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Thu Nov 10 07:59:03 EST 2016
Slept from around ten to six-thirty.
Sunny today, with a high of sixty.
Goals:
Work:
- Start to wrap up collectd
Done, although I may want to move from rrd and collected3 to influxdb and grafana.
- Paperwork for transfer of CC telecom ownership
Done.
Fifteen minute walk at lunch. Very sunny. Not cold. Saw a big crow flying.
Home:
- Work on D&D mini rules (monster creation?)
Done.
Took another fifteen minute walk after work. Golden sunset.
Monster/encounter brainstorming:
What do I want?
I want a rule of thumb or simple algorithm for building encounters and knowing (roughly) if they're easy, hard, or deadly.
I want to easily build custom monsters, and be able to make encounters with them.
Inspired by fifth edition.
Fifth edition encounter building rules are too complicated to use manually, but great once I made a software utility.
https://devilghost.com/software/encountercalc5e/
The fifth edition chart for base monster statistics by hit dice (or CR?) is a great monster creation starting point.
Just wing it?
I wrote a software combat simulator that convinced me my intuition for combat deadliness is wrong as often as it's right.
Observations about encounter balance/difficulty:
- Monsters have weaker AC's than characters, or at least weaker than fighters.
- Monsters who can bypass fighters with missile weapons or area effects are extra deadly.
- Anything that makes monsters harder to hit (flying, invisibility, stronger AC) increases challenge.
- Anything that lets monsters bypass front-line fighters (missile fire, area effects) increases challenge.
Point values.
Look at &Magazine issue 13, page 50.
Score value of party:
- 1 pt per HD
- 2 pt per character with plate mail (or better)
- 1 pt per spell caster maximum spell level (a magic-user that can cast third-level spells is 3 pts)
So, for example, a part of four third-level characters (f, m-u, t, c):
- 12 pt for hit dice
- 4 pt for spell levels
- 4 pt for plate
= 20 pt
Score value of encounter
- 1 pt per HD
- 1 pt per additional monster (i.e. more than one, so three monsters = 2 pt)
- 1 pt per additional attack per round (i.e. more than one, so claw/claw/bite = 2pt)
- 2 pt per monster that's hard to hit (flying, invisible, strong AC)
- 3 pt per attack that bypasses front-line (missile fire, area effects)
- 6 pt per very bad attack or permanent wreckage (save-or-die, turn to stone, level drain)
- Other special abilities 1 to 4 points each
Example:
Basilisk (6 HD = 6 pt, stone = 6 pt)
= 12 pt
Example:
Adult Red Dragon (9 HD = 9 pt, fly = 2 pt, breath = 3 pt, claw/claw/bite = 2 pt)
= 16 pt (or 18 pt if we double-up on "hard to hit" for its strong AC)
Example:
6 Orcs (6 HD = 6 pt, five extra monsters = 5 pt)
= 11 pt
Rough challenge scale (monster points vs party points):
10-30% : easy, routine resource depletion
40-60% : hard, a casualty is possible
80%+ : deadly, good chance of one or more casualties
Would we also want to base treasure on these points?
Yes, but don't include the "additional monster" points.
<1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
20 60 120 240 480 960 1,600 2,400 3,200 4,400 5,600 6,800 8,000
I feel an urge to play with the awesome window manager again.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12920981
Is there a recommendable (and somewhat recent) book on how to get started with Go?
1. https://tour.golang.org/welcome/1
2. https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html
3. https://golang.org/ref/spec
4. http://www.gopl.io/
Breakfast: carrots, spinach, yogurt with berries, coffee with half-and-half
Lunch: two crunchy taco supremes with chicken
Dinner: steak sandwich
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