The one on the left was what I was working for, however the second one (on the right) came out really well, if not better. I did these ones the same way I did the recent work, tracing major elements from a photo and adding to the image.

I was inspired by the recent War of the Worlds posts on lategaming.com and a recent post about these excellent autochrome photos from the turn of the 20th Century. You can see how I used the source image by looking at my first attempt:

It took a bit of messing around to find a design that worked for the tripod and I think I found a good one. So here are my early sketchs showing the progress.

I had a great vision of how the tripod moved and attacked. The heat ray would be static on the bottom of the tripod and the tripod would rear up to aim the deadly beam. The legs would be like Doctor Octopus’ tentacles but were spiked at the end (with a heavy weight) so they could dig into the ground to support the great weight of the tripod and also be used as weapons.

… would you think they look good, assuming of course they are theme appropriate? (Click on them to see in higher resolution).

I was trying to figure out if I could do, myself, good or high quality images or at least create something that looks like it is good or high quality. I think I hit on the right technique. (Some more images after the cut).

I feel like I’ve cheated a bit to create these images. Basically, I took a photograph (one of my own), then traced elements of it and added/modded stuff. Here’s the original image. Do you think I’ve cheated? I’m not sure because the photo is original and what I’ve produced is quite original too. The interesting thing is that I took advantage of the effect scanning has on the image, by only scanning in black and white, it hid any mistakes or smudges, leaving a sharp and pure black ink image. I even played with different ways of using ink: brush, nibs, pens and even markers. I’m not sure how recognisable the differences are in these few images.

My host’s recent downtime gave me spare time to actually do some artwork, and I played with the technique a bit. I needed to know if I could use it to do urban scenes, which was meant to be part of the theme for L___ H_____. So I took a photo of a city street and added an old friend…

I did a second example of this and took a photo of where I work, adding his all mightiness lording over us…

I needed also to see if I could use it to create pictures of people. So I took a photo of my grumpy daughter and turned her into a fairy. But I wasn’t completely happy with the result. That’s when I discovered a nice little perk of tracing. I could quickly do another copy, benefiting from my first attempt. My second attempt is certainly better but still needs some improvements, which I haven’t tried yet.

I do like how they come out and the sort of templating system of the tracing a source photo makes it easy to try different combinations or just to play with the images. I’m not sure I could get away with using them in a roleplaying book… I think I might have to add colour in some way to do that.

trawl through hours of quite-good just for the big reveal at the end

(I know it’s nearly month ago, but I’m only catching up on some posts now).

Of course, she’s talking about Harry Potter, a series I’ve yet to go near. I thought I was just being peculiar in my book-buying habits but there is part of me that, in general, distrusts certain types of series. I’m not just talking about novels, but roleplaying books, TV shows and movies.

I’ve always been more engaged by a short concise format for a series then a never-ending or over-long one: a definitive beginning and a definitive end with in a short enough time frame, such as the recent The Lost Room (TV).

I tried to grasp what it was that makes me distrusts such series by performing this thought exercise and formulating it into a sort of rule or law:

The longer a series continues, the probability of disappointment reaches zero.

This is true. The longer something goes on, the greater the chance that I’ll find something I don’t like about it. Nothing’s perfect. But this isn’t what I’m after. A series can dip and come back stronger. No there is something else. So I started thinking about the various series I’ve loved and hated: The Matrix movies, all six Star Wars movies, Lost (TV), X-Files (TV), World of Darkness (RPGs), Discworld (Novels), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) etc. All these series I eventually turned my back on them or they left a bitter taste in my mouth. They all had a certain strong addictive quality, a fanboy-ism and hype that seemed to throw me eventually off them… many were based on “the big mystery”, like Lost and X-Files. Others had a evolving and alluring mythos, such as World of Darkness and Star Wars. It might have been the tired formula and decreasing impact of the “hit” that turned me. They are like a drug where each “hit” has less and less high which has the knock-on effect of increasing the demand/addiction for more, which further gives the appearance of the series getting worse.

As a series, with a high addictive quota, continues, the apparent quality of the series will decrease.

Where “addictive quota” is generally anything fanboy-inducing, be it a rich setting, a big unanswered mystery/conspiracy, a never-reaching but alluring climax, etc. essentially a element that keeps you coming back for more, whats going to happen next, kind of thing. But this isn’t necessarily correct either. A series can maintain “apparent quality” even with a big mystery. For example the works of H.P. Lovecraft and Star Trek Next Gen. I nearly considered Farscape in that list but that got canned so perhaps the quality didn’t decrease to a level that turned me off.

Of course, what I mean by ”apparent quality” is subjective viewer experience of the series. The quality of the series could be consistent through, but from a user experince of it and the decreasing power of the hit, the subjective quality decreases. However in my experience, the quality objectively seems to suffer a bit.

Anyway lets try to rewrite the rule:

As a series, with a high addictive quota, continues with no fundamental change in premise, the apparent quality of the series will decrease.

H.P. Lovecraft didn’t write a series with the same set of characters. Each short story stood on it’s own, yet each shared a similar formula. In a similar vein, Star Trek Next Gen comprised of lots of short stories (of course nostalgia could be playing it’s part here and making me look back with rose-tinted glasses). Stargate have regularly changed the major antagonist and so by fundamentally changed their premise. However, in the case of Stargate for me, I never got into it so I would have never noticed the quality dipping.

So, the trick, it would seem, is to have a big enough dramatic change or end of story before the “apparent quality” of the series decreases. In the case of Lost it might mean actually revealing something concrete. For World of Darkness… they simply waited too long, for me as a viewer of the series, before changing their formula and ending their big-mystery-story. There is a danger that it’s only the addictive quality that has you watching and if you stop watching, the addiction fades away and the subjective lack of quality is all that is left.

Sure some people have a greater tolerance before the quality decreases which means they are more willing to wait till that big change or the end arrives. Most normal people’s tolerance is not high. My wife got bored of Lost within the first episode of the second series. It took me at least 4 episodes or so. Even when I tuned in to the finale of series two, I found, nothing seemed to have changed! I’ve heard people saying the latest season or finale is brilliant and well worth it, but my subjective view of the quality of show is so low now I can barely work up the interest to switch it on. And of course, in the case of TV, people often start watching later in the series and so their tolerance takes them further than someone who started from the beginning. I think also, as a child and teenager, my tolerance was much much higher or perhaps the impact of each hit was greater so it took longer before I noticed the series going bad.

If I had the time I’d draw a graph, where you have a viewer’s subjective quality and their level of ‘hit’ and as the level of hit dips and goes below quality, quality decreases. Once that happens, if you stop the addiction, a viewer lose interest.

All these does explain why I have developed a general distrust of majorly hyped series such as Harry Potter and why I avoid them, I think. I could be simply spouting nonsense too!

So what does this mean for a ”good” series?

Well simply, a series must change. It can’t depend on the big mystery or that one bad guy to keep it going so long. It has to regularly dramatically change. Well you can, if you get the right audience I think, but you have to be careful then.  If you fail to provide a big enough hit later, some of the audience may find themselves wondering what they thought was great about the series in the first place.

So I wonder… would the Prisoner have been a cult hit if it hadn’t been canned?

(Small side note, I don’t think this affects actual roleplaying chronicles or games. When you play an RPG, I think, the hit is so different, self-generated if you will and so it can maintain the same level as long as the players don’t get too jaded.)

Before my holidays, I had decided to go back to basics with my drawing. I had let my basic drawing skills languish over the years. So I got myself a rather excellent book on drawing:
“The Complete Guide to Drawing and Illustration”. It’s a well thought out course, designed to get you drawing full pictures straight away and build up a strong process. Drawing is simply a skill. Art is in the expression and the composition. Everyone can draw so I bugs me a little when someone says “I wish I could draw”, because they can, they’ve just decided they can’t. I shouldn’t get so irate about it though as it’s this exact mentality that made me consider my drawing as a secondary way to creatively express myself (writing became my first). In school there were a number of very talented artists, who were simply better. As I went through school, I ended up comparing my results to their work and found it lacking. Rather than try and improve and ask for help, I did the teenager thing and sulk about it and since then I’ve let my love of drawing dwindle.

The introductory text reminded me of exactly why I like drawing. My wife says that I’m a man of simple pleasures, it’s not what you draw or the end image that is important but it’s the act of drawing that gives you pleasure and capturing “something” in the end result, an expression, a tone or a strange shape. Drawing, in itself, is not complex but is engaging.

So with this long holiday planned, I decided to pack my drawing stuff. I was excited about picking up my pencils and pens again. Chargey is in the east of France, lost in the country side and properly soaked in the summer sun. The house is old, several generations, filled with old paintings and antiques going back to Napoleon times. A great place for finding subjects to draw.

I do have one complaint about the book, but it is minor. All the examples are done by the author, Peter Gray and he’s a professional. His images are wonderful. I’d love to see work done by some example “students”, just to compare with my own. Or maybe that’s a bad thing. Anyway, the first exercise was a mug. A simple exercise in lines and circles. It was fun and simple to do. An interesting side note is that, no where in the book does he suggest using rulers and compasses to get exact shapes, just guidelines and freehand.

The next exercise then was some basic shapes, rectangles, cylinders, etc. Most drawing books try and get you to draw a cylinder from one hundred and fifty different angles. Following, logically, on from that was organic shapes, such as fruits. It was at this point he introduce “composition”. I never worried about composition before. It is always one of those “advanced” topics in other books. They’d expect you to able to draw whole bodies perfectly before worrying about composition, but Peter makes a good point: a badly drawing picture can still work if the composition is good. It’s something I never considered before, but he’s right. The way objects are laid out and from where you view them is just as important as how well you depict the shapes on the page. If the composition is wrong, the whole picture is wrong before you begin. Shape and composition is actually enough to start doing full drawings but there is two more components missing. One is shadow and tone, the other is…

“The First Broadcast Caliber Online Sci-Fi Series”

It’s about time someone actually tried this, selling television shows directly to the public instead of going through a broadcaster/network who may or may not cancel the show have way through a season and who are more concerned with advertisement and “viewer figures” than good television. I applaud the makers of Sanctuary, Stage 3 Media, for being bold enough to be the first.

The website is in sucky flash (why do people still create full websites in flash?) and it won’t play on my Wii. Arg. So I booted up my PC and had a look. The trailer is awesome, it’s kind of like a Gothic-X-Files-cum-League-of-Extraordinary-Gentlemen. I’m impressed. It’s got some recognisable actors too, Amanda Tapping (she plays “Colonel Samantha Carter” on Stargate), who is also one of the executive producers, and David Hewlett (he plays “Dr. Rodney McKay” on Stargate: Atlantis).

I bought a “bundle” for the first 4 “webisodes” (their term, not mine!). I didn’t realise initially that each “webisode” is only 15 to 20 minutes long and, so far, only one episode is available. So to get the first full 1 hour episode, I’m going to have to wait for the next 3 webisodes to be released. But the good thing is that you can download the webisode in WMA and/or MOV format. I wish they had a DIVX format as well. Still, it means I can watch the webisodes on my telly using the Wii.

I watched the first episode yesterday. I’m impressed. If it was on television, I’d be very excited about now…

Except… I paid approximately 9 euros for that bundle of 4 webisodes (thats about 6 GBP or so). Apparently, according to their blog, different regions have different pricing structures and they have made the pricing inline with the iTunes model.

We have modeled our pricing on a very successful competitor: iTunes. They set their prices based on what each market will bear, based on availability, economics, research etc. Simply put: Different economic regions dictate different prices. This is why some things are cheaper or more expensive depending on what part of the world you’re in.

And they justify the price such:

Sanctuary offers you a 15 minute-long standard definition “webisode” in your choice of format (Quicktime/ Windows Media/Flash Video) and for a slightly higher price you can upgrade to the HD version. These files are YOURS. You can do with them what you want. Drop them into iTunes. Convert them to DVD formats. Burn, rip, whatever. You bought ‘em, you decide how to enjoy ‘em. And right now they are available ONLY on the web. Unlike Lost or Stargate, it will be awhile before Sanctuary makes it on TV. So if you like the show, the Internet is the only place you’re gonna find it. And unlike iTunes TV and movie offerings — which are only available in the US — anyone, in any country, can pay for and watch Sanctuary.

Considering the level of content, it’s global availability, and its exclusivity, we feels it’s a fair price — and if you buy them in bundles, it drops the price per webisode even further.

Okay, but 9 euros for 1 hour? When I said this to my wife, her response was “that’s more expensive than porn!” (One might wonder why my wife knows how much porn would cost…) I’m not sure I can afford 9 euros per full (1-hour) episode. I’d rather wait till they release a DVD box set and get it for a reasonable price then pay be on the latest viewing-edge of the show.

I think they have really got the pricing wrong on this. It’s going to make viewers much more fickle. If one episode is really bad… why fork out so much for the next one? Sure the hard-core fans probably would but the average viewer wouldn’t, I don’t think. And when you put it as 9 euros for 1 hour… Jesus that’s enough to discourage anyone from buying it in the first place, unless the novelty of it turns you on.

In their latest blog post, they imply they are aware this is an issue.

First off I want you ALL to know we are taking all of your issues concerning pricing very seriously. It is a large and looming issue and we are aware of it. What I also want to make clear is that we ARE looking into the numbers and discussing the option of a flat pricing model. The company that makes Sanctuary - Stage 3 Media - has modelled its business plan in line with the iTunes pricing model and to change it means some serious bean counting. That said, not for a second do we want to alienate our customers and fans. In fact we strive to do the exact opposite.

So, is it really better than porn?

Well you can decide for yourself. They have released the first webisode in low-res format on youtube. And here it is embedded on my blog (if you can’t see it, just go to thedeadone.net or follow the youtube link above):

Battlestar Galaticia’s latest season had just finished on Sky One a week ago when my wife informed me that Canada’s Next Top Model was showing on Living TV.

Yes, I admit it. I’ve watched America’s Next Top Model. I mean, its a series about beautiful girls wanting to be models where the biggest concern is if they are willing to do a naked photo shoot? Okay it’s got Tyra Bank’s wannable Talk-Show host constantly trying to get the contestants to “show us who you are” (i.e. cry or reveal some dirt about their past), which drives me up the wall… but thank god for Sky+ and fast forward.

Anyway, they are doing a Canadian version and Sophie, my wife, sat down to watch it on Saturday. Obviously there is no Tyra Banks. They have some Canadian Model. But do you know who it is? Tricia Helfer (her official site). Who’s Tricia Helfer? Well she plays the sexy Cylon “Number Six” in Battlestar Galaticia!

I was suddenly dizzy. Campy Fashion Reality TV show crashing with Serious Sci-Fi Drama! It was nearly Cthulhu-esque… two worlds colliding together, other alien dimensions shifting into ours. I kept expecting Tricia to explain how they would be trained to the ultimate sexy human-killing Cylon instead of how Tricia was first spotted by a talent scout, while waiting in a queue, and how she became an international super-model!

(Previous weird Battlestar-Galaticia-ness: Calling your baby Baltar!)

And the Dresden Files TV show sucks. I haven’t read the books or played the RPG (there is one by the way, done by the same folk who did Spirit of the Century). I’ve watched the first three episodes on Sky 1. Quite simply, unoriginal and boring.

Let me go a bit about the Dresden Files for a moment…

The whimpering gay subservient ghost that hangs around the “wizard’s” apartment annoys me no end. Apparently, I’ve read on someone’s blog, is that in the books he’s a talking skull… now that would have been cool. The thing is, I can see what the original books were trying for, a kind of discworld-meets-supernatural-detective. But that doesn’t carry across to the small screen. Instead it comes off as a bad Charmed without the super-cute witches. They writers trying to “shock” the viewer with revelations but the usual audience of this kind of stuff know what to expect and the shocks are uninspired and are, well, shit. Then there is the incessant monologues… FFS show us, don’t tell us. This is TV! A sweeping city shot and some hard-boiled talk is… time to check what’s on the other channels.

Such a pity, because previously Sky was showing the SCI-FI channel mini-series The Lost Room. It was great. Loved the world, the plot came to a conclusion and major parts of the mysteries were revealed. I’d love to see the writers create another mini-series based on the mythos and they certainly left it open.

But did anyone notice? Lost is in its third season. Unbelievable. Can’t believe it’s still on TV. That is a series that should have ended in the first season. The creators of the Lost Room had it right and by comparison, the creators of Lost have it completely utterly wrong. As a roleplayer and GM, the problems of long-running stories are pretty obvious. Do you go for a chronicle that starts and concludes or is “rolling-over” based and just keeps going on, never really concluding or coming to a decisive point (though often a lot of the characters and players change)? In our hobby, a rolling chronicle can work… but not on TV! I losted interest (pun intended) in the middle of the second season.

Back to vampires. I’m really getting into Blade the series. It’s really well written. Very World of Darkness inspired too. Pity it’s already been canned.

That pretty much leaves me with Battlestar Galaticia. The new series has started and it has, so far, been great. The last episode however was a bit boring. Nothing happened. Bit worried it’s going down the same route as the second half of the last season. We’ll wait and see.

Oh damn, nearly forgot: Heroes has started over here. Seen about three episodes (I think) so far. I’m not seeing why everyone is ranting and raving about it, I’m afraid. and then people keep drawing comparisons with Lost which is really really off-putting. If it’s going down the route of Lost, I don’t want to watch it! However, I’m still currently watching it. So maybe it’s something to it. Lets see how it turns out.

Note #1: If there is anything I’ve left out, it’s either because I’d never watched it or I don’t know about it.

Note #2: I’m not really a “torrent” person. I like my TV as… well TV. Okay, let me put it another way, I don’t have time to spend setting up torrents and setting aside time to watch four episodes in a row. If it’s on TV, I’ll watch it. Er. That makes me sound lazy…

“We were thinking of Balthazar.”

I pipe in with:

“Wow. That’s a great geek name.”

“Geek?”

“You know, Baltar, from Battlestar Galacticia… the human with the cylons…”

“Eh, no. Balthazar was one of the wise kings.”

Doh!

Apparently Balthazar, which sounds very similar to “Baltar” which is the name of a character from the popular sci-fi show Battlestar Galacticia, is one of the wise kings from the story of Christmass.

Well, you learn something new everyday.

It’s about as bad as the 90s Vampire series Forever Knight… which makes it very good! I haven’t googled it yet, I don’t want to. I don’t want to know it’s been canned or that there are only one or two seasons. Ignorance is bliss they say.

Each episode is only 30 minutes long, which probably makes it more delicious for it’s bite-size delight. The back-story is a little vague, the elders put some young vampires under the guidance of head-master Dr. Murdock whose job is to humanise them. An experiment that must be kept secret from the “furies”. Anyway, it’s a bunch of Vampires, with all the funky powers and weakness and dress sense living in the basement of a boarding school.

The character sheets are very close to the original published character sheets. New character sheets can be added by using XML scripts. You can edit, save and print the character sheets, modify values etc.

Version 0.0.6 is the last version of MythMaker. It is version 0.0.5 repackaged with any new scripts that were created. No future versions are planned.

If your after the java source code for Myth Maker; it is included in the download.

I haven’t picked a license from the plethora of free licenses models out there. But basically it’s free including source code. If you want to devolpe further with it just drop me a mail and ask. You can pass it on, delete it, print it out etc. etc. as long as I get the credit, i.e. link to my website or my email etc.

Character Sheets Supported

Character Sheets supported:

• World of Darkness (1.0)
  • 2nd Edition
    • Werewolf
  • 2nd Edition Revised
    • Mage
    • Vampire
• Dark Obsidian
• Shadowrun (2nd Edition)

Installation instructions

This is permanetly beta so it comes with the usual warnings. If it does stuff to your machine tough - not my fault

To install Myth Maker you need to have a valid JVM running on your machine. It must be at least JRE2. You can download the latest Java runtime for your OS from here.

Also this is a graphical application so it wont run in just console mode. I.e. you’ll need a graphical OS.

MythMaker-0.0.6.zip (3 megs) - This is just the jar and associated files. Extract them to the directory (using your favorite zip utility) you want to keep Myth Maker in and then run it by using java from a console:

java -jar MythMaker.jar

(In newer versions of windows and the JVM, you can also just click on MythMaker.jar like any other executable).

Screenshots

Here are a few screenshots of Myth Maker (0.0.5/0.0.6) in action.