Sway window manager

For the longest time I’ve stuck with MATE as my primary interface in computers. It is familiar and themed using the old MacOS 9 interface which is retro and comfortable. I have been using the same setup on Mint and Gentoo for over a decade. I moved up to MATE from WindowMaker and hardly anyone recalls WindowMaker.

I wanted to try out Wayland. I try to balance cult of the new and “kids these days” ideals. I’m not a user of systemd and I still prefer nmh and ASCII email. I figured it was time for something new so I migrated my daily driver to Wayland and Sway. I know that eventually X11 will lose ground to Wayland and why not learn how to use it and s new interface: tiles.

I reflected on my user interactions with computers and almost always I sign in, open a terminal, do some work. With Sway I can do exact same thing with fewer mouse movements and less resource consumption. The only thing that took a little getting used to was the lack of a Finder or Menu. In Sway you press Meta-d and type the name of the program you want versus clicking on the menu, clicking on a sub-menu and then clicking on the icon for the application. You want to start firefox, Meta-d f i r e f o <enter> It’s very fast and removes a lot of distractions.

We’ll see if I stick with Sway for a decade or if I fall back into the old MATE habit.

Posted in News and Opinion | Tagged as: , , , | Leave a comment

Dungeon Crawl Classics

Are you sick of Wizards of the Coast? Bloated rules, declining quality, retiring printed books, license struggles, and more! There’s not a lot to say nice about WotC and what used to be an excellent game. Would you like to find a game that plays like “the good old days”? Maybe DCC is what you are looking for. DCC isn’t for every one. If you spend days writing the great American novel style backstory for your character, don’t play DCC. If you want published rules about skills and feats and need a menu of options from the PHB to select from in order to do something as your character, don’t play DCC. If want lots of social interaction with NPCs and festivals and general in-game social loafing, don’t play DCC.

Perhaps you recall “the good old days” where you rolled up a character with 6 3d6 rolls in order, picked the class that best met those stats, got some gear and then ran off to find a cave to delve into the darkness to seek fortune or death. That’s DCC. If you want a fast to start, easy to play, and not too serious TTRPG you should play DCC. Just be ready to see many characters die. The game is lethal and unforgiving; yet with high risk comes high rewards. The rule seem to encourage the murder hobo lifestyle. Many of the adventures are dungeon delves for treasure. No complicated plot, no overarching social message; simply go into the cave, stick your sword into anything that won’t flee, take their stuff, rinse repeat.

Get the Quick Start Rules from their web site https://www.goodmangames.com/

Having played lots of DCC the things to think about if you are a WotC refugee:

  • Race is Class (demi-humans are their own thing so no having to pick race and class)
  • Anything you’d need a skill or feat for is just an attribute roll
  • Magic is not Vancian. You can cast fireball all day long provided you roll over a 14 each time you cast it, but roll a 1 and really bad things happen
  • You’ll want additional dice (Funky or Zocchi dice)
  • You level up more slowly to a level cap of 10
  • And the funnel…

The Funnel

When you start playing DCC you will not loving hand craft a character from a list options and set attributes using point buys and selecting backgrounds and feats and skills. NO! Roll 6 3d6s and fill out the sheet top down, roll hit points, and then roll on the professions table. You’re done. You are now a level 0 farmer with a spear and a cow. Off you go into the Portal Under the Stars and if you live you can pick a class. If you have to be a Halfling then fudge the roll on the professions table and hope you make through the funnel. For most funnel games the player has 4 PCs just because a level 0 farmer with 3 hit points doesn’t have a high probability of success by himself, but combine him with your halfling haberdasher with 2 HP and a dagger, a 4 HP milkmaid with a club, and a 3 HP dwarf miner with a mattock and you might just get one through the funnel and that becomes your character.

Posted in News and Opinion | Leave a comment

D&D Begone: Play something new!

I won’t rehash the licensing struggle/drama unfolding with Hasbro/WotC related to Dungeons & Dragons. I will advise anyone who is not pleased with the corporate over-reach of a company that seems to have lost touch with its customer base to please please please learn to play something else!

I grew up with the game during the TSR days before the Internet. I have fond memories of playing AD&D, Gamma World, and Gang Busters. I have always been interested in other game systems. I got into Traveller in 1980s and made the jump from D&D to World of Darkness with Vampire and then Werewolf. The GURPS editions of the WoD material pulled me into GURPS for a number of years. Since that time I’ve played Chaosium BRP games, Fate, Alien, Savage Worlds, Starfinder, and 7th Sea 2nd edition.

New systems may seem dense, unapproachable, scary. They are not! Different mechanics just present different ways to randomly determine success. Yes we get used to reaching for a d20 and hearing the DC then rolling. Fast talking the merchant is a DC12, 13/20=65% Savage worlds you roll a d10 since your skill dice in fast talking is a d10 with a set target number of 4 for a very close 70% chance of success. Call of Cthulhu you have straight percentage skills so Fast Talking is 65% you need to roll a 65 or under on a d100. Some mechanical systems are closer to simulation trying to account for all sorts of details before letting players role and others are free flowing and toss realism to the four winds in an attempt to give players a pure cinematic experience. D&D has lots of picky rules that I feel get in the way of a fast playing game. I’m in combat, is that thing I want to do an action, a reaction, a bonus action, or a free action? I know all the definitions but what I really want to do is toss a poisoned dagger at the smug merchant the moment he turns his price gouging face away from me.

New lore is a joy. I know of very few people who pick one and only one story, movie, show, book and stick with that forever. You can love Lord of the Rings and Princess bride. I know because I have seen it. Games of Thrones and Star Wars. Red Dwarf and Harry Potter. Sticking with one setting, one lore, one story line isn’t natural for most people. Even WoTC doesn’t do this. There’s a plethora of stories and settings and even divergent timelines in the D&D source materials. I read a lot of system core rule books and most of them present a setting, lore, and cosmology that is new and exciting.

I’ll be posting recommendations here and on Gamemeisters in the coming weeks for D&D refugees trying to match your play style with a replacement for post OGL 2.X D&D.

Posted in News and Opinion | Leave a comment

Moving on from a toxic place

I have been reading several papers about how to move on after being in a toxic workplace. There’s a lot attitudes and behaviors that will not serve me well in my new situation, but were required at VTC for simple survival. At first I was skeptical about the articles. After reading and pondering my time at VTC and reflecting on my feelings I can see value in actively working to mentally break with old behaviors.

Posted in News and Opinion | Leave a comment

Advise for VTC students

My resignation from Vermont Technical College is not being handled well by the administration. I received a retro-active end of service date and cannot complete the work I had planned to finish in the first month of the semester. That means grade changes, help with incompletes, club transfer work, etc. is beyond my reach. I’m not sure how long I’ll maintain a VTC email address or access to any of the systems. If you are upset about not being able to finish your incomplete please email Dean Gaillat and the new VTSU Provost Atkins. Don’t bother Dr Tookey or Prof Damon, they are powerless to help and have their own trials and tribulations with the leadership.

The evidence is piling up that VTC and the follow-on VTSU is not a good place to work nor learn. It is unlikely that the CIS department will survive the merger and you should plan for a few things: 1) be ready to move to Williston. 2) Focus on the fastest degree you can complete. So if you wanted a BS plan your schedule to get an AS. This makes it easier to transfer to another school when the department collapses. 3) Take your CIS elective early. Most electives are taught by only one faculty (e.g. Info Warfare) if that faculty retires/resigns/terminates that elective is gone. Get as many of those done now as possible.

Best of luck going into what will be a very challenging academic year this year and a very perilous start of the VTSU. I would recommend you find a more stable and professional school to attend. You, as a student, don’t need to be in the middle of all this chaos while trying to complete a degree. You are paying to be at VTC/VTSU the least the leadership should do is provide a stable learning environment.

Posted in News and Opinion | Leave a comment

Taking an incomplete grade

If you have taken an incomplete grade at Vermont Tech in one of Professor Skoda’s classes here are some very important things to know:

  • Do any quizzes, exams, finals or other Canvas related activities NOW. Canvas is unreliable during the semester, but during the summer it is even worse, plus the IT people aren’t around as much to help. Do. Canvas. Stuff. NOW!
  • Download pdf and handouts from Canvas NOW! See the previous bullet.
  • I am only marginally available via email after graduation. You can email me questions using the Day 1 questions format and make sure you have the course number in the subject of the email. I will NOT reteach entire lectures, but I will answer questions asked in the correct manner.
  • Do not wait until the end of June to complete your assignments. Anything you want graded has to be sent to me by 24 June 2022 at 2PM Eastern
  • There are no extensions if you cannot get things finished and handed in by the 24th you will get the original grade.

This is the last semester that I will be using a liberal incomplete policy. I started doing this during Covid and this is hopefully the last semester where we shall have to deal with masks and “don’t come to class” policies. Next semester is planned to be all face to face, all on paper, and all in a room. I’m trying avoid on-line learning at VTC until Vermont Tech actually provides descent Tech for on-line learning.

Posted in VTC

The final installment is posted

Pieces of Soul is the last installment of the Tale of Art, Love, and Fear 7th Sea second edition story arc. Please check it out over at drivethrurpg.com. This culminating story takes the heroes into the wilds of Eisen to hunt a horror and rescue a kidnapped person.

Now I’m working on a combined book with all three stories and some pre-generated characters. That will be posted maybe by the end of the year? At least that’s my hope.

Posted in Games | Tagged as: | Leave a comment

A bit behind in my publishing schedule

“Life finds a way”, said Dr Malcolm in Jurassic Park. Of course he was talking about dinosaur reproduction and I’m talking about writing hazards in my publishing schedule. I’m a bit behind on my final chapter for The Tale of Love, Art, and Fear. Some of this is schedule/life driven, hobby time has taken a back-seat to some real world things or squeezed out by other hobbies. I can write all I want when it’s cold and dark, but practicing with the Rugers has to be a nice weather thing…

I’m also a bit humbled by the current sales of the first two chapters and feel an overwhelming urge to make the last book something bigger and better. Of course, done should trump extravagant, but tell my mind that when I proofread.

The last book, Pieces of Soul, is nearly done and should be delivered to DriveThruRPG before November first. If you haven’t read the first two installments please zip over to www.drivethrurpg.com and check out this exciting 7th Sea adventure.

Posted in News and Opinion, Pirates | Leave a comment

Moodle down for maintenance

Skoda’s moodle server is down for maintenance for the time being. If you have work you needed to upload as part of an incomplete grade at Vermont Technical College please email me and we will work out the best method to turn in your work. Please DO NOT fret or worry about incomplete work deadlines due to our horrible Covid-19 semesters. Get what you have to do done and we can work with the SS to correct your grades.

VTANG members who were using this site for virtual drills, your material is archived and you can gain access to it by seeing Major Skoda at drill or sending me an email on NIRPNet.

Posted in News and Opinion, VTC

Practicing for CAS

As part of my preparation for a real CAS match I setup a small range here at the house to see if I can hit anything and to adjust to faster rates of fire than I’m used to. I normally practice for hunting: shooting at the same target slowly and working on accuracy. This also gave me a chance to run a few more rounds through my Mare’s Leg just for fun.

This is really my first attempt at this type of shooting and I’m slower ‘n molasses in January. I shoot low with the rifle when trying to sweep and had a lot of malfunctions with the revolvers. When the pistols ran correctly I didn’t do too bad.

Posted in SASS | Tagged as: | Leave a comment
  • Categories

  • Advertisment

  • What am I playing?

  • Meta