introduction of one such item (and a hint of the legendary creature that spawned it). I’ve mentioned it before, some of you will recall.
The Black Spear of Anados : A legendary artifact, even the slightest scratch from the Spear poisons the blood of it’s victim with the tainted essence of the Imaarian Lion. Short of direct intervention by a Power, the victim’s fate is sealed, death claims them within an hour.
I’m really not joking in that description. If you choose to go head-to-head with Kayd, best make sure he doesn’t hit you with the Spear somehow. Nothing short of divine intervention or the rarest of magical artifacts can save you once the taint is in your blood. Then again, it might be worth it to own such a power, yes? 
Life is a bit topsy-turvy right now, indeed.
So I broke up with my girlfriend about 3 or 4 weeks ago, right? Unsurprisingly, life hasn’t been a bed of roses since then. Emotional ups and downs, sorting out stuff now that our two lives have taken separate paths, etc etc. You live with someone for 3 years and then they are gone and it leaves this big gaping hole in your life. Sure, it helps that we parted as friends but there is still a missing part of you where the other person used to be.
Did I mention that Denbeigh was my first girlfriend? Yeah, I’m a giant geek and a pretty late starter to this kind of thing. I read and played DnD/computer games through my teen years, sue me. I have yet to decide if it would have been better or worse to start mucking about with relationships earlier, part of me is grateful to have skipped that teenage crap. I think teenagers annoyed the hell out of me even when I was a teenager. Tiresome cretins.
But the point is, first time round the wheel for me. So I’m working out the best way to deal with these things as I go along. Everyone has advice of course, most of it conflicting. “Bad idea to stay friends with your ex!” / “Good on you for being mature and staying friends with your ex!”, “go out and get pissed/laid!”, “take some time to recover before you start dating” blah blah blah. Everyone means well, of course, just trying to help ease your pain, but you really just have to find what works for you, like most things in life. I’ve just followed whatever “feels right”. I have good instincts, when I don’t second guess them.
Personally, I find it juvenile to break up with someone amicably and then just cut all ties, like a teenager who can’t deal with their angst (you’ll have sensed a pattern by now, with my contempt for teenagers. Sorry if I have any teenagers reading this blog, I was one myself once. You have to admit, most of your contemporaries are insipid creatures, yes?). You shared your life with someone for years, don’t see why you have to cut them off completely unless they did something shit-headed to cause the break-up. So I’ve tried to stick to that and remain friends with Denbeigh.
It’s worked, mostly. But it leaves you in a weird place. For example, I went to visit her and the new kitten she acquired to help fill that hole I talked about for her, and we’re chatting and I’m playing with Ramsey and she is making me supper and it’s just …it’s the same as it’s been for 3 years, comfortable, easy, familiar. Except it’s in her new apartment and I’m going to go back home shortly. With “home” in this case being our old flat which feels less familiar than her new place because all her furniture is missing. Just…mindfuck.
I may be swearing a bit more than usual, sorry. I try to restrain that, usually. Usually.
And then there is the future. Hells, what do I do now? Well…it appears I do the same thing as when we were together, just without the companionship. I used to be a complete lone wolf, weird now, to keep looking at my phone expecting an sms, to do/see/read things that I want to tell her about and then…not. Amazing how far you let this other person into yourself, something you only truly understand when they are gone.
Which probably sounds very mopey. It’s not, I’m just writing about something that I’m probably the last of my peer group to experience, heh. I used to care about that, used to think I was “missing out” or “behind the curve” or something, until I realised it’s not a race or a competition, everyone is just stumbling around in the dark trying to find some sort of meaning for themselves. You can’t take on someone else’s truth, you can only try to find your own. And, fuck it, I’m happy with the way my life has gone, even at this point.
Which isn’t to say there haven’t been…hiccups. I went out with my brother and his friends the other week. Was a fun night and I managed to, almost accidentally, pretty much pick up a cute rocker girl. I say “pretty much” because I didn’t take her home with me. I was tempted, certainly, but I remembered myself in time and hugged her goodbye, to a very confused look. So long and thanks for all the flirting, etc. (If you didn’t get the hitchhikers guide reference, then dammit you’re a heathen ) Perhaps my will power will crumble in 6 months of being alone, perhaps, but for now the Paladin’s Code holds fast even in the face of really short skirts and those torn stockings and high leather boots and…fuck, what was I talking about, I’ve lost my place?
Um, right, so I saved myself from terrible peril, but I was in a fairly good mood, regardless. I’ve never really been the type to pick up women in bars, and while I know it’s not exactly a great feat, it is fairly gratifying, after ending a long term relationship, to flirt and be flirted with by an attractive member of the opposite sex. Nature’s own cure for the post-relationship doldrums, yes? Unfortunately, I may have mentioned this encounter to a friend of mine…stupid, stupid, preening, stupid.
The grapevine effect kicked in, of course. Come Saturday, when Denbeigh came to pick up the curtains she’d left behind, the tension in the air was palpable. We managed to talk before she left again, luckily, because it tears me a bit to think of the way it could have gone, if we hadn’t talked and she’d left my life with that being the last memory she had of me. She was, of course, hurt that I’d broken up with her and immediately begun chasing tail in bars, as the story had become. But we resolved it, she understood when I explained the full story and my motives, especially since she has a number of suitors chasing her already and she isn’t exactly shooing them away. Like I said, attention from the other sex is a good way to ease the pain for your breakup.
Felt wrong to leave it like that though, even after our talk, so we ended up going to watch a movie, Coraline (which is good, btw). We also got supper. So, to recap, on Sunday I took my ex to dinner and a movie….yes, it’s like the bloody twilight zone around here. What made it weirder, I even gave her advice on dealing with the guys who were chasing her. Women, they are too subtle for their own good, lol.
I also had coffee with an old friend on Saturday, we get along well and she is single, so the idea did occur to me to see what could develop there…But she is also a fun-loving, sporty extrovert. Whereas me…well, my mind is a dark, twisted, labyrinthine place, around which I have erected monuments of dragons, skulls and wizards. I don’t know how that would work out. We’ll see, the future has a way of being completely different from whatever you try to plan anyway.
So here we are. You were hoping for a piece on SoW and instead you got a post that was just way, way over-sharing. If you really want an update, the SoW->T3D port is happening. But I won’t lie to you, my concentration has been rather fragmented and it’s pretty slow going.
Hell’s bells, but this guy is impressive. Such amazing agility and control. The capabilities of the human body and mind never cease to amaze me.
On a side note, damn but that would be a most impressive bedroom trick. Your lady friend is giving you “come hither” eyes so you somersault into bed, landing stripped to your underwear, to her delighted appreciation. It’d be worth spending years training as an acrobat for that trick alone.
(spotted at twentysided)