Alternative Play: D&D Miniatures "Draft"

So, one of the biggest issues with D&D, in my experience, is the difference in investment required by players compared to DM's. When you play extended campaigns with the same group and are all enjoying the game, the player typically needs to buy (at most) a book or two, while the DM buys another book or two on top of that, plus extra dice, pencils, maps, terrain tiles, food, and of course, miniatures. Now, there are solid arguments about not using minis, or about alternatives to minis, but I personally really like them and enjoy having them. But, as a DM, it can be really really hard to justify having them.

So, basically, this is a way to have a really unique D&D experience.

Requirements

First and foremost, this system would fundamentally require the new edition of D&D. Not that it would be impossible for 4th or Pathfinder, but with those systems character creation takes longer, which is a significant hindrance. Being able to quickly build and run a character would be essential. I suppose if every player has access to Hero Lab, that could work, but...

Each player should have a Player's Handbook or, at the very least, a printed copy of the Basic Rules. And Dice. And a pencil.

The DM should have also have a Player's Handbook, mostly for rules clarification and spells. This would be less essential as system mastery increases. In addition, the DM should have the Monster Manual (which is available soon). And Dice. And a pencil. And probably index cards. (See? Already the investment level for this player is higher than the others!)

Finally, every person at the table should bring a brand new, unopened set of random miniatures from the new 5th edition line. (These boxes have 4 minis. The older boxes, if you found them online, typically have more. If you use these, you might want to alter the Draft to reflect that. Regardless, each player should have a box with the same number of random minis).

The Draft and Build

Each player (including the DM) rolls a D20. Break ties however you want - Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock is good. In order, each player opens their draft box and pulls out their four random minis, putting together anything in pieces (if necessary) and giving everyone ample opportunity to ooh and aah or tremble in terror. Once all the minis are on the table, they should be sorted into two rough piles: Playable Minis and Monster Minis.

You can reroll the D20 here, or keep the existing order, but personally I think rerolling would be better. No matter what he rolls, the DM goes last, though. Each player chooses a Playable Mini, which they will use to craft their character. The DM goes last, and chooses one which will become an NPC. The remaining Playable Minis are thrown in the pile with Monster Minis. Then, the order reverses, so the DM goes first and the guy who picked first goes last. The DM picks one miniature from the pile. The other players then pick one mini each, which will NOT be used by the DM (as a variant, you could allow the player to choose, either the DM can't use it or the DM MUST use it. So if you get a dragon, a player could choose that the DM has to use that monster somewhere). At the end, each player should have one PC mini and one bonus mini, and the DM should have one NPC mini and one monster mini. The remaining pile of minis, which should be two for each player, is given to the DM to use as monsters during the campaign.

Then everyone takes a break. The players draft characters, trying to build something which resembles their miniature. The DM sorts through their minis and tries to build some kind of rational campaign out of the chaos, and assigns a starting level, probably somewhere 1-3 (but if they end up with a large number of high level monsters it could conceivably start higher).

The Game

Then the DM runs their game. The draft and build should take an hour or two at most, with an emphasis on getting started right away. The DM runs a quick intro and plays out a combat or two and some RP, and they MUST use at least two of the minis they obtained. Then, each week, the DM should run additional encounters until they've used at least half of the minis they acquired, and until at least a month has passed. If they manage to build a story with a rational beginning, middle, and end all the better.

Finally, after the DM has run his adventure, the group as a whole decides: continue with their current character? Or Re-Draft and do it all over again, with new minis and new characters and new villians and new monsters. If the group wants, they can redistribute the minis to whoever they originally belonged to, or give them all to the DM, or keep the two they selected and let the DM keep their selections, or whatever they think is mutually acceptable.

Ideally, I think, you could let everyone keep their selection and rotate DM's. Maybe with a shared Monster Manual so everyone doesn't have to buy a copy. 

Conclusion

This method of playing D&D would allow for a unique and interesting play experience, with fun character building and some anticipation of what your party is getting into. The costs of getting a decent number of miniatures are more evenly distributed through your gaming group, and the campaign would be relatively short and fast paced.

Potential downsides? You only get one Kobold, and need four or five for a reasonable encounter. Or you get five CR 1 monsters and everything else is CR 12. (Not likely). Creative DM skills would definitely be put to the test!

Conference, Priesthood, Community

Dear #,

I struggle with discussing religion in most settings, unless I'm with close friends or family (and even then, depending on the family). My own personal experience with religion and spirituality is complex, tied up in my upbringing, my faith crisis and two years outside the church, and my relationship with my heavenly parents. My family's experience is also varied and unusual in a number of ways, and it ultimately results in silence from me more often than not, particularly in the vast and tumultuous sea of the internet (even within the narrow confines of the "bloggernacle" I tend to stay quiet).

I have found an issue that matters to me, though, and I think that spreading awareness of this issue trumps the fact that it comes from me. I also have some deep concerns about it, and feel the need the share those, as well.

This weekend, women were turned away from the General Priesthood Session of conference - not for failing to hold the priesthood, but simply for being the wrong gender (as both non-ordained and non-member males were permitted to attend). Worse, last week men lined the balcony of the General Relief Society session, resulting in a blistering double standard (Speaking of which, has anyone else noticed that the Relief Society and Young Women sessions of conference aren't available through the official LDS resources app?). Depending on which doctrines you accept (How cafeteria mormon are YOU?) and which you reject:

• Women used to hold the priesthood (based on early commentary by Joseph Smith and the common practice of females giving blessings),
• Women have always held the priesthood (based on certain aspects of the temple ceremony)
• Women currently hold a technical version of the priesthood but are not currently Ordained to offices within it
• or Women don't hold the priesthood at all and never will.  

This is a pretty extensive spread of beliefs, and I'm probably missing a few regardless. Still, a group of women is working toward the goal of female ordination: Ordain Women. I haven't made a profile ,but reading through these is an amazing inspiration. Before you say anything about what might potentially be motivating these women, read through their profiles, see what a few of them actually have to say.

Anyway, I want to say this: I support the ordination of women. I think it should be happening immediately.

I do have a few concerns:

• There is a strong division by gender within the LDS church, and I'm concerned that if we ordain women and then maintain the two groups as separate organizations, this gap could end up widening and becoming an absolutely male organization and an absolutely female organization. This could result in a situation worse than the one currently existing.
• There is massive male privilege in the church today, and those who can't see it are blind to it. However, male activity and membership in the church still falls far below that of females. If we increase gender equality, how will that effect male membership? On the other hand, perhaps men will appreciate a more balanced power balance. I don't know. 
• The current recognition of a Heavenly Mother is amazing. The complete absence of worship, doctrine, teachings or understanding of Her is heart breaking. However, I don't think female ordination will effect this at all, and could easily result in an attitude of "We gave you the priesthood, that's enough for this century." I believe additional understanding and worship of her is far more important, especially since it would almost certainly lead to Ordination anyway (so maybe we're putting the cart before the horse). 
• Excommunication. For me, for these amazing sisters, for anyone who wants to be part of the Church but refuses to be a blind and foolish follower. 

I hope this makes sense. If you have any questions, I'd love to talk about them, but if you flame or troll, I will moderate as I see fit.

All my love,
Dom

PS #, I hope this is all settled by the time you are old enough to hold the priesthood.

181 Years of... Fox Calls?

Dear #,

Today's letter is something completely different, and driven by a music video. Watch it before continuing on (Mom, this is a pretty PG music video, there's no sex or nudity or violence. That being said, it probably isn't safe for work, because your coworkers will eventually decide to murder you. It is that catchy/irritating).

But here's the interesting thing. This came out 12 days ago, during which time it has been watched more than 32 million times. With an average duration of 2:55, that adds up to:
181 years, 1 month, 12 days, 4 hours, 49 minutes, and 10 seconds.

Just for verification of these stats, I took a quick screenshot:

What a waste of time!  181 years! Imagine what we could do if we harnessed that power for good. But first, let's answer his question. After wandering google for a while listening to fox sounds, my favorite piece is from Wired. No wonder we don't have a standard "noise" foxes make... they are pretty spooky. And the Vixen's scream, which wasn't in this article but you can found, sounds like a tween getting murder-tickled. I have to wonder how many haunted house stories were just a fox running around inside. No wonder kitsune play so dominantly in Japanese myths and horror.

Anyway, my point is this: I understand that most of that time spent is a ton of people each playing it two or three times. But the sheer quantity of it all is incredible, and made me think about a few little projects which use a very small portion of a single users time, often no more than a few minutes here and there, and result in net positive gains (and not just wapowpowpowpowpow stuck in your head).

Here are a few that I'm aware of, have participated in, or just think are amazing. I'm quite sure there are more, so if you know of any, send them my way?

1. Science - This is a big topic, and has a ton of different stuff going on. Some of my favorites are here, though, and gamified crowdsourcing is becoming more and more popular in science.

•  Zooniverse has a wide variety of projects, including two of my personal favorites, Snapshot Serengeti and Old Weather. Snapshot gives you images from motion sensor cameras in the Serengeti, which you look at and identify the animals in the picture. Fun to learn the different animals, and gives them a much better idea of what the animals are doing, what their patterns are, etc. Some of these shots are really boring, others are amazing. Old Weather is a little less visually exciting, but I enjoy looking through the ships logs and knowing that it gives us a better idea of historic climate. 
• Foldit is a commonly cited example, and it looks a lot different than when I last played, so maybe I'll pick it up again. They were featured in Wired, which writes: "There are more ways to fold a protein than there are atoms in the universe. It's like a combination lock with 1,000 dials. Yet proteins fold themselves into shape in a fraction of a second. No one knows how." This game is helping computers more accurately simulate protein folding, which helps scientists.
• NASA's Be a Martian program allows users to identify and tag images sent from the Mars Rover, contributing to our overall knowledge base about Mars in a significant way. 

2. Language. - I wasn't aware of anything going on in this realm until quite recently, when my brother-in-law showed it to me on his phone. Duolingo has language courses in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and English. It is completely free. It is translating real-world documents and web sites (which is how it makes money). And, better still, they claim it is more effective for learning a language than University level courses, even for Adults.

3. Volunteering - Many nonprofits utilize virtual volunteers to help with a wide variety of tasks, including writing, website design, graphics, and so forth. While this requires a match, and a commitment, Volunteer Match has over 4000 positions that need virtual assistance. Go check it out!

4. Earn Money - I haven't actually done this one, although I'm pretty tempted to try it. Amazon has a program called Mechanical Turk that allows you to complete a variety of small, minor tasks and earn real money. While it probably doesn't add up to a rational hourly wage, I bet it pays more than most of us make while randomly surfing the web or playing video games. In addition, since it is backed by Amazon, I imagine you don't have to worry quite as much about it being a scam.

5. Get Fit! There are a lot of exercise programs out there, but most of them aren't fun. Fitocracy changes that with their RPG-like aspects of the training regimen. It is fun, and I'm using it starting... tomorrow.

Because right now I just want to keep singing.

Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!!
Tchoff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!
Joff-tchoff-tchoffo-tchoffo-tchoff!

I don't understand the internet

Dear #,

I really don't understand certain parts of the internet. In this particular case, I'm talking about Comments. Now, no one follows my blog at all, so even if I said something worthy of rage and angry comments, I'd get maybe four or five people, most of whom know me well, who comment. As a result, it isn't really a comments section so much as a conversation, so this really doesn't apply here. Maybe someday I'll be good enough of a writer that people read my blog more often. That would probably be more likely if I actually updated more often, but whatever.

Here's what I really don't understand: If you hate whatever it is the article is about, why are you there? For example, if you're on a Mormon Feminists page and you are both Anti-Mormon and Anti-Feminist, why do you even bother showing up and reading the article? I mean, maybe they are just trolling, but... I don't understand that, either.

Or another example: On the Civilization page, on Facebook.





Most of the responses make sense: Cultural, Diplomatic, Scientific, I used to do cultural but now it is too hard, Domination is the only fun way to play, etc. But then there is this guy:

Why are you even on this page? Why do you even bother having this fill up your facebook feed? Why do you put something that most people on this page aren't going to care about, because they are actually fans of the game? And if that isn't bad enough, why don't you just change your damn windows profile name, so it stops being a problem?

Seriously. I don't understand.

Maybe someone can explain this mindset?

Love,
Dom

Dear Hashtag Origins

Dear #,

Somehow in the course of writing the first few posts for this blog I neglected to mention where the name comes from, or the general idea for this general purpose blog, or, well, anything. Which kind of leaves the name "Dear Hashtag" as kind of a mystery, but not the fun kind involving clues and puzzles. Fortunately it doesn't include any dead bodies, either.

My lovely wife Holly and I were discussing baby names, and how so many people we know have gone the "creative" route with their children, and particularly with their daughters. I find this somewhat appalling, as there are SO many wonderful and beautiful names for girls. I personally find boys names more difficult, as you start getting into "That's a weird name" territory much more quickly. This can easily be explained simply by looking at general sources for names by gender.

Male Sources:

• The Bible - This is the most common source, whether you name your child Matthew or David.
• History - This is probably the second most common, but many Historical names come from the Bible, so there is some crossover there. 
• Cultural sources - This is common when the person comes from a sub-culture or a different culture than standard "American." This includes African, Asian, Hispanic, Mormon, Quaker, etc.
• Television and Books

Female Sources:

• The Bible - There are far fewer female names from the bible, but even so Ruth, Mary, and Deborah are common enough. 
• History - This is much more common, as many names are well known enough, including Helen, Virginia, Elizabeth, etc. 
• Cultural - Just as with Men, only many of them have been "Americanized" and are more common names here. 
• Flowers
• Trees
• Plants
• Cities
• Birds
• Myths
• Literature
• Television and Books

This is hardly a comprehensive list, but in my experience there are ten awesome girl names for every awesome boy name. This makes my generation's complete incompetence with naming their daughters something I don't remotely understand. Anyway, during this discussion Holly brought up a weird name she'd heard someone came up with: Hashtag. As in, a Twitter Hashtag. I laughed, until she gave me something to think about: With all these weird names flying around, odds were pretty even that one of our two boys would ultimately marry someone with such a name.

That is, our son's wife, our future daughter-in-law, could be named Hashtag. #!

I laughed, and said I should start a blog with letters to my future daughter-in-law and call it Dear Hashtag. The rest is... well, future History.

Upcoming Projects

Life has been pretty crazy lately, and I haven't been able to update this nearly as much as I would like, but I'm hoping to get back in the swing of things soon. I have a few projects I'm working on, and would love to hear from readers about:

• General Conferences - I'm keeping a pretty tight lid on this project until I can finish the first set, but it involves past conferences and a look at the gradual shifts in doctrine, teachings, and what is emphasized in the LDS church. This is pretty much my only hyper-Mormon project in the works, but it should be fun. I'm hoping to get this launched in July. For those of you I requested information from, I'd appreciate getting it soon. 
• Book Lists and Reviews - I'm working on putting together a list of books to read, and plan on reading through them slowly and then reviewing them. This is primarily going to be taken from a "hone my craft" perspective, and will therefore include Science Fiction, Fantasy, Roleplaying Game settings/adventures/splat, and anything else that somehow makes it on to the list. Any books my readers suggest will automatically be included, regardless of genre/topic. 
• Names - This blog is still going to have posts about names, and I plan on working on developing not just fun new posts but fun, interesting and unique new research. In addition, I will explain the title of this blog, because somehow I haven't yet!
• Guest Posts - I'm currently actively looking for guest bloggers, writing about anything I'm remotely interested in, which is pretty much everything. Except maybe sports. Yuck. But anything else is good, including names, games, dames, and uh... flames. Yeah. Seriously though, if you're interested in doing a guest post on just about any topic, let me know. I'd love to go over it with you and work something out.
• Random Posts - This is what I've been doing so far. And will certainly keep doing.
  
  That's about it! Not too bad, right?

Follow the prophet

Thomas Monson and the First Presidency are on Google Plus.

This blog talks about it and had links http://wellbehavedmormonwoman.blogspot.com/2013/06/mormonchurchleadersgoogleplus.html?m=1

Yeah