Da Dominion: Home of DOMINIONCAST!

Finally, a true effort at cultural understanding. After decades of documenting lions, elephants, and war atrocities as the most interesting parts of the African continent, a new channel turns to the showcasing of the actual Africans - you know the people that live there.

Now TV One has a new ally in the battle to not let BET be the soul representation of our people … sort of. Form the clips it appears to be a reflection of US media’s impact on the entertainment of African countries. Their reality shows and soap operas are still reality shows and soaps - not many of which are worthy of air time here in America. Don’t get me wrong, an African Family Feud not involving the sale of the losers to rich Europeans would be nice.

Being black in a majority Black city, as a child and teenager I’ve been force fed hundreds of hours and thousands of pages on African history. Mainly to augment the educational bias my parents suffered in the fifties and sixties: “You were slaves, then Lincoln came and set your people free. So, don’t you owe the white man some thanks.”  My generation had the Civil Right struggle to study plus Roots and the titillating saga of Shaka Zulu - 85% nudity in a prime time mini-series will lock the attention of many a teenager. contemporary African entertainment would be a welcomed glimpse into the present of our cousins.

Their TV could be worse: Confused, their version of Lost,  would portray survivors of an African cruise somehow becoming stranded in a rural Mississippi community. Unable to speak the language, and having their native tongues confused for some new Ebonics variant, they must try to get home while being treated like American Blacks and avoid the plots of the white robed Others whom have secretedly revived the Confederacy.  

That’s actually an interesting idea. I’d watch it if J.J. Abrams didn’t write it.

Those Human Enemy Mindsets … The Haters Elsewhere, Man … whatever the fuck, “they ain’t us” is the root concept of every social conflict from feuding neighbors to the Cold War. In group / Out group tensions are hard wired into humanity like the reasoned examination of the world, the search for spiritual enlightenment, man’s love of big boobs and woman’s love of chocolate and shopping.  

I’m boycotting the Olympics, a statement that would be more meaningful had I planned to watch them in the first place. Correction: save combat sports and beach volleyball, I’m boycotting the Olympics. Combat sports are the most honest in their portrayal of ”spirited international competition” - plus literal ass kicking is cooler than figurative - and tanned Amazons in quasi-lesbian pairings grunting, hitting while jumping around “raises” another hard wired response.

The reason is not China being the host, though there’s abundant reasons to dislike them: their historic immigration policy, the invention of paper, exotic tastes, and the that minor stuff with Tibet and the Sudan. On the the other hand: Kung Fu, Gong Li (and the general exporting of their daughters), and General Tso’s Chicken could balance these offenses. Let’s also not forget that TV classic MASH and movies like Platoon, Hamburger Hill, and Apocalypse Now we wouldn’t have either without them. 

The Olympics are the ultimate idealization of the “beat the fuck out of the neighbors” motif present in all sports. This is no new concept as the original Olympics were held in Greece to break up their constant infighting with some friendly foot racing and naked wrestling - like 300 with more love and less slaughter. 

Sure, it’s better than a massive land grab war held every four years, shifting boundary lines like a massively bloody game of musical chairs. It a lot more fair economically, since if you can’t afford million dollar training facilliticies and steroids just having enough room to run and jump can at least get you some gold in track and field, which can then be melted down to buy your people grain and vitamins.

During the opening ceremony, my family members sat in fascination of the pagentry and making opinions on whole nations/cultures based on the look of their fantacally drive athletic youth.   The spirit of unity and peaceful competition is a thin facade for these tribal instincts causing fans to riot in victory and drunk dads to kick little league referees in the junk. It’s not the competition that bothers me, it’s all the fucking pomp, vanity and false sentiment I’m sick of. Check out these friendly Spanish Olympians, the spirit of brotherhood in full bloom as they mimick the slanted eyes of their gracious hosts. Luckily global attention is on them or they’d be arrested for dissenting with the state and sentenced to picking tea leaves one by one with chopsticks - and be charged for the chopsticks.

Is this really a shocker? Just ask an Incan or a Mayan if this suprises them. Good fucking luck finding one.

Some of my long time players and I discuss the finer points of GMing and air out old in game grievances. Actual names have been used to stigmatize the guilt.

We were on location in Lansing, so we needed to do some audio enhancement from the off accoustics, hence the robotic vocals. Contact our receptionists for your refund here.

Panelists - Nicole, Chad, Hunin, with special guest Power Gamer commentator Phil

Dominion Cast 4 download (67 minutes, 63 mb)

Index
Intro - I am Dungeon Master
Humble Beginnings: A couple of guys and a girl experiment 1:26
Hunin’s Retro Dungeon 11:15
Styles of Mastery 14:33
Painful Prep, Imitation of Inspiration, and Plot/Player Weaving 20:13
Nerfed Expectations 28:45
The Power Gamer Rebuttal 39:37
Turning on the Master 44:35
Game Mastery FAILS: Canned Peaches, JUST ROLL!, Damned Details, Can I borrow a Clue? 48:22
Light Loot and Choosing Challenges 1:04:10

My Podcast Alley feed! {pca-e823a0e05e56c06e2a69bdf3954f05f6}

Rejoicing in the arrest of our mayor, and hopefully imminent forced resignation, I perused the Humor feed and found this:

What the fuck is this doing in the “Humor” feed?

Having a mild phobia of flying venomous insects, this ain’t funny to me - nor do I detect any comedy in the report. “A neighborhood dog was stung to death. Har Har! The little girl may be next. *snicker*” Again, I am convinced that the purpose of the news media is to ruin your day.

 Some have pointed out the socio-political nuances attributed to the naming of the Africanized honey bee. Essentially, “African” being equated with “Killer” is the jist. That’s funny, and even historically interesting, but made sober in the realization that their name comes from their hybridization and that they’ll chase you for miles injecting their poison-packed stings into your eyes, nose, mouth, and neck until they KILL you. If they have bigger stings than other bees, polinate watermelon plants especially or steal your gym shoes afterwards, I may rise to defend them: “The systematic oppression of our winged brothas is the cause of these violent symptoms of disenfranchisement” [/Sharpeton mode: OFF] 

Prose Descriptive Qualities RPG system by Chad Underkoffler lets ya game pretty damn quick. Being a fast read at 12 pages, there’s no need for an article series on this game. Very good for pick up games but decidedly on the lighter end of system crunch.

This seems a trend common to many indie game companies that can’t afford to keep a staff of Game Theory chaotitians in suspended animation while immersed in tanks of Clearasil being fed Cheetos paste by I.V. The Acne medication stinging their fetus-like eyes explaining how so many mathematical errors still get through in Wizards of the Coast products. Light rules: Flaw or feature? Really it depends on your game mastering and/or player tastes, but this is who’s Dominion? I say feature.

Crunchy systems have the benefit of being very fair and realistic. There’s a dice roll for everything with character skill reducing the chaos often by adding flat bonus the roll. “I hamstring this quick bastard that has the info we need.”  Roll boxcutter skill versus their evasion stat modified by the size of the body area and roll to see which leg is extended at this point in their stride. Miss, too bad but lucky you, no more math needed. Hit? Subtract 1d4 points from the left leg pool and roll for affect on the severing table under the muscle column. The target limps favoring the left leg his speed is reduced by 1d6 minus his endurance modifier. Critical hit! … Break out the graphing calculator.

That may simulate an actual cut to the hamstring, but unless you love the type of Jet Li movie where they zoom in and go to x-ray to see how he’s destroying organs/bones - it takes alot more time to resolve than its worth it. A second of narration needing 5 minutes to simulate aint great. D&D doesn’t go to this level of detail - if it had only overly anal-lytical geeks would ever play it … well, even bigger fuck-tards would - but instead abstracts away alot of the dragon-butchering combat: hit, minus X hit points from target. There are still plenty of conditions to be inflicted which require playtime research for the non-eidetic memory possesor.

PDQ characters are essentially a list of descriptive qualities, like “Bare-knuckle Brawler” or “Studious Investigator”, which are ranked with each level giving a +2 on a 2d6 roll. Anything you want to do that doesnt fit under a quality is average ranked, no bonus. Some qualities can be Weakensses that subtract a number from your roll when applicable. When a difficulty is equal to your mean roll with a quality, like difficulty number 7 with an Average quality that rolls only 2d6 (mean 7), automatic success. Other times you have to roll against a number or another characters roll. The amount a successful attack beats defense by determines damage ranks, temporary penalties to qualities of your choosing.  Being Badass- describing sweet manuevers - gives you a bonus to the qualitiy roll; being Lame ass - disrupting the game, not helping in the fun, being distracted - get’s you kicked out of the game.

That’s about it. The mechanic is so simple you could easily write in more detail if you wanted, but why bother?

The issue with this kind of light rules is that you need to have agreed upon genre conventions in the game for narration sake. “Horse Cocked” (adult genre) could clearly help with a character’s seduction rolls, but does it also grant a bonus to balancing given the lower gravity center?  If you’re going commando sure, but aren’t you wearing briefs? Not today. Really? Do you want to have this conversation?