DominicHamon.com

Life is like a grapefruit

Pulsate

This little toy speaks to all the things I love – vision, dynamics and sound working together in a simple way. I can think of a few ways to enhance it, but I also respect its purity and simplicity.

Posted on 2010/07/09 by dominic in personal | Tagged Flash | Leave a comment

Tactics and strategy

The function of tactics and strategies in role-playing games is one of those areas that offers a prime opportunity to show something about your character, but that is often overlooked. With the recent release of the Player Strategy Guide for Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition, I thought it apt to write about my thoughts on the subject.

The most important part of this discussion is whether you are talking about player strategy or character strategy. The Player Strategy Guide blurs the line between the two and players who follow its guidance may miss out on a prime chance to role-play their character, as well as an opportunity to have a memorable encounter. Those of you who have played a while, please think back. Are the most memorable encounters the ones where everyone fulfilled their role in the team and the party displayed textbook battle tactics, or are they the ones where someone demonstrated an atypical strategy that fit their character and maybe one where you didn’t even win? In every instance for me, the most memorable encounters have been the ones where character has been at the forefront.

So how should you approach a fight and what tactics should you use? How can you bring your character to life through combat tactics? The answer depends on what sort of player you are, where your party’s interests lie, and your character’s stats.

The role of the player

If you are the sort of player who wants to beat the game and has spent hours tuning your character sheet, and that’s a perfectly reasonable approach to the game, then I’m surprised you’ve read this far in a post about tactics in the first place. Given that you have, the Player Strategy Guide is for you. It will be your Art of War and your Bible and along with the perfect stats that you’ve rolled or chosen you will truly be the paragon of your class.

If, however, you’re the sort of player who wants to weave a tale and has chosen your powers based on a well-constructed background story, you will want to carefully decide how much to lean on the Strategy Guide and how much to ignore it or even deliberately go against it. The next couple of sections should help you figure that out.

The role of the party

Whatever type of player you are, if the rest of the party is made up of people who play differently to you, there is a chance you will either be frustrated or bored in every encounter. If you play their way, you won’t be having fun, and if you play your way, you may feel alienated.

I have left groups before when it became clear that our styles weren’t matched, and I’ve been fortunate to be able to find new groups that match my style better. When everyone is looking for the same thing from the game, not only does it become more fun and interesting, it becomes easier to play.

The role of the character

Neither the 3.5 or 4th edition Dungeon’s and Dragons Player Handbooks state it categorically, but I have always considered a combination of Intelligence and Wisdom to be a fair measure of how well a character handles themselves in regards to strategic planning. The absent-minded Wizard with a high Intelligence but a low Wisdom may come up with a brilliant plan on the battlefield, but might miss one small but crucial detail (see the wooden rabbit scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, for example). Similarly, the Cleric who leads the party may insist that he knows where everyone should be and what they should be doing, but with a low Intelligence he might apply the same tactic to every battle instead of learning from his mistakes.

Then there’s the background of the character to take into account. You might have a character who has grown up on the streets as an urchin relying on their wits for survival. Once you enter a pitched fight with your party around them, you may be completely out of your depth and will refuse to fight at all; finding a safe corner to hide in until the fighting is over would be a perfectly reasonable tactic for you to use, though your party may not thank you for it. In this case it might be that you have a high Wisdom and Intelligence but your self-preservation instinct is stronger than any party affiliation. The wonderful thing about this is that after combat you will be able to have a stirring discussion regarding your behaviour with the other members of your party. In character, of course.

As with all things in table-top role-playing games, there’s a wide spectrum of options to choose from in how much tactics play a part in your game. I would caution against blindly following the textbook in case you miss out on the prospect of a memorable encounter and the chance to develop a character further.

Posted on 2010/06/09 by dominic in at the table, character development | Tagged Character, character development, combat, D&D, Player | 1 Comment

San Francisco crime rates mapped as elevations

Link: San Francisco crime rates mapped as elevations

I’m a sucker for fun ways to present data at the best of times, but this is presented particularly beautifully: Doug McCune has taken Crime rates in San Francisco and used them as elevations on a map of the city (via laughingsquid).

Posted on 2010/06/07 by dominic in personal | Tagged infographic, reblog, san francisco | Leave a comment

Adidas, meet Star Wars

Link: Adidas, meet Star Wars

A really nicely made clip putting David Beckham, Snoop Dogg, Daft Punk and others into the Star Wars cantina.

Posted on 2010/06/04 by dominic in personal | Tagged star wars, video | Leave a comment

A neat video from MIT Tech TV on the often misunderstood Coriolis effect (via @mirtos)

Posted on 2010/06/01 by dominic in personal | Tagged physics, video | Leave a comment

Thank you, Douglas Adams

It’s Towel Day so I feel compelled to write about the effect Douglas Adams had on my world view and my life. I’m certainly not alone in recognising his impact on the world and it delights me to be one of many who felt touched by his writing.

I received my first copy of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (a trilogy in four parts) in 1984 when I was the ripe age of 7. I think I bought it during one of many regular trips to the book store that my parents would take me on.

I don’t think I have ever officially thanked them for that so I will take the opportunity now: I always looked forward to the times I could spend wandering the aisles and browsing through books, and I don’t remember a time when I didn’t leave the store with a purchase; frequently a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, and in later years Pratchett books. But back to Mr Adams.

The edition I have has a wonderful cover that is truly of its time: A heavily pixelated star field with the title and author’s name in computer generated extruded type.

I fell in love with the writing immediately. Nothing had so perfectly blended the absurdist humour that I’d inherited from watching Monty Python and listening to The Goons courtesy of my Dad with real characters that I could invest in. It set my imagination on fire in ways that even The Hobbit and The Lord Of The Rings had failed to do. Not that I love Tolkein’s work any less, but there’s something grounded in reality in Adams’ stories and characters that make them easier to get lost in.

The book rarely left my side and I devoured it in short order, and I have continued to revisit it every year since. Thanks to a recent purchase of a nook, I now have a copy on me at all times (next to my towel, of course).

It was another three years before I found another Adams book to love, which was Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. This was the book that introduced me to the notion that a book didn’t have to be high fantasy or science fiction to be compelling. By this time I had already started programming computers (I had just received an Acorn Archimedes 310) and felt a connection to Richard MacDuff and his Anthem software that converts corporate accounts into music is the basis for my continuing fascination with data visualisation.

Similarly, The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul released the following year introduced me to Norse mythology and Mostly Harmless a few years later encouraged me to pursue the beauty inherent in the perfect cheese sandwich.

I can trace so many influences directly back to Douglas Adams’ work that I must offer my heartfelt thanks, not only for all the fish, but to opening my young mind to a world of wonder, imagination, and absurdity.

To quote Dirk Gently himself, “I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be.”

Posted on 2010/05/26 by dominic in personal | Tagged books, douglas adams, towel day | Leave a comment