Update 14

 In some ways I haven’t been super active on the games front lately. Part of that is just dealing with some stuff on the work front related to changing jobs. I have also been reading some sci fi books instead of spending time on gaming. The new job situation seems to be going ok. I have been guilty of procrastinating a number of things but I got some of that stuff done this week. I went to a training session this last Tuesday. I actually start this next Monday. My boss has offered to do some lesson planning with me for a good chunk of time before my first class. Overall I am excited and looking forward to it but also nervous.

So what have I been doing on the gaming front.

-have played Commander a few times with the twins. My deck seems to be doing well and I won one time and seem to more of a threat to win the game than I was in the past.

-I finished working on my character for solo play with the Witchcraft RPG. I am fairly happy with the character. I think that is one of the things about using a game system to make a character as opposed to just writing whatever you feel like. The game system introduces limits. You can’t do everything you want to do. Especially for a new character. In some ways this is more interesting than just making up a character because often with making up a character what you produce doesn’t really match the potential of what you envisioned but at the same time you are not negotiating with some specific constraints. With the specific constraints of the game system it feels like what is produced is better in way than what I would produce on my own.

-I also developed an idea for a character in a solo Shadowrun 3rd edition game. I started working on the character and have a solid concept and have made some progress with the actual stats and toys.

-I have been collecting some roleplaying pdfs from drivethrurpg. These make a good reward for getting through some tough stuff because there are plenty that are reasonably priced.

-I played a session of best of 3 pioneer on Arena. It was on the ranked ladder. I used a blue-white control deck that Chatgpt brewed for me. I lost both matches but I have been pretty much in beginner mind with this particular format.

-I have also been watching some baseball from time to time.

Beyond that I have been doing some things that I hope will have an impact on my gaming but are sort of outside the scope of that.

-as I mentioned I have been reading some sci fi. I guess I would like to think that I am gaining some inspiration for my own solo rp and world building. I really haven’t read much fiction in the last 10 years although I have read some. It has been feeling good to get into it and I feel happy to have a bit more of a target in terms of looking at sci-fi.

-I have continued to think about the concept of value and how it applies to various aspects of my life. One of the things I have been wanting to do is more wheeling and dealing. A perfect opportunity came up recently. My wife bought a new ipad some time back. It is a powerful model but in many ways she has been disappointed with it because she has had serious problems with the multi-tasking abilities. I on the other hand have been wanting some kind of e-reader but was sort of wanting an ipad because I have books in a variety of apps at least one of which is only on ios. I was able to read books on my macbook air but I didn’t often do it because it doesn’t feel that comfortable to lay in bed with a laptop. I have experience reading with an ipad and like it but my old one is at the end of its life. So I proposed a trade with my wife and she agreed. Another wheeling and dealing thing I did was to take a bunch of old cds and dvds that my wife didn’t want anymore up to this used media store I know. I didn’t get a whole lot for them but I was able to get 5 cds I was interested in and a little bit of cash. It’s better than them just getting thrown out. I intend to keep looking for opportunities like this. It reminds me a bit of a story I read one time about a guy who started out with a red paperclip and traded up until he had a house. Everything I saw made me believe it was a true story.

World Anvil

 There is a website that I have been using for awhile but unfortunately only sporadically but which I am trying to engage with more.

It is called World Anvil and it is a website that is designed to help people, whether they are writers or dungeon masters, create the people and worlds and lore that they want to inhabit.

My profile 

Unfortunately my worlds are not that developed yet but I thought I would link to my profile and hopefully I will work on them more.

The website is interesting. In some ways there are a lot of features but they often aren't very intuitive and there is a definite learning curve to using the site. So it can be a bit frustrating to use but I am gradually kind of learning more about it.

I guess my one other complaint with the site is that it does kind of have more of a slant toward fantasy worlds. It is of course possible to work around this slant and there are some features for sci-fi authors or for other kinds of worlds but it is something that needs to be worked around a bit.

 

Consistency is the hobgoblin of mediocre minds

I guess I have to put myself firmly in the camp of mediocre minds in that regard. I have had an obsession with finding some one calling or one identity that I could get ahold of and then base my entire life around. I think this has to do with a variety of things.

The way I actually work in real life is that I have a lot of different parts of me that have different feelings about almost everything I am involved with. Those parts can be louder or quieter at different times.

 The problem comes from this disconnect. Basically wanting to be a total consistent, unified person on the one hand but in actuality being a fragmented and inconsistent person.

Of course in some ways I have had to learn to be more consistent. There are certain things in life that you have to be consistent about. These could range from showing up at work when I am supposed to or being involved in a relationship where some degree of consistency is required.

But I feel like with regard to my various pursuits I have for a long time wanted to find one specific pursuit that I could be obsessive about and excel at. But the reality is that I just don't work that way.

I have already developed and continue to make more characters that I use in solo role playing but which also represent parts of me. Some of these characters represent my engagement with various games. Some represent other aspects.

But even in this realm the specter of consistency raises its head. Somehow I also feel conflicted about having a unified narrative vs many independent threads that may connect but also may be at odds. Often when it comes to fandoms, people obsess about the consistency of the lore and point to any inconsistencies as evidence of poor craftsmanship. But part of me feels like I would like to get away from that perspective.

 So I guess in some ways I am leaning towards having a large and messy meta-game that can have many threads that might sometimes be contradictory but which nonetheless is embraced in some kind of whole.

Getting value

 I have a bad habit of spending money on things or asking for things as gifts only to let them languish collecting dust after I get them. Lately this has led to some thoughts about value. There are several levels to this thought.

The first level is that as I mention I would like to get more value out of the things I have collected whatever they may be or subscriptions to websites etc. This goes along with the desire to spend less time journaling that I have talked about before. I would like to spend more time actually getting value out of stuff.

The second level is within games. Basically being more value conscious in the games I play such as chess where one values pieces or a position. But also in all the games. Value is also a big concept in Magic. But really all games involve considerations of value. I would like to make an effort to get more value from my pieces in the games I play.

Lastly there is the level of getting value from my experience. I have in mind both my real world experience but also my experience in the world of games both in terms of games and gaming in general but also with specific games like chess or magic.

I feel this is a shift in how I have considered things. I guess in the past I have had some type of hoarder mentality where I have a tendency to hoard stuff but without making use of it. So this is probably not going to be an overnight change, it will probably be gradual but I guess this is a statement of intention. 

Prerelease weekend

 So, basically I decided to be ambitious this weekend. I played three of the prerelease events that I described in my last entry. I played one each on friday, saturday, and sunday. Furthermore, I decided to play the first two at a store that I have been to and bought stuff from but never played at before. I felt a bit intimidated because the crowd there seems more serious and also there are fewer foreigners so I was unsure about the language and culture barriers. Sunday I played at my usual gameshop. The new gameshop is called GameSquare and the old one is called Growlife.

So overall it was a success. My goal was just to do my best, and just try to gain experience with a format I enjoy. My aim is improvement but it is a very longterm kind of thing. I did have a good time at the new gameshop and felt that people were nice and good to play with, and I accomplished my goal of gaining experience...

However there was one glaring issue that ran through the whole weekend. And this is the problematic way these matches end. So basically you have an hour to play a best of three match. When time is up you are supposed to start a turn counter and play 5 more turns. In practice this often means that if the first two games are split then the third game will be decided like this. At Growlife the rule was that if the game isn't decided in those five turns then it is ruled a draw and hence the match is a draw. This is regardless of the life totals when the five turns run out. And at Growlife there was never really an issue about this, people just accepted it.

So what happened is that in my first match at the new store we split the first two games and went to the third game which wasn't decisive. My opponent asserted that because his life total was higher he won the third game. I told him that I understood it was a draw. Then he seemed to accept that this is the technically correct way of playing but then argued that if we draw then neither of gets a prize (an important point is that prizes are awarded based on match wins). So then he offered to let me have the win because in his book it was better that I would get the prize than that neither of us would. So, I just decided that I didn't really want the win that bad but if he cared so much about not drawing that he would give me the win then in sense I didn't mind letting him have it. So I just told him he could have it.

In the second match, it was much the same thing. We split the first two games and the third went to the limit. And roughly the exact same negotiation took place. One wrinkle is that after I had already offered to let him have it he offered to pay me 100 NT which is over half the cost of the prize (one pack). I told him I didn't want to take money for losing. But actually during this second match my opponent from the first match walked up and handed me a pack. I didn't know why and thought it was something to do with the tournament so I just took it. Later I realized he was giving me the prize for that round. So in some technical sense I did take a payout for losing.

This is further compounded by the fact that people were very irregular about when and how they would start the 5 turn counter. Most of the time people would wait for the clerk to announce that we needed to wrap up even though that was already well after time was up. And it was rare for people to actually use a die to track it.

On the second day, the same thing happened in the first match, my opponent asserted that because his life total was higher he won. So I just decided I didn't want to argue or negotiate. So I just accepted that is just the rules they play by at that shop.

In the second match it worked in my favor even though my opponent gave himself an extra turn to try to reverse things....

In the third match it ended 0-2 in my opponent's favor so it wasn't an issue.

Then on Sunday I was back to Growlife. So, the first match I won 2-0. The second match though was the real kicker because here we see the bad side of the draw rule. I was playing Clayton. Clayton is really good but also can be quite pushy. He can be quite friendly in a lot of ways but he really wants to get his way and will rationalize that is best for everyone. So I split the first two games with him. I am proud of the win against him because it was a good game and wasn't like an obvious case of him getting screwed by bad draws. So, already in the second game he started rushing me. Basically he is strong believer in the fact that if the 5 turn counter gets to the end with no winner it is a tie. He thinks the "higher life total wins" generates gamesmanship because he had a bad experience one time where someone stalled when ahead until the result was called in their favor. But on the other hand, he really wanted to win that third game and not have it be a tie. So he was rushing me really bad but like presenting it in this way that if I didn't rush then that meant I was just playing for a draw. So basically that third game was pretty unpleasant because of that. I think I didn't draw very well so I probably wouldn't have won anyways, but it just made that third game not be fun. But hey he got his win. 

So the third match was a long drawn out affair and we actually had to use the 5 turn rule on the end of the second game. But my opponent managed to eke out his second win within that time. So I lost 0-2.

So, overall I am quite happy that I got out and tried playing at a new shop and that I got a lot of experience playing magic and playing sealed. And overall I really did have a good time. Even Clayton I am not really that upset with. If being rushed so much really ruined it for me I should have been more assertive. I also think that in some ways the problem is with the setup. I guess from my experience I am in favor of the "higher life total wins." But if Clayton's experience is anything to go by that is not perfect either. 

Update 13

Well, some turmoil in my life has taken my mind off gaming, or at least off posting about it.  Been applying for jobs that can give me more hours. Had an interview with one company that went well. They didn't immediately offer me the job but I am on the list for when opportunities come up. But I have been up to some various gaming stuff...

*The twins are back from England so we have been playing some games. I got to play my new commander deck with them. It worked ok but I didn't end up winning the game.

*We also played Terraforming Mars again. This is a highly rated board game that I bought some years ago at a board game store here in Taipei. We played it the day I got it and haven't played it since. Not really for any particular reason. I guess most of the time the twins are more interested in playing Magic so we usually do that. But recently Yuen has been expressing some interest in this game so we decided to bust it out again. We need a day when we have a lot of time because it seems to take us an awfully long time to play the game. The first time I think we played for like 6+ hours. This time we finished in about 5. Not sure if we are doing something wrong or if we are just slower players than most people. Maybe we just need to get used to the game.

*Been reading old Pyramid magazines. This is a magazine that has been put out in various formats by Steve Jackson Games (the makers of GURPS). The second volume was done as webpages that subscribers had access to. But last year they put out the whole volume (this incarnation ran from like 98 to 08) as an archive that can be downloaded and browsed offline. Everything is still presented as webpages but the entire archive sits on your own computer rather than on servers. The issues have a lot of coverage of other companies' games as well as articles about roleplaying in GURPS or some of the other systems SJG put out. So this can be a lot of fun to do some detective work with. Basically it is interesting to see which of the various games and books and systems that were put out then are still around in some form or another and to learn about what their impact was. Some of the books have since been made available for free as PDFs. (Entirely legally!).

*So reading that has kind of gotten me interested in solo roleplaying again. One of the free books I got was for a game called WitchCraft. This is kind of an occult horror setting where some kind of apocalyptic time called the Reckoning is approaching and more and more people with magical abilities are being born. They have their own system but in some ways it is very similar to GURPS and in fact some of the Qualities in Witchcraft are exactly the same as Advantages in GURPS. This has made it easy to get a handle on (at least the character creation process. I haven't delved into the actual game play rules yet). This has kind of been waking me up to the fact that I do like this kind of horror. Not the mad serial killer type of horror but more like some kind of freaky occult sense where there are evils that lurk underneath the surface of the normal world kind of thing.

*Also been watching baseball still. Just mostly the free game of the day on MLB.tv. 

*A new Magic set is having its pre-release weekend this coming weekend. Prerelease weekends are when you go to a game store that hosts Magic events and participate in a kind of tournament. Basically there are many different formats of Magic. The kind that is played at pre-release weekends is called sealed. This is where your entry fee gives you 6 booster packs. At a pre-release these usually come in special boxes that have some extra goodies but all you really need is 6 booster packs. So then everyone opens their 6 packs and has some time, like an hour or so, to sort through all the cards and to build a 40 card deck (including lands that are supplied by the store). So, everybody builds their deck and then the tournament director uses software to run a Swiss system style tournament. With every opponent you play a best of three games match. Usually there are three rounds. So I have attended a number of these over the years at Growlife (the game shop where I play). So, I feel a bit mixed about these events because in some ways I quite like them but I am not very good so I always end up near the bottom of the cross-table. I do like playing sealed but just wish I was better at it. So anyways, I am planning on trying to play at least one of these maybe more. (stores often host multiple little tournaments that weekend for people with different availabilities to be able to play.)

*I finished the slow live chess tournament I was playing. Had a couple of forfeit wins. The last game was a pretty even game. Opponent was attacking but I was defending well. We traded off most of the pieces but the queens were still on the board. Then my opponent proceeded to blunder his queen. I think he thought he was forking two of my pawns but the square he moved his queen to was defended by my queen. He resigned as soon as I captured it.

*Still playing daily chess. Been playing on some different sites. I am kind of sick of chess.com these days because they are constantly bombarding you with ads for the premium subscription or pop ups for different services I don't want to use and they have gradually been moving stuff behind the pay wall. I was playing the slow league tournament on lichess because that is the server that was dictated. In general lichess is a good server but I often feel kind of bothered by attitude of the people who are ardent supporters (it is completely free but very modern and well run.) So I have also been playing on some other much less well-known sites such as Scheming Mind and GameKnot. 

Commander Deck

 Well, my wife has been encouraging me to get out more so I reached out to a member of a commander playgroup ( commander is a way of playing Magic is that basically unique in that it is a multiplayer format rather than a one on one format) that I hadn't participated in for quite awhile. They are still playing and it just so happened that I reached out on Saturday and they play on Sundays. So I decided I wanted to brew up a commander deck. I had mentioned to my wife having some good cards for a mono-black deck. I have like 10 precons (decks built by the company that makes Magic and sold as one whole) but those decks just don't measure up to the creative deckbuilding of the guys in this playgroup.

So basically I had some good cards like Sheoldred the Apocalypse that I had bought for standard deck that I wanted to make but never finished. There were a few in that class like Phyrexian Fleshgorger and some others. So then I also had this Witherbloom Strixhaven commander deck that is black and green. Basically that deck was pretty weak even after the guy who sold it to me helped me to upgrade it. So basically even given that when I play with the twins we just play precons, this witherbloom deck is really too weak to compete so we never use it. So I decided to tear it down and strip the black cards out of it. It does have some good cards in it. So that is another chunk of the cards in my commander deck. I didn't use every card from either the standard or the witherbloom commander deck. Then the rest of the cards are a selection from the other cards I own. Starting with mythic rares like Liliana of the Veil, and then into some good rares, etc.

So, as far as theme goes it is trying to play with life gain and loss. So there are some mechanics that gain me life and some mechanics that drain life from opponents when I gain life. Sheoldred is my commander so that is some life gain right there... The other commander I was considering was Vito but chatgpt thought vito might be more salt inducing (causing opponents to get upset at the play style). Which is funny because Sheoldred is pretty salt inducing from what I know.

Another thing to consider is that I own a copy of Exquisite Blood. This is powerful card that creates an infinite game winning loop when paired with Vito or Sanguine Bond (both of which are in my deck) and maybe a few others. So I bought this card specifically because of this combo but the problem is that this playgroup kind of frowns on infinite combos. So at first I left it in with the rationalization that I don't have cards that allow me to search for a card I want in my deck so it probably wouldn't be in my hand or on the board at the same time as the other combo pieces. But after more thought I just didnt' want to be in a situation where my only legitimate play was to play the infinite combo. So what I did is that I took Exquisite Blood with me but not in the deck. And then I asked Eric about how people would feel about that card and he seemed to say basically what I thought. Combos good, infinite combos bad...

So that is just part of playing with real people. To some extent you have to be a good sport and recognize that a commander group like this is primarily a social and casual kind of deal. And basically I am just kind of trying to reconnect with some real people and get out of the house etc. So my priority here isn't to win but to play nice with the etiquette of the play group. So anyways, both Eric and Jeff were fine with Sheoldred as my commander.

So, anyways here is the deck.

 

 

 

 

So anyways, I went down there and it just happened that Eric was the only other person to show up (at first). So I played two games with him just the two of us. I have mentioned Eric in this blog before. He is a pretty cool guy with a cool dog and a somewhat mysterious job that is in the games industry and involves a lot of travel. He is the resident brewmaster. By that I mean he spends a lot of his free time building new decks for a variety of ideas. Most of the time he is not interested primarily in creating powerful decks although his decks are usually pretty good. He is like to create decks with themes.

The first game I didn't draw enough lands (these are the cards that give you the energy to cast spells). So although I was able to get some cheap creatures out and do some serious damage to his life total I was kind of just stuck with my more expensive spells just sitting in my hand and I so I wasn't really able to interact with what he was doing on his side of the board. So he had some mana trouble at first but eventually he got his engine going and there wasn't a lot to do so pretty soon he killed me.

The third games was a more back and forth affair but I was able to pull off a win which I felt pretty happy about. This one I got out Sanguine bond in conjunction with sheoldred so I got some of my life gain / drain combo working although it was a somewhat slow process kind of pinging away at him. But in the end it was enough for the win.

So then Jeff showed up part way through. I have only played with a Jeff a couple of times quite a while ago. He is a nice guy also. So anyways, then we played a three person game. In this game I got Liliana out early and the whole ability to make everybody discard a card really worked to kind of sabotage eric. I also got out my ob nixilis planeswalker and in conjuction with sheoldreds ability it meant that I could add loyalty counters to him while drawing cards with the "downside" being that I gain one life. (basically his ability is that I should lose one life to draw a card, but sheoldred says you gain two life when you draw a card.) So that worked to some extent and Eric died before too long. so it was just me and jeff. But what it came down to was that I needed a boardwipe (a card that would kill all the creatures on the board) because jeff had more creatures than me, but most of my removal cards were more targeted to just one creature. Both board wipes and targeted removal are good. They are just better in different situations. So anyways, in the end jeff overpowered me.

So overall I am pretty happy with how my deck performed. This is really the first time I have brewed and actually built a commander deck, not to mention actually getting to play it. (commander decks are more intimidating to brew because they contain 100 cards, most of which have to be unique, whereas other constructed formats usually feature 60 card decks where you allowed to have as many as four copies of each card in the deck). I also brewed it this weekend with just cards that I already owned which also feels good.

I asked Eric and Jeff for feedback. They both mentioned feeling I need more card draw. They disagreed in that Jeff felt I should have more protection for my commander like an equipment that give hexproof or something like that. Eric disagreed and felt that might push the deck to the point where it is too unfun to play against.

So overall pretty satisfactory experience!