This Week's Wiki

For those not following me on Patreon, this is a list of adjusted or rewritten Authentic Wiki content compatible with 1st edition D&D, or merely of interest, updated in the last week. This will be adjusted throughout today, as new pages are created.

• Soldier-at-Arms (profession)
• Innkeeper (vendor)
• Andorra
• Camel (wild)
• Brewing (sage ability)
• Fly (spell)
• Protective Bracken (sage ability)
• Cultivate Ferns & Mosses (sage ability)
• Smelt Natural Metals (sage ability)
• Drawing a Weapon while Moving
• Henchfolk
• Gas-based Attacks
• Monster
• Astral Plane
• Hypnotism (spell)
• Foot (sage study)
• Measurements
• Deafness (spell)
• Moray Eel (giant)
• Find Sacred Place (sage ability)
• Calligraphy (sage study)
• Cleric (class)
• Mesolithic Period
• Storm Giant
• Boatbuilding (sage ability)
• Clowning (sage study)
• Homunculus
• Dragonis Prasinochlorio (green dragon)
• Detect Slime (sage ability)
• Way of the Heart (sage field)
• Woodcutting (sage ability)
• Commoner (non-player character)
• Religious Music (sage study)
• Land Suitability (sage ability)
• Affect Normal Fires (spell)
• Cure Serious Wounds (spell)
• Barrens (range)

Limited Wish

I've kicked this bugaboo down the road a couple of times, but I did add it to the wiki and today it did randomly come up.  Therefore, hopefully, I've addressed the subject definitively enough for my game world.  I wouldn't imagine this will please anyone else, but we'll see.  I'm posting it here because it has generated interest in the past, so I know some will be interested in its review.


Spell

Limited Wish is a spell of focused invocation, allowing the caster to alter reality within the constraint's of the dweomer's area of effect. Only that which exists within that range can be affected; this constraint defines the spell's function, preventing broad manipulations of time, history or distant events while still providing the caster with immense control over their present circumstances.

The spell is capable of reshaping the immediate environment, altering conditions or imposing changes upon creatures and objects at the direction of the caster. The injured may be healed, opponents weakened or killed, enchantments dispelled, truths revealed. However, in addition to the magic's area limitation, the caster must be able to specify that the effect is needed for some higher purpose beyond the character's whim. Nor can the spell fundamentally change circumstances that apply to the game's rules, which must be upheld for the purpose of playability.

Needfulness

This describes any condition in which the requested effect is essential to the caster's well-being, progress or ability to fulfill an obligation. If the caster is in physical danger, the wish can be employed in the interest of survival. If there is an objective at hand, and the character would have to employ other means to obtain that object — that is, fight or kill an opponent, cross a gorge, physically open a chest, preserve a life against threatening elements — then the wish can be made entirely effective.

However, the spell cannot function for the purpose of indulgent, frivolous goals. The caster could create a sufficient amount of wealth to save a kingdom from bankruptcy, but could not simply "invent" money out of the air, simply because it's wanted. A caster could turn aside a lava flow, but could not simply cause the ground to open up and start spouting lava, merely because purposeless damage is sought as a desire. The spell is only able to provide magic that is essential to the task at hand, not what is most convenient, most destructive or most profitable.

Game Rules

Within the fabric of the game, limited wish cannot ignore player and opponent hit probabilities or damage, or willfully change all of a character's ability stats, character class or fundamental knowledge relating to proficiencies or sage abilities. For the purpose of explaining this limitation — for it seems obvious that we might wish to be more attractive, stronger, bigger, a different race and so on, once again these things fall under the category of needfulness.

The player, wishing to improve the player's chance at success within the game, may wish to employ limited wish as a means of doing so — though it is only one 7th level spell, and should obviously not be the end-all manner of altering every intentionally placed functional game design inherent in Dungeons and Dragons — but we should suppose that the characters are comfortable and happy with whom they are. They have no knowledge of this "player," nor do they need these imposed changes from their perspective.

Additionally, the theoretical research and invention that led to the spell would have encountered limitations within the game world's reality that opposed such changes, simply because players might want them. The gods, the assumed laws and rationalities of the setting's existence... and of course the dungeon master — who chooses how to ruin and spoil the campaign they've constructed — may simply have no wish for one spell to be created that can ruin everything at a stroke. So, it turns out, after all the research was done, this was the very best that the magi could do. They just weren't able to fabricate a magic spell that would improve a character's ability stat by a single point.

For James, and James Alone

By chance, working out sage abilities for the Clowning sage study, the subject came up regarding whether or not a highly skilled clown could ever actually perform a fumble.  Thus, this authority-status sage ability:

Mock Tumble: When the character rolls a fumble in combat or fails a Dexterity check, it may appear to be a true misstep, but in reality, it is anything but. This ability prevents the character from ever suffering the effects of a fumble, ensuring that even their apparent failures remain under their control. Additionally, the character may automatically succeed on three Dexterity checks per day, choosing when to apply these successes at their discretion.

This Week's Wiki

For those not following me on Patreon, this is a list of adjusted or rewritten Authentic Wiki content compatible with 1st edition D&D, or merely of interest, updated in the last week. This will be adjusted throughout today, as new pages are created.

• Gust of Wind (spell)
• Polymorph Self (spell)
• Endure Cold & Heat (spell)
• Culture (development)
• Dust Devil (spell)
• Map A.09 - Melville
• Map A.06 - Aryania
• Coloured Lights (cantrip)
• Bless (spell)
• Map A.11 - West Greenland
• Resist Cold (spell)
• Identify (spell)
• Detect Snares & Pits (spell)
• Predict Weather (spell)
• Helpless Defender
• Map B.04 - Ob Gulf
• Dirty (cantrip)
• Polymorph Other (spell)
• Stone Giant
• Shillelagh (spell)
• Anauroch
• Dahak
• Halfling Race & Physiology
• Mirage (cantrip)
• Spill (cantrip)
• Tangle (cantrip)
• Bulgrastan
• Map A.02 - East Spitsbergen
• Fear (spell)
• Pass without Trace (spell)
• Recognition of Signs III (sage ability)
• Map B.05 - Lower Yenisey
• Map A.08 - Arctic
• Map D.08 - Altai
• Spell Immunity (spell)
• Dusty (cantrip)
• Polish (cantrip)
• Exterminate (cantrip)
• Character Creation
• Map A.03 - Jotunheim
• Altslok
• Prayer (spell)
• Serenade (spell)
• Word of Recall (spell)
• Wood Elf
• Stitch (cantrip)
• Warm (cantrip)
• Map A.04 - Kara Sea
• Map A.12 - High Greenland
• Steam & Gasgear (sage study)
• Erinyes
• Running (sage ability)
• Adobe (sage ability)

Wiki Work Process

In case anyone should wonder about my working process, just a few minutes ago I edited the last of a series of 57 pages, the "oldest" on the Authentic wiki, meaning those pages that have been ignored for the longest possible time.

Of the 1,467 total pages, this leaves 1009 left to edit.  But as I need a break from this process, and there are other things to do, I'm going to address the 30 "incomplete" pages that are left to do.  I'm not going to complete them all — that would be most tiresome, and I find my best process is in changing the nature of the work as often as possible, while still getting things done.

The rule for Incomplete Pages is this: (a) roll three random files from the 30 that are incomplete; (b) pick one; and (c) either finish that file, or add at least 1,000 words (or, in wiki-speak, about 6,000 characters).

Then, that choice can be removed, the other two left as they are, and a new replacement incomplete file chosen.  This gives me some choice, but I have to choose the most desirable from a larger field.  This reduces the paralysation caused by choice, while inevitably forcing me to do some work on something in this pile.  As shown on the table, I have to do five such pages, then I can move on.

The rule for Sage Ability/Spell pages is this: determine which spell and sage abilities have the most links on the wiki, without a page existing, then make that page from scratch.  Do not stop until it is finished, or — if it is somewhat challenging, get at least 4,000 characters done, then move it to the "incomplete" category.  In any case, get at least enough done to give a clear sense of what the ability or spell does, so that it can be at least interpreted.

The rule for the Old wiki pages is to transfer 30 pages from the old wiki to the new.  Concentrate on pages that don't need a lot of work, as transfer is more important than the ones that will drag and deplete my motivation.

The rule for Wanted pages is to do the first 3, most "wanted" pages according to mediawiki's sort for this.  Once this is done, all the new content will be created, and I will go back to editing pages again.

As work is done, less pages will need editing, the demands for pages to be created will increase.  Eventually, I shall adjust % of Old Wiki pages to be moved across as the number drops, until this category disappears completely.  As more of the larger pages are edited, they'll fail to be completed and the "incomplete" page numbers will increase, so that I'll spend more and more time with that.

Overall, this allows the type of work I'm doing, while producing milestones for me to approach and then pass, awarding me with a sense of achievement at a job that is immense and seemingly impossible.

Yes, I know I'm crazy.

Quote

When I was a teenager, the subject of virginity seemed to emerge all the time. We were quite taken with it.  We concerned ourselves greatly about who was, and who was not one, and who might cease to be one; it mattered greatly who intended to go on being one for much longer, and we all wondered what might happen when we weren't one anymore.

Now that I am sixty, the subject never comes up.  It's possible it really wasn't that important.

when a creator doesn't give a fuck

I'm just going to rattle off a few things.  I've just watched this video from CinemaStix.  I follow the channel; the creator has some valuable things to say.  The creator occasionally has his head up his ass.  This video makes me want to write in his comments, "Shut up.  Go make your own film."

The video is irrelevant.  The creator also, the comment too.  What's relevant is that as I sit here in my world giving advice as a creator on my channel, outlining rules for a game that I've run, that I would run again... that I've proven to many online that I can run, I'm not prancing out someone else's work that I can't duplicate, I can't match, I can't even remotely, fully, understand.

You, Dear Reader, see that video and think, "Interesting, I hadn't thought of that before, I have new perspective on the movie..."  Whatever.

You read a post here about something I've written that says if you want your game world to work effectively, you'll need to get off your ass, work, figure it out, create your own content that I haven't created for you and no, no one's really going to help you, especially your own players... and you think, "I can't do that."

Well, maybe you don't, but you have ready excuses for why you don't.  No one has that kind of time, it's just a game, this isn't rocket science, I have other things to do with my life, I don't think my being a better DM is all that important.  Whatever.  What matters is that you have an excuse, not that it's a good one.

The difference is that Danny Boyd, the voice behind CinemaStix, isn't a creator in the way that Tony Gilroy, who directed the film spoken about, is a Creator.  Boyd needs someone else to create things, so that he can comment on it.  That's the strength of his "creativity."  Tony Gilroy doesn't need that.  He needs money.  Because the difference between Gilroy creating and Gilroy not, is whether Gilroy has the money to create what he does.

I am not a filmmaker.  I am a writer.  I don't need money.  I need a computer.  But I don't need someone else to create something first, either.  I continue to use source material that is 45 years old, but I pay no attention to it.  I don't cut it into different shapes and then call that "creating content."

More to the point, I tell you, Dear Reader, that you don't need someone else to create content first, either.  You don't need someone to make you a module, so you can be Danny Boyd.  I don't tell you that you need to buy the latest books.  I don't tell you that you need to follow people on youtube, or anywhere else.  I tell you that you need to get off your ass and make your own fucking content.  For your players.  That you pretend you care about.

When I started "working on my D&D world" in 1980, I had players.  I did not have subscribers.  I did not have a channel.  I did not have a computer.  I had a desire to work on the game because I loved it.  If, today, I'm not working on my Streetvendor's Guide... I'm not working on Finding D&D in the Dark... I'm not working on Fallow... I'm not working on any of the projects I've started and haven't published... it isn't because I've forgotten about these projects, or because I'm not going to do them.  It's because, for me, my priority is, always, that I love D&D and I'm going to work on whatever the hell I love.  If I want to spend four or five months doing maps, then that's what I'm going to do.  If I want to work on my wiki, that's been closed to me since winter of last year, then I'm going to do that.  Because that's what matters to me.  I don't give a fuck, sorry, what others want, or what others think matters, or what others feel I ought to be working on.  I don't care about success.  If money is what mattered to me, if it ever mattered, then I'd be out working and making it.  What matters to me is what I want to work on.  In the way that I want to work on it.

What most youtube "creators" who talk about this kind of material, who laud this person or that, will never understand, is that youtube "creating" isn't.  It just isn't.  It's time-wasting naval gazing that adds nothing to the store of value for the human race.

As I'm also doing that, then I'm going to do it for me.  Those of you who want me to go on working, who are simply glad that I am working, it won't matter to you what I'm working on.  It won't matter than I'm a miserable, inflexible, uncaring, hostile asshole.  It will only matter to you that I am still working, on whatever I want to.

Thank you for your time.