Too Old, Too Cold? Playing older characters in D&D/Pathfinder

I must declare an interest here - I hate the ageing rules in 3.0 and 3.5 D&D, not to mention Pathfinder. Apart from making non-magical characters ever more useless, and giving an unfair advantage to Magic classes, it also makes no sense:

At middle age, -1 to Str/Dex/Con; +1 to Int/Wis/Cha.
At old age, -2 to Str/Dex/Con; +1 to Int/Wis/Cha.
At venerable age, -3 to Str/Dex/Con; +1 to Int/Wis/Cha.

SOURCE: The D20 System Reference Document

After all, characters are not like normal people. They heal quickly with magic, survive things that would kill most people, they come back from the dead (preferably via a Cleric and not a Necromancer) and they are generally larger than life.

Doctor Who, Series 6, Episode 10: The Oedipal Who Waited

Much ink has already been spent on last Saturday's Nu Who episode, 'The Girl Who Waited'. Not wishing to add much which has already been said, here instead is another reading of the episode:

Rory has an Oedipal relationship with the Doctor who he sees as the father figure getting in the way of his 'mother', Amy. (How else to explain his obsessive love with her?) This reaches crisis point when he meets the older Amy who really is now old enough to be his mother. The Doctor forces Rory to choose between the young Amy (who's the right age for Rory and so represents a social norm that the Doctor, as father figure, is trying to enforce) and the old Amy, who is a physical manifestation of Rory's libido.

This explains Rory's anger - 'you're trying to turn me into you!', he says, and what is meant is that the Doctor is, by hook or by crook, trying to make Rory an adult who identifies with his 'parent' and so social norms. That he is forced perform the Doctor's adult responsibilities - to fill his shoes and see things through the Doctor's glasses - is revealing too.

A bright sunny day

For some reason, I doubt I'll be doing much surfing today.

Being Human Series 3, Episode 8 - the review

Ten word summary:

Disappointing, two-dimensional, rushed, badly executed, contrived, shlocky, schmaltzy, overrated, shit.

The trouble with trolls...

...Is that they're going to destroy themselves and the internet. Attracting the ire of the Daily Mail is never a good idea:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360788/Tormented-trolling-The-vile-web-craze-taunted-family-bullied-Natasha-suicide.html

As the mainstream becomes ever more aware of trolling, the more intense the backlash. Moral entrepreneurs will be whooping for joy.

In time we may find how we communicate on the web is circumscribed and controlled because some stooped, warped creatures with mother issues can't resist abusing people.

One way of doing this would be to make site owners liable for whatever happens on their sites. If civil and criminal penalties are imposed, then the glorious days of mocking tragedies and harassing bereaved families may soon be a thing of the past. Oh noes...

The Web is a magnificent thing, but it attract turds.

Some good news (for once).

Would it be in bad taste to say this is FABULOUS?

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/12/18/senate.dadt/index.html?hpt=T2

The military's prohibition of openly gay people serving within its ranks is one step closer to ending, after the Senate voted Saturday to repeal the armed forces' "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

Eight Republicans and independent Joe Lieberman of Connecticut joined the chamber's Democrats to back the legislation, which passed by a 65-31 margin. The bill needed a simple majority -- meaning support from 51 of the Senate's 100 members -- to pass.

"I want to thank all of the gay men and women who are fighting for us today," said Sen. Susan Collins, of Maine, one of several Republicans who voted for the measure. "We honor your service, and now we can do so openly."

Note the Republican support, small as it was, was very significant - as demographic changes undermine the old certainties, it may well be that some GOPers are realising the importance of wooing the gay vote. All those gay/lesbian soldiers, sailors and airmen, it seems, can finally come out of their Log Cabins.

Things fall apart.

An excellent set of images here by sculptor Lori Nix, depicting what happens when humans either disappear (zombies, rapture, daleks, badgerpocalypse etc.) or simply abandon their civilisation. These are actually scale model dioramas, harking back to a time when draughtsmanship was every bit as important to art as theory and concept.

http://www.lorinix.net/the_city/index.html

A particular favourite of mine is the detail rendered on the Galaga arcade machine in one image. The derelict launderette meanwhile seems simply very sad.

We've been here before, of course. There were once huge cities around the Nile and in Mesopotamia. Where did they go? They simply crumbled to dust, leaving behind only the sturdiest of stone monuments to mark their passing.