Speech to Text – Take Two

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Just imagine the little movie clapper thing making that snapping sound… because imagination is about as far as I got. Here’s the text:

As I am on the road home for testing this out for the first time and I have no idea well I have no idea number one how long I’ll be able to just speak at this thing number two I have no idea what exactly I’m going to speak about just trying to test it for the sake of testing it and number three I suck an indexing and I didn’t have a third thing so now comes the real test because the screen is about to shut off and I’m not sure where exactly the whole thing ends or starts or how long a pause I can have if I don’t have a actually stop doing this see if it actually picked up all these words that’s it for now post the results of this test up to my blog and then we’ll try it again later

That is the rambling result of more than twenty minutes of talking. Turns out the mic shuts off if the screen goes off in that app. I have to consider that a complete fail. I have no use for a tool meant to keep my hands free if I have to keep paying attention to it and poking it every couple of seconds. It didn’t keep up well with my speaking pace, nor did it catch everything.

I’ll look up and try another one here over the next day or so. This one is getting uninstalled.

Tool Testing

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I recently changed firms at my day job. The new place is a much further drive than I have had in some time.

I was talking with a friend about my current place of employment that I when I have to go to the office, I need to drive more than I have in a long time. It seems to be a real waste of time. To have this 45 minute period each way that I can’t really do anything with is wasteful. To be fair, I have listened to more news and more music, but there are days when I need more time and that seemed like a usable spot. He suggested that what I needed was a way to talk to notes – use a voice to text transcription tool of some sort. I could use that time driving productively by taking notes from my train of thought, then quickly editing the notes so that I could keep my stories and my blog moving along at a better pace.

Even if I only got a few hundred words, that would be a few hundred more than I had before.

This is not the fist time I’ve tried a tool like this – but this is the first time I’ve had specific time when I couldn’t do other things, or type at all. This was my first attempt with an app called Voice Notebook.

As with any voice to text app I’ve encountered in the past, the editing it the real challenge. I have managed to move the notes to a cloud drive and clean them up. We’ll see how this goes when I need to use it in the car (I cheated and tested this one while I was sitting at my desk in the office).

Corrupt

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A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


At first I was a little bit upset. When I went to pick up the first book (online shopping) I got the second one by mistake and had to go back for the first. I was prepared to try to figure out some kind of return.

I am very glad I did not! This was an excellent follow up to the first book. The explanation of the abilities, the character connections and the world building get deeper. The mystery is still a good one (locked room murder and go).

Moving to another, deeper place in the world was just fantastic. The abilities of our characters were challenged. This was not a formulaic ‘next step’ kind of thing. I enjoyed it very much. The biggest thing I did NOT like is that it skipped past the meeting that was mentioned at the end of the first book. I wanted to see that meeting. I wanted to know more about that!

I do recommend this series and I am looking forward to the next one coming out!



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Tainted

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The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is actually the third book series I’ve started from this author. I think that alone says something about the quality of his writing.

I might not have picked this one up, but it was a book club selection. I’m glad somebody picked it.

I don’t remember if there are spoilers in here – be warned! The characters were very believable. The world building was excellent (more on that in a minute). The ‘magic’ system was actually really interesting. Altering a person genetically via the blood of a dead kaiju is a super neat idea. There’s no real explanation of why the kaiju come or why they are battled, but it is part of the world, and accepted by the characters. Tying perfect recall memory to the sense of smell makes so much sense! I particularly enjoyed that it was something that got an explanation and then the continuation of noting it. Not a small detail to be lost as the story moves along!

Back to the world building. In the book club discussion somebody suggested that this world might be tied to the world of Foundryside. This is just later, when people have actually figured out the way to alter bodies and make it stick (and function). I have my doubts that this is the case, but I won’t rule it out.

I’ll be getting the second book to see what’s up next!



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This was a crawl

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The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


As with the first two books of this series, the format and snarky text remains very similar. The story continues…

Only the railroad stuff was just a slog really. There’s a disclaimer about not trying to puzzle it out at the start of the book and I thought it was something I would just shrug off. It was not, it was the whole book. I wanted this one to be better and it felt like a slump.

Did I still cruise through it faster than anything else I’ve read lately? Pretty much. Will I go and get the next one? Probably, but I think Carl is going to get a break for a minute. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it.



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Crawling or Running?

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Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


It’s odd to be part of a trend as it’s trending, but here I am. I was hesitant to dig into this one. I thought maybe after the first crawl I had seen enough. Incorrect.

I zipped through this book at a startling pace and polished it off very quickly. It is not significantly different in form, context or wording than the last one. If you read and enjoyed the first one, this one will be a quick addition to your finished pile of books!

I wouldn’t say I ‘crawled’ through this one, more like ‘ran’!



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Goliath

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Goliath by Tochi Onyebuchi

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


I don’t want people to be put off by a 1 star review here. There are times when something is simply ‘not for you’. There are a lot of people out there that can’t accept that, but it’s true. Some things don’t relate or aren’t a shared… anything. I felt (a little bit) the same way about Black Panther when that movie first came out. There are parts (maybe the whole thing) that simply aren’t for me. Never were.

I suspect this is part of the reason I couldn’t struggle through the book. It might be an important book. Some people might find it to be the most wonderful or influential or whatever thing… but I am not one of those people.

I could not muster any relation to, nor any positive feelings for these characters. The situation may have been ‘real’ but it didn’t feel right to me. I just stopped because it did nothing good for me. That does NOT mean it might not be for you. Maybe it would be? Dunno – but I have other books to get to.



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Actions and Consequences

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Given the title you’d think this was attached to John Wick, but it’s decidedly not.

My last panel of the weekend was about running a game that includes “that guy”. I was moved up to the moderator position for this one, so I had limited chat time, but did get to (try) to guide the conversation. I put ‘try’ in there because we had a really excellent panel of creative and sharp people. As we were sitting and chatting before the official panel started we were covering various topics in a startlingly inattentive way. Somebody said, “train of thought derailed… no survivors…” and that was immediately met with “Oh No! All those poor, theoretical thought people!”

Theoretical thought people sort of became an unofficial theme as we rolled into our discussions. It was a whole lot of fun and I was really happy to have such a great panel of folks to work with. Below are my panel notes. The fixes listed are mine alone. The rest of the panel had some great suggestions as well.

Panel description:

One of the biggest problems that can be encountered with running games at events is That Guy. Everyone has heard of a That Guy. They’re the Murder Hobo, the Horny Bard, the one player who doesn’t care about the story or progression or the rest of the party. Our team of Game Masters will share their stories, and discuss tactics to curtail these behaviors.

Loose Outline:

Introductions ~ include: are you currently running a game? Are you currently playing a game?

Definition – what is your definition of “that guy” (or girl – let’s not narrow it too far).

Connected to above – Are there specific types of or styles of “that guy”?

Do you believe in session zero? Will it stop “That Guy”?

Do you have, use or are familiar with player consent question lists? Should GMs use those?

What about personal connections? Does the DMs boyfriend always get special treatment?

Ask the audience for (short) specific examples and see how the panel would handle it?


Example types of bad players:

Rules lawyer(s) – Rules as written OR rules as DM says that’s how it works…
Fix – ask them to help you, and track all the rules (and changes) you make and use.

Instigator – Rogues stealing party treasure, fighting internally, “Leroy Jenkins”!

Fix – actions and consequences, set the tone to your own game, DON’T ROLL – make rulings

Spotlight Hog – player talks over everyone else, jumps onto doing the same action as others

Fix – sandwich compliment(s) around issue. Often just excited~

The Cheater – Faking rolls, “fixing” the amount of gold they have… etc.

Fix – Don’t tell them if they need to roll high or low

The Power Gamer – trying to be super powerful, stretching the rules, pushing limits. Hard to DM

Fix – Use them OR ask them what they’re goal is and then put the next steps on them.

Also – The bad guys learn… how will they grow the character if combat isn’t a challenge?

The Immersion breaker – pulling people out of the mood IF you’re hitting on all the wrong notes

Fix – land

The Meta-gamer – can’t make the separation between player and character knowledge

Fix – ask the player if they think they would know something

The Boss / Critic – who thinks they know it all and tell everyone else what to do or tell them it’s wrong

Fix – direct, call out the behavior

Flippant – Just not paying attention, constantly on the phone, don’t really seem to want to play

Fix – try to engage them a little, see how they respond

IF it doesn’t work, give them an option to leave (and talk it all out) {EPIC DEATH EXIT?}

Communication is key!

My personal house Rule #1: It’s just a game.

We’re here to have fun, and if we’re not having fun, then why are we doing it? Get out there, play games, have fun!

Dark Lording for Fun and Profit

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This was my next to last panel at the convention this year. It had a solid moderator and I was able to chat with my fellow panelists about what it takes to create a really solid story antagonist and what that might look like. There were some excellent bits tossed around and I don’t remember many of them very clearly. These are the notes I was working from, so if you’re trying to create a lasting ‘bad guy’ for your game (or story even) hopefully you can find some inspiration.

Panel description:
Having an antagonist is great, but what takes them past the level of mustache-twirling villain, and into the realm of the Big Bad Evil Guy? Panelists will discuss how to build the structure of minions and influence for your BBEG to stand on, so the heroes have to climb in level to reach them before the final showdown.

My notes:

Antagonist is a better term than “Big Bad Evil Guy”. The best antagonists don’t see themselves as the bad guy. How scary was the operative from Serenity? Who did you hate more from the Harry Potter series, Voldemort or Delores Umbridge?

Be creative.Not everyone is a mastermind with 56 plot lines weaving in and out of their minds, but do any little bit you can. Take on something small if you feel like you don’t know where to start. Look at your character and create from there. What do you really know about? Slide some of that into your character, and use that as a starting point.

Crazy example – If you’re a hair stylist, allow your character to wear a hair style that you’d love to see, then leap off from there and make it a quirky part of that character – the character constantly tries to get others to color their hair or braid their beard or something. Those little bits of flavor make a very rich game. Then… grow that.
In the ‘Big City’ there’s a fashion explosion of magical hair styles. Hair stylist becomes the new, hot profession. This proliferates and generates lots of requests to learn at the top school.
Only this so called school is secretly backed by the mind flayer society. They’re creating these techniques to cause hair to fall out and skulls to soften so they don’t get hair in their teeth and their meals are easier to get to.
And they in turn get all the ‘product’ they use from a magical factory / distribution center where the true big boss is running the entire thing.

Your heroes can do the traditional ‘missing person’ quest to get into this OR they can get one of these hair styles. When their hair all falls out they can quest for new hair!

Work with what you know and use it.

Antagonists don’t just stop being ‘bad guys’ when the players aren’t around. Players leave and come back and things have changed. New guards in town, less favorable deals at the potion shop, any sort of thing that might hinder the quest, even just a little.

Example – in a game I run one smaller antagonist cut a deal with the players. The players left that area. When they returned they found the deal was in place, but the small antagonist was now the head of a bureaucratic structure (that he created using charm spells) that was doing tons of shady things, but with an entirely legit staff. His new position changed the leverage point for the players.

In the end, keep notes. Write down a handful of small things and circle back to them when they fit. You don’t have to be a mastermind, you just have to be mindful. Hopefully there are some game masters out there that get a little bump from this!

How Old?

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Given that my birthday was just this past week, this felt relevant. I had a conversation a few weeks ago where a friend told me he was amused at somebody’s placement of older people into any sort of historic time frame. I will admit it was amusing to think that this very young person wasn’t sure if a grandparent of my friend was part of something from the 1800s. There’s always a little humor to saying something like, please be patient with me, I’m from the 1900s. Thing is, I think there’s also something to be said for making a real and tangible connection when something like this comes up.

I get it. These days there are more than a few people who think I’m very old. Half a century? Maybe a little old. Not “history” old though, right? Maybe. There are memes and lists and websites out there that give myriad examples of how our thoughts of what happened and when are wrong. Somebody who was at the play where Lincoln’s assassination happened was interviewed on television.

I thought it was an excellent opportunity missed. We should be trying to explain this on a personal level when the moment is right (and sometimes the humor dictates the education is at another point). I went back and asked my mom about the rough timeline for our family. People I knew. People in your family might fall into the same sort of categorization / time line list. It’s worth it to ask.

My grandmother was born during World War I. She was a child during the roaring 20’s and came of age during the great depression. Her husband went to fight in World War II (around the age of 23). She saw that war, the Korean war, Vietnam, Dessert Storm and Afghanistan wars in her lifetime. Her husband served, her son served and her grandson served in the American military.

She also got to see both the rise and the fall of the Berlin wall. Men traveling to the moon. Innovations in technology that would likely astound people if they were shown the whole stretch of it. A great example – motion pictures didn’t have sound until my gram was 12 years old. When she passed away people were watching movies in full color with sound on a small plastic rectangle they keep in their pockets. The insane level of advancements is genuinely staggering… and yet it was just a lifetime. One person.

My great-great grandfather was born in 1848 in Scotland. He moved to the United States in 1872. The other side of my family was here long before that… but then, how old was the United States as a whole at that point? Speaking of – here’s another fun one. The United States didn’t have 50 states until my mom was 14. That’s not “ancient history”, that’s my mom.

I suppose what I’m getting at here is twofold.

One, study history. It matters. There are too many things going on in our current world that would be helped if people had a sense of the past, were willing to study, learn or even listen to those who know. IF you have a chance to help that sense of history rather than joke, take that chance.

Two, take the time to talk to those folks that have been around for a while. Be inquisitive. Learn about what sorts of things people have gotten into in their lives, what sort of things they’ve seen. The sort of things you could find out might surprise you.

My great, great grandfather heading to town!