Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Poem: Suzuki Beane Method

(Like we all know about dogs)
(With their crazy four legs)
But what about the dogmen
Hotdogging us before they stick it in
(And with that wild ta)le
Dogma spread across the lawn
Their doggerel
Blossoming like dogwoods in spring
(And we pet them and things)
As the dogs of war
Chew the doughboys like biscuits
(But who cares about four legs)
Three branches two houses eight corporations
(And a ta)le
Told by a barker posing as an idiot
Signifying everything
(When all they really do is) shit.

Author's notes: This was meant to be in more of a "slam poetry" style than some of my usual output. It's also decidedly a protest piece, though like most of my work it's meant to convey an emotional impression more than anything in particular. It should be read aloud at a fairly fast, aggressive clip.

People with absurdly huge reference pools will recognize the lines in parentheses as belonging to a somewhat obscure book written by one Sandra Scoppettone called Suzuki Beane, about a six-year-old beatnik. The title is an homage to that and to the Gorillaz song "Left Hand Suzuki Method."

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Post #100

First of all, a little bad news. Cards on the table.

I lost my Better Know a District Hex notes.

This doesn't mean I won't revisit it. No, I definitely will when I'm ready to. But if I can't get them back together again, it might be a little while, because as anyone who's ever lost something they were working on knows, it's a real bummer. I do have something a little less heavy I'd like to start in on in the meantime. We'll see how that goes.

Second, since this is my hundredth post, I meant to have something more... momentous in hand for you all. But well, 5e's out now, at least in its basic form. How much more momentous do you get than a shiny new version of D&D?

If you haven't checked it out yet, it's worth a look. So far what we see reminds me in a lot of good ways of Castles and Crusades. IMO the biggest misstep at this time is with the Wizard's spell list, which is even more Evocation-focused than the Starter Set preview indicated. That's not a bad thing, but it does feel a bit limited to me. Which is maybe all to the good as far as WOTC is concerned, because it makes me want the PHB so I can have a little more breadth. But the rules themselves? Definitely seem solid to me. I can't wait for the core books to come out. Especially the Monster Manual, because the Monster Manual is always the one D&D book, in every edition, that I consistently find myself reading for pleasure.