What a helluva way to start a week off. This has got me so pissed but it does explain a lot of things that have been happening for the past several years when it comes to me finding employment. Before I went back to Professor Awesome's house this week, I was up early at my house and I overheard my dad on the telephone talking to my sister. She was calling because she too, like my eldest brother, wants my dad to cosign on a loan for her (that's a whole other stupid matter). So my dad is talking away and I'm in the other room and he doesn't know I'm awake yet. I'm still pretty groggy though. He has the phone turned up pretty loud and I can hear my sister and him talking and I hear the sound the phone makes when another call comes in. He answers it.
It was Wal-Mart calling asking for me, wanting me to come down for an interview! Interviews are always a good thing, I haven't had a job two and a half years now so I desperately need this job. [relevant side story approaching] My cat Zuko has a bad tooth and one vet we took him to gave him some antibiotics for a tooth infection but the antibiotics didn't quite work. You see, he's not eating much and keeps scratching at one part of his jaw like he has tooth pain going on. Besides that and being underweight because of that, he's fine. I don't know if he has a bad cavity that has gone down to the tooth nerve but I'd reckon he probably needs a tooth removes. Zuko has been the family cat for years and is the one cat left not to have gotten killed by a car on the road. So my family still won't pay the vet bill (it's fairly cheap compared to what other vets charge but it's still a bit hefty due to tests and whatnot) and just shrugs it off like it doesn't matter. Instead, my mom is looking into other internet/phone/tv companies and wants to blow her money on that, even when she isn't sure how long she'll be able to keep on working. I live in a house where rational budgeting almost doesn't exist. My dad doesn't understand why I want to start hocking some of my few belongings to pay the previous vet bill and potentially another vet bill to take care of Zuko's tooth. It's more practical not to waste money on a cat's health but more practical to him to waste money on junk (and I mean literally JUNK) he buys from the flea market for projects he will never, ever, EVER work on let alone complete. So I REALLY need this Wal-mart job, any job, to pay for Zuko's healthcare and not to mention finally get out of this dilapidated house.
Back to the main story, so my dad is on the phone with my sister when Wal-Mart calling about an interview. He tells them that he's on the other line and gets back on with my sister. My dad still doesn't know I'm awake and hearing all this from the other room. At this point, I'm feeling pretty excited. I may FINALLY have an income of my own again! So my dad gets off the phone with my sister. Instead of going to find me and wake me up to tell me that Wal-Mart called for an interview and that I need to call them back immediately, this is what he does...
He calls Wal-Mart back himself. Doesn't even bother to find me and let me know. Wal-mart picks up and he tells them, and I shit you not, "Nope, there is no one wanting an interview here." He hangs up the phone and goes about his day like it was nothing.
What.The.Fuck?!?!?
The rest of the day, he made no attempt to tell me I had a call for an interview. He didn't know I was awake and heard everything and I confronted him over it. Needless to say, the cat's out of the bag now. My mom has recently been pulling something similar but I see it in a different light now. I applied for a job where she works at, using her as a reference and she said she'd help me get a job there. So when her workplace calls (we got caller ID), she freaks out and won't let anybody answer the phone saying she doesn't want to be called in for overtime. Now that my dad has pulled this crap, it looks like my mom is doing the same thing.
It's official without any doubt whatsoever, I've caught my own parents doing everything they can to make sure I never get a job and stay at the house to cook, clean, wash, and do every other menial task that they don't want to do for the rest of their lives and my lives. I feel like Cinderella who isn't allowed to make her own life and her own money and be independent and when the invitations to job interviews come in, like an invitation to a ball from the castle, they are quickly shredded, thrown into the fire, and I am purposely left in the dark about it. And my siblings get catered despite all the shit they do and them acting like super gorged parasites while I get the shaft. All I want is to not have to ask for food or gas or help for my cat but that's too much to ask for. I'm told I should be happy with taking care of them even though they could do it themselves. So much for any aspirations I had, but then again, they never existed in my parents' eyes.
So I left in a rage. This explains what happened back in April of 2010 when my parents' actions forced me to quit my newly acquired Wal-mart janitor job. For those of you who don't know, here is briefly what happened then. I got hired as a custodian to clean bathrooms. My family was all ecstatic, not for me getting a job but more for all the purchases I could make for them with a Wal-mart employee discount. When I learned that you have to work there for six months before getting it, they quickly lost interest. I needed some money to get me through my first two weeks until my first paycheck. I had enough gas to go into town but my parents couldn't spare a dime for food so I generally worked 12+ hour days, sometimes I had only 6 hours between shifts because some guy just up and quit on them. So I worked without eating but a lack of food is nothing new and you learn to ignore your stomach for a while. I figured I'd just work for two tough weeks and then I'd be buying my own food. Of course it pissed my off when I learned that my mom had lied to me about the money and spent loads of it on beer and cigarettes for her and my eldest brother.
During this time when I was working, my dad's stick shift truck "broke down". It wasn't broke at the time, just the windshield wipers wouldn't work well but he refused to drive it. Instead, he would wake up before me and drive off with my car instead leaving me stranded. Unfortunately, I don't know how to drive a manual transmission vehicle to this day so I couldn't drive his truck and I didn't know anyone who could teach my besides him and he wasn't up for it. So I had to scramble and have to bum rides from my mom to get to work and she sometimes almost couldn't do it because she had her own job to go to. My dad kept this up the whole time but it never rained a drop and the forecast never called for rain.
The straw that broke this camel's back came when after I got done with my shift, and I had another 12+ hour shift starting in six hours, I really needed to go home, get a quick meal, and get what little sleep I could. I wait for an hour and no one shows up like what had been previously established. I wait some more. Nothing. I wait more and I meet one of my eldest brother's friends and he lets me use his cell phone to call home. Turns out, my mom was too didn't feel like picking me up and claimed my sister was supposed to. Of course she didn't show up either, no one did. My mom deliberately stranded me in town with no way home but to walk 11 miles home or wait there. If I walked, my shift would be beginning by the time I got home. If only my dad wasn't running off with my car in the early morning but I was too innocent to suspect that they would deliberately do this. Since both of them had made sure I had no way to and from work, I had two options. Either quick my first job after only two weeks or get fired from my first job after only two weeks when my manager finds out that I just stopped showing up. So I did the more honorable option out of the two and I reluctantly quit. That day sucked.
Putting the past into the present's context, everything is clear to me now. All those times where my mom has slipped and/or joked about my "job" is to take care of her and my dad, all those times when the chickens were used only as a tool to keep me occupied and to keep me from leaving the house (which I got two phone calls today, first from my eldest brother and then from my mom demanding I come home to clean the chicken coop), all those times when my dad would lecture and encourage me to save money by staying here and going to "work" instead of living somewhere else, and all those times when I get berated by them and when they try to guilt trip me on whenever I hop in my car to leave to Professor Awesome's house, especially when I was applying for jobs online like Wal-mart or the local grocer that we both had interviews for a butcher apprenticeship job at. It all makes sense to me now and it still is crazy enough to dumbfound me but I witnessed undeniable proof with plenty of past evidence to support it that my family is truly, without a doubt, sabotaging my attempts at becoming employed and becoming independent.
As if a crappy economy wasn't bad enough.
I will now be using Professor Awesome's phone number for all applications I do now, regardless of whether I am at his residence or not. I can't trust my family to answer the phone when possible employers are calling but I can trust his to. I don't personally like doing it as it is just me becoming dependent on them to a greater extent but they are encouraging and don't mind it and actually care about me finding work, unlike my own family.
I guess you could say I'm in the process of reorganizing myself and trying to figure out just what to do now and get a new groove going on.
So to those of you reading this, what do you think I should do?
I suppose the good news is, weird as it may sound, my anger and frustration has sorta helped break my art block that I mentioned in the previous journal. I haven't tried working on a comic page yet but maybe this time it will come around. Once I get the page done, I will probably be working on an art trade with hunterbahamut and I got some other things I still plan on coloring.
Now, about the D&D stuff I mentioned in the previous journal. Me and my friend Professor Awesome have been working for a long time off and on in making a Demordicai Diamonds variant of the Dungeons&Dragons tabletop RPG. There have been several times where we gathered some ideas but dropped it, picked up again, dropped it, picked it up again and played some standard 4.0 with my middle brother's friends who just got back into D&D, dropped it when the group fell apart for numerous reasons after only a few grueling sessions (probably the worse D&D game I ever played), and then picked it up again recently despite the fact of not having a group anymore to even try it out with. If this project was a baby, it would be either a very dead or a very retarded baby. Possibly the latter considering the acronym for this project would be DDDD. Try to pronounce that and not sound retarded. Mental disability jokes, ho!
I'm confident enough to start sharing what we have been creating for a while here for anyone who is interested. For this journal, I'm going to share the current ideas for how the Hit Points (HP) system, Armor System, and Weapon Systems will work in...-sigh- DDDD. Please, feel free to imagine me saying that as retarded as possible, maybe even with excess spit affecting the sound.
The HP will system is based on two core stats: Stamina and Endurance. Total HP is the sum of both Stamina and Endurance but it is important to keep in mind that Stamina and Endurance affect HP independently. Think of both Stamina and Endurance as separate HP pools, with your total pool being the two of them combined. Generally, most games have you die at 0HP (or in the case of some rules for D&D, a negative variant of either some ratio of your total HP or a set negative amount of HP) and this is usually the case for DDDD, but it is possible to die with HP remaining.
Because you have Stamina and Endurance affecting total HP, changes in either one affect your HP. If Stamina goes up, your HP goes up. If Endurance goes down, your HP goes down. It is best to consider your HP divided up into StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. They both represent different aspects of physical health.
Stamina represents how much energy you physically have. At full Stamina, you are energetic and ready to go! At 0 Stamina, you are worn out and too tired to do anything too complex. Stamina is depleted by doing certain complex or strenuous actions like climbing a rock wall, pushing a huge stone block, doing complex (and deadly) combat moves, getting hit by an enemy's attack, or traveling for long periods of time without rest. Some actions take more stamina than others, some take a very minimal toll. A tired character can't do certain actions if they don't have the stamina for it and is much easier to defeat in combat due to much of their HP being already depleted. The same goes for tired enemies. Stamina is easily restored by resting and as Stamina is restored, so is StaminaHP.
The Stamina system also logically prevents cases of repeated skill checks for certain things. For example, Hulk Hogan wants to push a stone block and has to roll a strength check. He doesn't know it but the number he has to obtain is only reachable by combining his Strength Modifier with the roll of a d20 (a 20-sided dice) landing on the 20 side. He rolls many times to finally get the 20 side but with the Stamina system, he can't just stand there and infinitely roll without getting tired. Now if he gets too tired, putting himself at greater risk should combat occur, another care can always step in or maybe a good rest for the party is in order. Maybe even a restorative item perhaps.
Getting hit in combat will reduce your Stamina. When you take damage, you lose HP and StaminaHP is on top and is lost first. Combat is serious business and not getting hit is very important when delving into deep and long dungeons. Get hit too much and you will run out of Stamina and will be unable to do more strenuous and deadly attack moves in the battle, leaving you with only the more basic hack and slash moves available. If only your StaminaHP is damaged, you're a little roughed up but nothing a good rest or some light healing can't easily cure.
Endurance is much more vital than Stamina and represents just how physically intact your body is. When your Endurance drops to 0, your body is no longer capable of keeping you alive and you die. Like Stamina, Endurance has it's own HP pool but there are only a few things that reduce Endurance and those are generally very bad things like taking damage.
EnduranceHP is layered underneath StaminaHP and is damaged last. If the player is wearing armor, the armor provides a third pseudo HP pool that represents the armor's durability in between StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. When a player takes damage, say from an enemy striking the player with a sword, here's how it works:
Falcor the Lv2 Hunter has 75HP 25 from his Stamina 25 from the Leather Armor he is wearing 25 from his Endurance
Falcor gets hit by a player who feels like doing some teamkilling and takes a whopping 55 damage. He now has 20HP left and is bloodied. His Leather Armor is damaged to the point of providing no more protection. He now has: 0 StaminaHP and can't use complex abilities (the damage hits this first) 0 ArmorHP from the now severely damaged Leather Armor he was wearing (this is hit second) 20 EnduranceHP left (this is hit last)
A player or enemy is considered "Bloodied" when their EnduranceHP is at any amount other than at a full 100% and sometimes certain things can be triggered when a player or an enemy becomes Bloodied or is currently Bloodied. Any damage you take to EnduranceHP represents you being physically hurt form anywhere to a small cut (like 1 point of damage) to possibly missing a limb or having your insides become your outsides. The more damage a player takes to endurance, the more their life is in peril.
EnduranceHP generally takes more time to heal than StaminaHP and should be protected as much as possible. A short rest may not be long enough to heal EnduranceHP, something more along the lines of heavy healing or a long rest in a safe town would be more effective. Even then, the more EnduranceHP lost, the more time and/or resources may be needed to get them back up to health. One day of a long rest may heal enough to mend any small cuts well enough but it may take a long rest of several days and some stitches, medicine, or other healing to mend a large gash. Broken bones are especially bad and a decapitated head generally doesn't make a verbal request for healing. Armor is your friend and you should treat it like one.
I hope that make sense. I'm not always good at explaining things. For other examples, it is similar to how Borderlands or recent Halo games work with their shield and health mechanics. Kudos to you if you can correctly guess just what game truly inspired this. It's one of Professor Awesome's favorites though I have never beat it and haven't played it since I was in elementary school (another thing on my to-do list).
When it comes to armor, we felt D&D core rules were just to be basic and disregarded armor, and weapons too but to a lesser degree, as relatively unimportant and not really worth mentioning much unless it is magical. In fact, the stat sheets generally give you a slot for a suit of armor but not for separate pieces. The separate pieces of equipment, like for hands, chest, head, legs, are generally to be only used if the armor piece in general is magical. Then it is important. DDDD will have a much greater focus on items and equipment, especially when it comes to looting and crafting.
There are 3 different classifications of Armor (4 if you count "unarmored", as in naked). These are simply Light, Medium, and Heavy and offer increasingly more protection in that order.
Light Armor is the lightest armor and is by far the weakest. It has only one beneficial stat at that is its ArmorHP. ArmorHP is the durability of the armor and this pool of HP protects your EnduranceHP, resting in between StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. when ArmorHP is depleted, the Armor itself is damaged to the point of providing no protection. Light Armor is generally weak equipment like a T-shirt, or Khaki Pants, or Bikini. While they do provide a very minimal amount of protection, especially bikinis, they are pretty much the worse thing you can wear into battle. The upside to them is that they are very light and a character equipped with light armor will often suffer no penalties at all associated with the Armor's weight or ease of maneuverability.
Next up is Medium Armor. Medium Armor is the happy balance between Light and Heavy. It offers increased ArmorHP compared to Light Armor. It also offers a second benefit, an increase to "Armor Class" (commonly called AC in D&D). Armor Class, or AC for short, plays a large role in determining whether an attack hits you or not [NOTE: We may change the name of this stat later if we can think of anything better due to concerns with how the name itself does not fit accurately enough for our liking with what it is supposed to represent since there is a difference in realism when it comes to dodging an attack and an attack deflecting off of armor. To us, "Armor" shouldn't be associated with dodging/evading even though it is mechanically the same as a blow deflecting off a player's armor]. Medium Armor is not only more durable but it grants an increased probability for attacks to deflect of the armor and be ineffective entirely, protecting all pools of HP. Medium Armor would encompass types of Armor like Hide Gauntlets, a Leather Chestpiece, or a Chainmail Bikini that still is more fashion than function. So the upside to Medium Armor is a greater ArmorHP and an AC increase that makes the wearer more difficult to damage entirely. The downside to Medium Armor is that there may be minor penalties associated with it's weight and ease of maneuverability when wearing it, like a small hit to Dexterity for example.
The last tier of Armor is Heavy Armor. Heavy Armor is the best of the best and it weighs the most and can sometimes be very cumbersome and expensive to buy or craft!). The benefits it provides are the greatest of all Armor types. Heavy Armor has the greatest ArmorHP and is very durable and makes you very durable as well. It also grants a greater boost to Armor Class than Medium Armor, making enemy attacks more likely to ping of clink off a player's tough armor while the player laughs at their feeble attempts to inflict damage. Thirdly, Heavy Armor provides another boost that no other type of Armor does, it offers some damage resistance. This amount may be small but it's effect adds up greatly overtime. Say for example, a full suit of Platemail provides the player with General Damage Resistance +2. Any general damage that player would take, like being hit with a sword, is reduced by 2. Combine that with greater ArmorHP AND a greater chance for general attacks to do nothing at all and you get Armor that lives up to the tit;e of "Heavy". Heavy Armor does it's job well and enemies wearing it should be fought with care. But even Heavy Armor has it's weaknesses! (that's coming in a little bit). The upsides of Heavy Armor are the massive ArmorHP, high AC boost, and constant damage resistance. The downsides are the largest penalties in wearing it due to it's heavy weight and possible major problems maneuver while wearing it. Don't expect a physically frail character to perform well when wearing Heavy Armor but that doesn't stop them from being able to try, well, unless they can't even pick it up.
Anyone, regardless of Race or Class, can wear any type of Armor. Want to play a Sorcerer who charges his Platemail with lightning that electrocutes enemies with a deadly bear hug? You can do that! Want to be a thief who jingles about in Chainmail because Chainmail Bikinis are in fashion this season (and possibly magical)? You can do that to! Want to run around naked and die at Lv1 because you thought armor was for n00bs? You can do that to! And maybe even come back from the dead and feast upon your more intelligent allies' brains! The only restrictions in armor are that it has to fit you and that you have to be strong enough to wield it UNLESS you can fit into int and want to lay on the ground immobile. For example, someone playing a Drakune character will have make sure their Armor is designed in consideration of their generally thick tails. Characters of certain races, due to anatomy, may be able to wear special pieces of equipment like a tail ring for example. It's pretty hard to wear a tail ring when you don't have a tail or wear ear rings when you don't have your ears pierced (unless they are clip-ons).
On to the glorious world of Weapons! This is the last thing I will cover in this probably very long journal. The core D&D game, at least for editions 3.5 and 4.0 as far as I know, do allow for weilding all sorts of weapons but there is often very little difference between them, completely disregarding the weapon's way of killing. The only difference is usually something along the lines of a difference in damage and maybe an extra little ability like having an improved critical hit chance. There really isn't a whole lot of incentive to use other weapons beyond role playing and a few benefits that combo with it when it comes to playing a particular Class or Race. Some weapons are blatantly more powerful than others (though often not by too much) and with so little incentive to use anything else, there isn't a lot of room for customizing dramatically different play styles. And like armor, often the only weapons that are of importance are the ever present magical weapons. In DDDD (I still think it sounds retarded), we are changing that up!
Weapons, like Armor, come in a variety of types that perform different functions. Unlike Armor, there are 5 types of weapons. Those types are Slicing Weapons, Stabbing Weapons, Smashing Weapons, Sorcery Weapons, and Special Weapons. Look at that, they are all thematically named with the letter "S" too!
Weapons are generally made with only one purpose: killing. But not all weapons accomplish that purpose in the same way. Each weapon type, with the exception of Special, has certain bonuses that reflect it's method of killing.
Slicing Weapons are the most iconic and involve, well, slicing and slashing and enemy to death. Slicing Weapons almost always have a blade whose edge is used to cause gashes and cuts in an enemy, sometimes even severing body parts! Swords, knives, and other bladed objects that kill by using their sharp edges fall into this category. They get a big damage bonus against Unarmored and Light Armored targets as they rip through flesh and cloth. If of good quality, they are can be well balanced, easy to use, but like with all weapons, difficult to master. They have few if any penalties of any sort but don't fare as well against more armored targets compared to other Weapon Types. Want to quickly slaughter the poor, helpless farmers? Use a Slicing Weapon! Want to kill the pit fighter clad in Platemail and become arena champion? You should seriously consider pick a different weapon rather than use a Slicing Weapon unless you have a fetish for ticking heavily armored foes.
Pros: Great against Unarmored or Light Armored foes, Easy to use! Cons: Generally worst Weapon Type against Medium and especially Heavy Armor.
Stabbing Weapons are all about stabbing, piercing, and penetrating. They are designed to do nasty damage to armor and hurt whoever is inside. They are not meant for slicing or severing body parts at all unlike Slicing Weapons. Of all the Weapon Types, Stabbing Weapons could be considered the most deadly. They consist of pointy stiletto daggers, spears, throwing knives, arrows, and other pointy objects. When a Stabbing Weapon hits an enemy, it bypasses StaminaHP completely (think Mordecai's Trespass skill in Borderlands 1 where StaminaHP = Shields) and does damage to ArmorHP first and then EnduranceHP. If the enemy is has no functional Armor remaining, it bypasses StaminaHP and goes straight to EnduranceHP. Sometimes Stabbing Weapons may bypass not only StaminaHP but ArmorHP as well, getting right to the meaty flesh inside depending on luck of the dice and the type and quality of the weapon itself. The downside is that unlike Slicing Weapons which are swung in a thick arc to hit the target, Stabbing Weapons must hit with their small point to deal their damage and their is a much higher margin of error to miss with a Stabbing Weapon, more so when the enemy is particularly nimble. In addition, some Stabbing Weapons are long and become clumsy in close quarters combat but some Stabbing Weapons, like stiletto daggers, are most accurate in very close quarters.
Pros: May bypass StaminaHP and even ArmorHP and thus very effective against armored foes! Cons: They are generally less accurate than other Weapon Types, some are clumsy at varying ranges.
Smashing Weapons are for those characters who love to smash and crush their enemies! To quote a great hero of Jersey City: "We tried no smashing, and that didn't work. From now on, I'm sticking to my strengths. And smashing is my strengths. I just need to find the right way to smash him." Smashing Weapons encompass both blunt and hafted weapons that rely on brute force to get the job done and do major damage. Hammers, axes, maces, even the most basic wooden staff or even a stick for that matter goes in this category though the last two examples may vary considerably from their more burly smashing brethren. Smashing Weapons are not only high damage weapons, especially the two-handed ones, but they are also very effective against Medium and especially Heavy Armor but in a way different than Stabbing Weapons. Unlike Stabbing Weapons that goes deals damage going through Armor, Smashing Weapons focus on busting op the armor as much as possible and whatever is inside it. In addition to doing already high damage, they do additional damage to ArmorHP, the heavier the armor the better! Any benefits to AC given by the enemy's Armor may also be negated to an extent, making Smashing Weapons far less likely to be deflected off even the strongest of Armor. Out of all the Weapon Types, Smashing Weapons are usually the heaviest and most unbalanced (there are exceptions) and users may suffer some steep penalties if they aren't strong enough to wield it proficient enough to wield it effectively.
Pros: High Damage, Devastates enemy Armor, especially Heavy Armor. Cons: Cumbersome to use for the weak and inexperienced.
The 4th Weapon Type is a special type, it's Sorcery Weapons. These weapons are very unique and very deadly when used by uniquely gifted individuals. Sorcery Weapons is often more of a subtype rather than a completely different classification as any Slicing, Stabbing, Smashing, or some Special Weapons can also be a Sorcery Weapons. A Sorcerer's Sword works just like a regular Slicing Weapon, same as a Sorcerer's Warhammer follows the traits of Smashing Weapons. What separates these is sorcery of course! But not in the usual D&D way of being "enchanted". You won't see a +2 Flaming Iron Long Sword of Swiftness or anything like that when it comes to Sorcery Weapons. They are technologically advanced weaponry utilization gems that are commonly called "Blood Diamonds" that function like a crystalline cancer that infects and saps the Life Force out of living beings until they die. Most of the time this relationship is parasitic but in some cases it is symbiotic but that's going into the Sorcery-oriented Classes. Since Blood Diamonds feed off of Life Force, or Life Energy, of a living being, they often need be used by a living being to be utilized to their full potential. In some cases, that alone is not enough and the wielder must know how to channel their Life Energy into the Blood Diamonds in the Weapon for a particular effect to occur. Not all Blood Diamonds are created equal and Sorcery Weapons even more so.
For example, say you want to have a Sorcery Sword, one of the kind that slices and slashes just like a regular sword but unlike a regular sword, the blade can heat up upon command, maybe even burst into flames in the process, so it can cut threw Armor and flesh like a giant hot knife through buttery flesh and Armor. There are a few ways this Sorcery Sword may work, limiting the potential users.
Method 1 (Very Limited): The sword has Fire-aligned Blood Diamonds that require Life Energy to be channeled into them. The user must know how to do this. Second, the user's Life Energy must be Fire-aligned as well to a certain, probably significant degree, thus requiring the user to be infected with Fire-Aligned Blood Diamonds. Essentially a Sorcerer's and only a Sorcerer's weapon. No need to worry about it being very dangerous should it fall into the hands of most people. It would be wielded only as a common sword to most or scraped for the Blood Diamonds inside.
Method 2 (Somewhat Limited): This method is almost exactly like Method 1. The user must know how to channel their Life Energy to activate the Blood Diamonds but the Blood Diamonds are either particularly voracious and not picky at all in what they consume and/or a combination of Blood Diamonds with the former's traits along with a very particular Blood Diamonds that does the blade heating. In this case, the user only needs to know how to channel their Life Energy to activate it. You could have an Elementalist of any type wield it, a Monk wield it, or someone who just knows how to channel their Life Energies wield it to it's full potential. Potentially a little more dangerous should it get lost and wind up in someone else's hands.
Method 3 (Not Very Limited, May Still Have Problems): This method requires no magical expertise or Life Energy channeling skill whatsoever. It's so easy a caveman (or worse) can do it. The sword may ignite and heat up with a simple action depending on the machinery inside the sword. It could be a switch system that activates when you hold it upside down and heats up over five minutes, or you turn the pommel to activate it, or maybe it has a trigger or a button on the handle somewhere. It's made so anyone can use it and can be very dangerous in anyone's hands. There is a catch though. Because Blood Diamonds operate like batteries, they eventually run out of charge and become inoperable. Most can be recharged but this method of crafting is made so anyone can use it, so long as the Blood Diamonds inside are charged. You will need to find a way to recharge it one way or another depending the specifics of the sword and it's components. You may need to get your Sorcerer buddy to charge it for you, or maybe you need have to go through a lot of hassle to dismantle part of the sword even to get the Blood Diamonds out. Maybe slaying someone and letting their blood flow down the channel and into little canals in the hilt onto the Blood Diamonds inside (blood has oodles of the original owner's Life Energy inside). So just because anyone can use it in the short term doesn't mean it won't be a hassle in the long term when it comes to Sorcery Weapons made under this method.
Sorcery Weapons can have a variety of additional effects, flaming and/or a heat blade is just one. They are elementally aligned due to Blood Diamonds being aligned to one of the four elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water (sorry Captain Planet, Heart isn't an element). It is also possible to have Sorcery Armor and other objects but that gets even more technologically advanced and the amount of energy needed increases and sometimes they may not be as useful in the same way as Sorcery Weapons. Most people probably wouldn't want to wear anything that burns them alive or freezes them solid.
Sorcery Weapons are a lot more complex than their regular counter parts but can be EXTREMELY deadly. In DDDD, Sorcerers and melee weapons can get along very, VERY well. The downside to these weapons, besides certain compatibility problems is that you have to drain your own life, or in this case StaminaHP to use them to their full potential. A Sorcerer may have to be careful on when to utilize his Sorcery Weapon, he won't want to tire himself out and drain too much of his StaminaHP. Power comes with a price but being wise can go a long way. So to sum it up:
Pros: Works like regular weapons with added powerful magical effects! Cons: Possible usage restrictions, StaminaHP is often sacrificed for magical effects.
And the last Weapon Type is Special Weapons. These are weapons that don't easily fall into the other categories. Weapons that don't Slice, Stab, Smash, or use Sorcery exclusively and have almost no other practical weapon uses (like a wand or a ring that shoots fireballs) go into the Special Weapons category. These Weapons may have unique rules applied to them or they may be very mundane. Whips, many improvised weapons like throwing random items, thrown potions, and other odd weapons fall into this category. It's pretty much a catch-all category for all the weapon misfits.
Pros: Exotic or Odd Weapons??? Cons: Weapons may be very basic???
I think I'll stop there for now with the DDDD stuff. Didn't think it would take 5 HOURS to type but whatever. Probably should have just covered one aspect but 3 is good I suppose. MY HANDS FEEL LIKE THEY ARE GOING TO FALL OFF NOW. This journal is an extremely long read. I'll probably go into some more DDDD gameplay stuff in a later journal. If you're interested and read through all that and would like me to cover a certain topic for next journal in regards to DDDD, let me know! On a side note, I wonder if this is my longest journal ever?
You got a lot of things to say. I'd say you could've done the two topics in two separate journals entirely, but that's just me.
First off, about your situation and sabotage: Family is the worst, sometimes. It sounds like they've got little regards for your wishes and choices. They are not really giving you a chance to get out and be independant, and even plain laziness of forgetting to tell you might be annoyingly tolerable, this level of intensional sabotage is not. You are doing the right think keeping them out of the loop and having someone you trust help relay the news to you about possible jobs and calls. It seems a lot more reliable than the things at your home. Honestly, I'd ditch those people as soon as I'd get a job and could move out. Right away, that is. I'd not want the paycheck to come home either, I'd make sure to get it either electronically straight to an account only I could use, or delivered to the same trusted friend, or if given to hand, keep it to myself clearly.
Your family has shown itself to be untrustworthy when it comes to your welfare, so hopefully you can get far away from them fast. Make it clear they're not welcome to visit either, until they're willing to admit what they did and got a damn good reason why. If they cant think of that, and realize just how bad they were doing, I'd cut all contact with them. It may sound cruel, and harsh, but there are some kinds of people you are better off not knowing. Unfortunately for me, my grandmother is one of these people. Her actions, when revealed to me in full, are horrid enough I hope she dies soon and I refuse to even see her again. She may claim we are the same blood, but her crimes against my mother and her sisters go to a length I'd not post anywhere online. I can discuss this with you on a private message if you like to compare experiences (personal and family-member ones in this case) on family-betrayal, but well, suffice to say things are pretty bad on that front.
So, get out of there like a bat from Hell, if you want my honest opinion, friend.
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Now, about the DDDD. Are you using 3.5th edition D&D, Pathfinder (Effectively 3.75 edition), or 4th Edition D&D ? I ask because I have experience with the first, I love the second, and the last one I've given a look but that my friends would never agree to play and which I am suspicious of myself as well. Anyhow, just wanting to try and figure out the base you are building upon. You mentioned 4th edition, but not sure if it was related to other play instead of this.
Well, I like your separation of the two sources of HP, and find it quite enjoyable. Likewise, the thought you've put to armor intrigues me, and I agree there's some very good, thought out stuff there. The blood diamonds for sorcery weapons seems an interesting take, and quite interesting possibility. All in all, lots of good ideas flowing, and it seems you are off to a great start.
You may run into some issues though, such as someone arguing their dagger should be able to both slash and pierce, sharp edge for slashing and a hard, sharpened point for stabbing. Not sure if you want to allow someone's ideas for such dual-weapons in things, but its something that came up in a D&D game I was playing in, when someone got into arguing whether they could use the dagger they stabbed a foe with earlier into cutting another who was practically immune to stabbing (and needed to be hacked apart). The player insisted a dagger's made sturdy enough and sharp enough for either, but that opened a whole can of worms when some people tried to then insist their longswords (slashing weapons) out to be able to stab people with their tips too then.
All in all, nasty situation but great ideas!
You got a lot of things to say. I'd say you could've done the two topics in two separate journals en
Lol, getting some horses maybe a little tricky but I got plenty of coyotes around I could substitute them for. Don't know how fast they'll reach bat-out-of-hell speed but it's worth a shot.
Lol, getting some horses maybe a little tricky but I got plenty of coyotes around I could substitute
It sucks having to deal with all this but you're absolutely right. I don't have very many good options but distancing myself and all aspects of my life from my family. The thought of my pay check getting into their hands makes me shudder some knowing just how bad it could potentially be utterly wasted.
I don't really have any where I can go on a permanent basis, at least not until I can afford to buy my own place, but I got a small handful of places I can go for small amounts of time, some more than others. Been doing that a lot this past week. It really does wonders to help give me some peace of mind. Still haven't made any notable progress on the job front but I've made sure that I'm no longer listing my home phone anymore.
For DDDD, I'm generally taking certain things out 3.5 and 4.0 and then tweaking them and adding in new stuff. I've never played a Pathfinder edition before and know little of it besides hearing it mentioned from time to time. I have pretty much decided that I'm using the six main core stats present in D&D along with the inclusion of a hidden Luck stat that will be used as a mechanical hook for the DM to play around with if he wants to like a Luck modifier adding to a loot table roll to give possibly better or worse loot out of a chest for example. I'm still trying to figure out just what I want to do on the matter of the defense stats of Fortitude, Reflex, and Will. In 3.5 it is handled more as saving throws but in 4.0 it is handled more akin to an AC-type stat.
I've managed to finalize (for the most part) the armor system this week and figuring out the more mechanical rules stuff for armor and equipment along with finalizing a pack system that takes boils away almost all the math involved when it comes to the issue of encumbrance from carrying items. The armor system now makes AC a sum of a Dodge and a Deflect stat. AC works just like usual but making it a sum of two components (who in turn are boosted by stuff like a Dex modifier or armor) is so far allowing for more intuitive but still simple mechanical interactions. For example, say you have a guard in full platemail guarding a treasure room that the party is seeking to break into and plunder its contents. The rogue decides to sneak up on the guard and successfully does so and initiates a successful grapple, restraining the guard. Since the guard is restrained, the Dodge part of his AC is taken out of the equation leaving only the Deflect amount left, that is considerable due to his platemail, to serve as his current AC and thus making the guard much more vulnerable to attacks as he won't be able to dodge while restrained and his lowered AC represents that both mechanically and flavorfully without adding a lot of extra complex math.
I've also taken more fully into account and figured out a way to allow for specific armor piece and body part targeting. That took a few days to figure out but allows a character to attempt to aim their strikes at particular armor and exposed weak spots on targets. It also supports just blind hack and slash for simplicity's sake through an order that dictates just what piece of armor will be damaged first, second, third, and so on.
That's a good point you raise about players arguing whether their weapons can be used for multiple styles of weapon damage. I think I will allow that to an extent depending on the weapon but hook that into a combat technique system to balance that all out. I think a sword, while normally used for slashing, can be used for a smite attack that is considered as piercing but certain effects may apply like reduced accuracy and a penalty if you miss like the targeted enemy having an opportunity to perform a counterstrike. Maybe I could also do a type of catch-all calculation system like how improvised weapons work.
I'll be doing another journal sometime probably next week going more in depth into the progress I've been making with DDDD this past week. Hopefully shorter than this one!
It sucks having to deal with all this but you're absolutely right. I don't have very many good optio
hunterbahamut and I got some other things I still plan on coloring.
