Video: Ruins

I am on holiday and until I return and sort out some technical issues, here are some old videos. I will be doing video shoot at this site, sooner or later.

Video: Acererak Discusses Hygiene

I am on holiday and until I return and sort out some technical issues, here are some old videos.

Video: Sexist Art

I am on holiday. Until I return and sort out some technical issues I have been having, here are some old videos.

Grumpy RPG Reviews: Stephen King's the Dark Tower Series

I finally have this god damned thing in an acceptable format. Anyway, a video review and discussion of the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. And this is the same video, just with a different aspect ratio.

Other Worlds than these...

Don't dress like this for a job interview

This Just In....

GenCon 2012

Homosexuality in games

This link leads to a good article on sexuality in RPGs.

Homosexuality in games

Grumpy RPG Reviews: Mind’s Eye Theate

Episode 66: Mind’s Eye Theater

• Acererak and Baba go out for a makeover.
• As a book, MET is laid out well, with attractive art.
• If you like Supernatural or Paranormal, then this is the setting for you.
• The mechanics are a nice balance of clarity, simplicity and thoroughness.
• It is too wordy and lacks hyperlinks.
• Mind’s Eye Theater gets a 15 on a d20 roll.

This is my final effort at this - for some reasons, while the original version plays well on my computer, severe lagging issues kept appearing once uploaded and encoded. I was not able to resolve those issues and am moving on.

Oh, and while doing research for a Pinkie Pie joke (sadly cut due to the video errors), I came across thiiisssss.......

Videos: I Spy with my Mind's Eye...

Courts of the Seasons

Four courts of fey act as anthropomorphic personifications of the four seasons.

Fey occupy their time in ways that sometimes makes sense to mortals and sometimes are bewildering. One such arrangement – falling between comprehension and confusion – are the Courts of the Seasons. Somewhere between a quarter and a third of all fey belong to one of the courts. The size of a court varies – “cold” regions have large winter courts and “warm” regions have large summer courts. Each court is responsible for their season, though normally a Court allows “its” weather to take its own course rather than forcing the season’s weather to submit and a Court takes it temperament from the weather. Individual members exert control to pursue an agenda occasionally. It is possible for a group to negotiate (or coerce) a Court into actively controlling the weather of their season.

Courts are morally indifferent, though individual members might be evil or good; the Winter Court does not seek to freeze the world and some members of the Summer Court inflict heat strokes for sport. Courts of the Seasons are fond of revels and parades. These events are terrible for the unprepared, as they are part of fierce seasonal storms – all festivals of a seasonal court include a storm, but not all seasonal storms include a festival. Courts arguably in opposition to each other rarely directly conflict – winter gives way to spring, not summer. However, battles occur between one court and the following court – sometimes ceremonial, sometimes sincere. In either case, such battles frequently wipeout croplands and devastate mortal communities.

Courts by Turn

A court reigns over the season of a continent or similarly sized region, which covers multiple countries, cities and the like. The previous court moves on and the succeeding court moves into the region when the seasons change. A single court will have multiple locations its members frequent across the region.

The overall color scheme of a seasonal court matches it season, thus members of the Winter Court favors blues, white, grays and blacks while the spring court favors greens and browns with pastel shades of pinks and blues. Winter and Summer Courts are unforgiving and bloody minded while Spring and Autumn are stormy and passionate. Winter and Summer are traditional, Spring and Autumn capricious. Members of Winter and Summer are prone to collecting blood vendettas while members of Spring and Autumn duel for sport. 

Courts of the seasons possess internal structure, ranks and these are usually similar across the seasons.

Relative Title	Winter	Spring	Summer	Autumn
King	Tsar	Kral	Rei	Rí
Queen	Tsaritsa	Kraliçe	Raíña	Banríon
Duke	Graf	Duk	Duque	Diuice
Duchess	Grafinia	Düşes	Duquesa	Bandiúc
Count	Hertsog	Saymak	Contar	Comhaireamh
Countess	Hertsogina	Kontes	Condessa	Chuntaois
Knight	Ritsar	Kavalye	Cabaleiro	Laoch

Each season usually has a single king and queen. A Duke or Duchess is the master of the martial forces of the court and adviser to the reigning king and queen. Each month has its own reigning count or countess. Knights are the lowest ranking members of the court and this title may be bestowed upon a mortal who survived serving as a consort for a season or performed some other service for the court.

Arrangements

Many countries have arrangements with the Courts of the Seasons, mandating a change of the courts in way that does not wipe out crops, damage the country or permit a court to linger two months longer than it should. These arrangements usually have requirements mortals must satisfy, such as burial of the carcasses of snakes stuffed with fennel seeds, tying red and white ribbons to fruit trees and rolling old grindstones down hills while singing various exalting the change of seasons. Failure of the mortals to accomplish such a checklist means the courts are not obligated to change in an orderly fashion.

Alternately, mortals join a court. There is no fey “queen of winter” or “king of summer” – the immortal Winter Tsar and Summer Raíña traditionally take mortal consorts for the duration of the season. For decades, women usually survive winter, while a man surviving the summer as its nominal king is rare. To fulfill their obligations to the Courts of the Seasons, some countries send people to fulfill these positions.

Lastly, an ancient empire one defeated the courts, forced terms upon them, meaning the court have to behave in an orderly fashion and a powerful artifact prevents the courts from violating this agreement.  

Representatives of a court visit many places across a region, usually the courts all use the same location. Low ranking members frequent some otherwise forlorn location in small lands while an empire sets aside large swaths of park lands to accommodate a main court assembly. Those wishing to petition, or duel, with members of a court visit these locations. 

Stories

• A sudden storm surprises the party while traveling – the ebullient fey celebration inside the storm is more surprising. 
• Villagers ask the party to intervene on their behalf to petition a court to stop ruining their crops.
• A Winter Ritsar challenges a member of the party to a duel – the characters great grandmother slighted the ritsar ages ago and he wants revenge on the coldest day of winter.  
• Weather turns unseasonable and upon investigating, the party learns a Summer Contar is pursuing a vendetta against a weather-controlling wizard and both are indifferent to anyone caught in the crossfire.
• A ranking member of a court takes a fancy to one of the party and seeks to take them as a consort.
• However, consorts are political positions as they can possess clout in a seasonal court, influencing it – nobles, guild leaders and other power mongers inevitably becomes involved. They will attempt to influence the consort to do their bidding.
• A consort flees from a court, its intrigues and capriciousness, and asks the party for protection.
• The artifact enforcing the good behavior of the courts is stolen and must be recovered.

Video: Churches and Temples

A video discussing the roll of temples and churches in a fantasy RPG game. The "looking through time lens" is available in the same places which sell LSD online.