Marcus Aurelius said “You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
I have taken this attitude to heart when it comes to wine selection. There are weeks when I am the 2nd luckiest man on the planet. Those are the weeks that allow me to say “you know what, I think a seven-dollar bottle of wine will suffice” and get myself a bottle of Black Opal.
Some weeks I have a great deal of stress and find myself spending $20 on a bottle of wine.
But in still some *OTHER* weeks, I see a bottle of wine that is normally selling for $40 (is it bourbon of some sort? Some kind of bourbony wine???) that goes on sale for only $29.99 and, hey, that’s practically $25 and *THAT* is practically $20 and that’s practically half off, right? So not only am I practically within my budget, I’m getting one heck of a deal! *IT’S ON SALE!*
Or, I suppose, not. It’s only 25% off, really. I probably shouldn’t splurge when it hasn’t even been a bad week. It’s not like we have company coming over or anything or like I got a promotion or a raise or something like that. Marcus Aurelius also talked about restraint probably.
Anyway, I found myself with a bottle of The Prisoner (it’s okay: it was on sale).
I have heard stories about wine judging where people told that the glass of wine was 4 bucks said that it was (sniff) “servicable” and people told that it was a $28.50 glass of wine said that it had notes of blackberry, and chocolate, and hints of tannen and was really quite delightful. This, supposedly, was a story telling folks to just enjoy things in themselves without attaching an arbitrary judgment before even participating in it.
The other conclusion one might reach is that $29.99 bottles of wine (on sale!) will “taste better” to people who know that they’re drinking an expensive glass of wine. This is the conclusion that I have reached because a glass of this stuff was very, very good indeed. It’s too expensive, though. Only buy it if you have company coming over that you need to impress or someone gets a raise or a promotion or something.
Or, I suppose, if you find it on sale.
I like wine, and had a great time on our recent visitation of several wineries in Paso Robles.
That said, I’ve noticed over the years that everybody who is a scotch drinker likes good scotch. Everyone who likes tequila is a fan of Cazadores. But when it comes to wine, the wine fans are all different types of fans.
This tells me something about wine. Not sure what it is.
Oh, btw, Dragon Lords is fun!
s/Dragon/Dungeon
Yes! Awesome. How many games have you slogged through?
We did a marathon gaming night a couple of weeks ago and did three iterations plus a game of Settlers and one of old-school Illuminati.
The first Dungeon Lords was feeling the game system out, everybody pretty much got the basic mechanics down before we got into Summer. I think it’s at least another 10 iterations before I get a good feel for probability distributions, though.
Do you find that your game strategy is *highly* dependent upon the draw of the Adventurers/Rooms/Monsters, somewhat dependent, or not dependent at all?
Come to think of it, in a game like this, are you a “go for the win” type of player, always juggling strategy based upon the flow of the game, or a “I like this strategy which is only successful some of the time, but I go for it and when I win I crush and when I lose I do so with varying degrees of grace.” player?
That might be a post itself, come to think of it.
There are 15 or 16 ways to “win”.
I, generally, set goals for myself and try to achieve those particular goals. If I get there, it doesn’t matter if someone else got a higher score than me.
So it’s more like bowling than tennis. If you know what I mean.
That might be a post itself, come to think of it.
If you (or anyone!) is inclined to write a guest post on any Mindless Diversion, send it to me at AskJaybird@gmail.com and I’ll put it up.
No religion, no philosophy, no politics (or, at least, as little as you can reasonably include).
I’m completely off topic here but I want to address this issue. New World of Darkness is a dead simple game system. It’s based more on story than actual number crunching and the dice mechanic is simple bordering on elegant in its execution. Sad part is that the sourcebooks are mindbogglingly vague about implementation adhering to the belief that “If it works in the context of the story, allow it.”
My Changeling: The Lost game is fun. But I’m under the impression that the players, Seven Toes and his girlfriend, haven’t read the system after six monthly sessions. What is your stance on a player’s understanding of a system in comparison to the referee’s understanding of the game.
I am looking at moving to using another system, Savage Worlds, and making it the default for our gaming group. The core book is ten bucks which is pretty darned sweet compared to thirtysomething for the C:tL corebook. What I was looking to address regarding rules is having an introductory game like the videogames. Think of the beginning of Red Dead Redemption where you learn how to lasso cattle, break horses, win a duel among other stuff that comes up in-game.
Jaybird, how did you learn your current gaming system? Old fashioned nose to the grindstone reading? Following the examples of others and the referee? I am curious.
What is your stance on a player’s understanding of a system in comparison to the referee’s understanding of the game.
What kind of crap are they trying to get away with?
If it’s combat stuff, let them know that anything they can do: you can do.
If it’s storytelling mechanics, throw wrenches into their best laid plans… I don’t know. Have a cop pull up next to them (or the equivalent).
I know nothing about Savage Worlds… I’ll do some digging.
“Jaybird, how did you learn your current gaming system?”
Well, the current system is 4th edition. That story isn’t as representative of anything as much as the Harry Dresden system. For that system, the first thing that everybody does is sits down together and builds a city before building a character… and in building the city, they get a better idea *HOW* to build a character.
So, maybe, have a first session where you discuss a fairly important common area. Have everybody collaboratively build the tavern before they roll up characters, maybe. Or have them help build the city map. You can still be in charge of where the bad guy lives or whether he’s a lich or a dragon or whatever but let the players build an important part of the game… and *THAT* will help train them how to think about the world they’re inhabiting.