The True Power of the Cleric.

I have often been known to say the the Cleric is the most broken class in the D&D Verse because it can do everything. I have also been known to say that death in the D&D verse is like the cold. You get over it.

Which I mean to say is that in your typical fantasy game, the Cleric/Healer has multiple ways to stop death from claiming a person. From using simple first level cure light spells to stabilize someone to his abilities to resurrect the dead at higher levels. No one who dies in a D&D type game will stay dead if there is a Cleric around.

One thing that is hardly ever thought about in a RPG though is just what having a Magic healing person actually means for the world, (or just how powerful that person would be in our world right now.)

Thanks to a Cleric, no one in a typical D&D world would ever have to worry about disease, poison,plague,wounds or even death. Babies would be born with no risk to them selves or the Mother thanks to a cleric and no one would ever die unless they wanted to. No one would ever starve because a Cleric can create food and water. No one would ever have to worry about Thieves or Assassins due to the Clerics ability to create a Sanctuary. Disease and plague would be a thing of the past, poisons would be instantly dealt with. No on could ever tell a lie thanks to the Clerics Zone of truth powers and the threat of the Forthcoming Zombi Apocalypse would be nothing more then a bed time story thanks to a Cleric.

Polio,Ebola,Cancer,Brain Damage, 3^rd Degree Burns, Broken Bones,Starvation,Poison, and every other medical Symptom would be dealt with in a blink of an eye thanks to a Cleric.

Crime would be pointless as the Cleric's powers would alone him to locate the Suspect,replay the Crime and make sure the Criminal suffered the appropriate punishment. There would be no question of Guilt as the Cleric can make the bad guy tell the truth. Heck, he can make the Crime Scene talk and tell him what happened.

Never mind all those religion arguments and crusades, the cleric proves 100% that there is a God, possibly more then one.

AND! Should the cleric ever run in to a problem his powers cant solve, well he would just summon a Angel to help him!

There would be no need for Science to progress since a Cleric would be able to provide everything that motivates industry.

The n there is the DEATH thing. No One stays dead if the Cleric wills it so. Dispute over a Will or who is the next in line to sit on the Throne? Nonsense,the Cleric just brings the dead back to life and asks them. Only one woman on earth can solve this problem but she died 20 year ago? No big thing, the Cleric can bring her back.

Overpopulation and starvation because of the death thing? Not a problem as the Cleric can create an endless amount of food and shelter and should the world get over crowded? The Cleric just opens a Portal to the next?

Every thing that ever plagued a Fantasy medieval setting would not exist because of the Cleric, thus making him the most important, powerful and BROKEN class in the game

Now imagine a Cleric in today’s world? It's mind boggling what one Cleric could change in One day on our world., and a few dozen clerics? They would be ruling the World by the end of the Week!

So the next time someone does not want to run a Cleric in the D&D game because he thinks they are Just Heal bots. Make them read this article and fear the Power of the Cleric.

Happy holidays

Be excellent

To PDF or not to PDF?

Hello RPG fans, I apologize for being out of the loop recently. Been far to sick to publish. But we are back so lets start rolling some Dice?

So this time around I thought we could take a look at the PDF Product market.

Only a few years ago, downloading and printing out a PDF was a novelty but now with the advent of so many portable electronic devises that are capable of storing a PDF and allowing you to look at them at a moments notice PDF's are now a very easy medium to use. My crappy nook not withstanding, pretty much everyone has a devise that can quickly bring up that PDF and let you find the topic you wanted to look at. Plus it seems like much of the market is now being target at the PDFF market. There is am much as,if not more PDF gaming materiel right now as there is Printed material

So is PDF going to be the preferred environment for gaming in the next few years?

Many factors seem to be directing the RPG market in that way.

PDF's are cheaper to download then there printed counterparts. A average Book today can cost anywhere between $30.00 and $80.00 Dollars, most of that price going to cover the utterly pointless full page-full color -high gloss art that dominates the Books these days. While the PDF's of the same product can range from FREE to under $30.00.

PDF's are easier to transport. An average game book is around 100-300 pages and can take up a lot of room in your backpack. PDF's on the other hand weigh noting since they are stored on your Tablet/Laptop/I-Phone. In addition you can carry multiple PDF's on said tablet while you are limited by the weight your Backpack can hold or how many books you tossed in the Trunk for this weeks game.

PDF's are easier to navigate. Once on your electronic information thing of choice, it takes no offer to open the Doc and enter the search command for the Topic you are researching at the time. In addition your Tablet lets you surf the net as well, thus allowing you to search for information on line within seconds while gaming. A true time saver.

Common Core/The Electronic Classroom: Hears another tidbit that you might never have considered save for the fact that I work in education. With the advent of Common Core and the Electronic Classroom, all learning is being geared for the Tablet population. Smart classrooms will train future gamers how to use the Tablet to interact with the Classroom and Education systems as opposed to Books and paper Within a few years books will be but a memory. Your Grandchildren may have no idea what a book is(Which is a shame)

Most gaming product can now be found in both there printed version and a PDF version, and many of the more recent product is PDF only. It is FAR cheaper to put a document on line then it is to print out a few hundred books that you have no way of knowing if they will even sell. There are tons of books on the Shelf at my local game store that have not moved in Years because all that information is on the Internet and is FREE or under $10.00

PDF's take up no room as they are on your computer. Think of all the shelf space you will save in the future if all your gaming product is on your I-Gadget?

So, are there any reasons not to PDF?

Yes, but most of them are minor

After you Pay for the PDF, you still have to Print it out and get it bound if you want a hard copy Between the price of the download, the price of the paper and ink and the price to get it bound it will end up costing as much as,if not more then the copy on the shelf at your local game store.

Once printed out a PDF is as large, if not larger then the non PDF product so it will take up as much room and weigh as much as its counterpart.

While having the PDF on your I-Gadget makes things a lot easier, I have personally found it difficult to look up a fact on a PDF as opposed to just opening my book and finding the page. Depending on the speed and power of your Tablet thing , a page of information could take up to a Minuit to find?

As gamers we like to have things in our hands! Our dice, our Figures, or Writing implements and are books. We like our books, we are tactile in nature: We want to be able to open the book, find the information and share the book with others.

Sadly the reasons not to have the PDF are few and mostly involve Cost and personal preference I personally always prefer the book to the PDF, mostly for Price and my tactile need need to have the book in front of me so I can read it in bed/on the bus/plane or whatever.

But that’s just me .All in all PDF's are a fare more effective way to carry about the information you need for the game. One I-gadget can hold Dozen’s of RPG documents and only take up a few inches of space in your backpack. In addition you have them backed up on a Zip drive (you do have them backed up right) so if anything happens, you still have it at home AND the PDF site will let you download it again for Free as many times as you want once you have paid for the initial copy!

So to PDF or not to PDF, sadly as much as I love books, want to support my local game Shop and disagree with Common Core, PDF's are the best way to go about your gaming life.

As long as you paid for them and downloaded them LEGAGLY. (Which we all have done. Right?)

When looking for PDF product. Try RPG Download. RPG Now. RPG Gateway. Pazio's on line store or the web site of the company who's product you are seeking to buy. Most product on the web will also offer a PDF copy as well for Free.

Till next time, keep RPG alive and remember.

Be excellent..

Happy holidays!

Last Spokky october blog

On the day of the dead when the year to dies.
Good Morning Boils and Ghouls and welcome to our last SPOOKY OCTOBER BLOG on Horror in RPG. I hope you all enjoyed our exsploartion of this aspect of our hobby?

Halloween is an interesting holiday,especially since it does not in fact Celebrate anything. We have this strange relationship with Halloween, we spend all this time,energy,effort and money on it as a group, yet individually we each have our own understanding of the holiday and why we celebrate it.

Though lets face it, we celebrate it for the candy.

Halloween has no one origin, it is a incoperation of several cultural events and celebrations that have all been mashed together. The actual origins of the evening date back to before the Roman Empire, while our modern version of the Holiday originated somewhere in the 50's and is the result of Candy companies trying to sell more candy.
The most interesting aspect of Halloween is that before the Romans it was considered the end of the Year, thus the whole “Day of the Dead when the Year to Dies” thing.

It was a celebration of the end of the summer, a successful harvest and as Summer became Winter it was the end of the Year as far as our ancestors believed.

Most of the things we associate with Halloween,Pumpkins,Candy, Masks, Ghosts also have very simple origins and have no association with anything Pagan or Evil.

The most well known aspect that dates back is the Ghost thing, as celebrated on November First with the Dios De' La Morte (SP?) celebration. As this was a time of endings and beginnings and of long dark nights our ancestors believed that on this night the spirits of the dead would return to visit them.Q This was not seen as a bad thing but as a celebration of there lives,they were welcomed into the home and food and drink was left out for them. As it was dark and the Dead have a horrible sens of directions, lights were set out so they could find there way home. Often these lights were placed in hallowed out gourds. The weight of the gored would prevent the candle from falling over,let the spirit know that there was food and warmth for them in the house and face it look pretty cool. (Plus you had to do something with the Squash after you took out all the good stuff)

So right there you have the beginnings of the “dead walk the earth” aspect of Halloween. Candles in Gourds (pumpkins) aspect and the giving food to the spirits (trice or treat).

The idea of giving food to the spirits at your door (trick or treat) most likely grew out of the previous idea of providing food for the dead(See above). It was believed by many cultures that these spirits might want to play tricks on there relatives and that other spirits might wish to harm the family.
Food was left out as a bribe to the more mischievous spirits in the hopes they would leave your house alone. Similar to Christmas carols some people would go visit there family and neighbors and partake of the free food. They would even knock on the door to demand the free food if it was not left out. If they did not get the free food they might preform a minor trick on the house, such as kicking over a light. Since they did not want any one to know it was them, they would often wear masks.

Masks and dressing up date back to the dawn of man's history. Shamans and warriors would wear masks and body paint for many reasons from hunting to religious ceremony's. In latter years masks would be parts of celebrations,theater,religion and crime. Any time someone did not want to be recognized or to play the part of someone else, a mask of some kind was used.

The darker and more sinister aspects of the holiday grew out of the general superstition during the dark ages and the holly roman Church desire to control people, and nothing controls the uneducated better then fear.

Now a days Halloween is, or at least should be about Children. AND CANDY. It is one of the few holidays despite all the mass media that is just for Kids. There is no historical or religious background to the holiday other then the mish mash of ritual;s and habits from the past. Take all that away though and it is about Kids and for kids. And the kid in all of us. AND CANDY.

Till next time enjoy the holidays in whatever forum you wish. Be safe,be sane and most of all Be excellent