Wedding and Weeding

Phew! Today was a long day! It started yesterday, actually, or maybe back on Wednesday...I've been so busy since about Monday afternoon that it's hard to keep track.

Anyways, today was my friend Andy's wedding and he held it at the Utah Renaissance Faire up in Odgen. I live nowhere near Ogden, so we had to make good and sure we had all the stuff we needed for a long road trip with two toddlers and a newborn. Last night I was up till 4 am (I usually go to bed around midnight) packing our bags with clothing, food, water, toys and tunes for the road. My two oldest were flower girls, so we also had to make sure we brought all the clothing for them, as well as my husband and I.

It was the first conventional full-blown wedding ceremony I'd ever been to. All the others, including my sister's, were simple affairs with a handful of close friends in somebody's backyard or at the church building. Given that my friend does a lot of similar events with the local Belegarth chapters, I'm sure he was able to pull a few strings on the prices, but there was still period costuming, live music (harp and bagpipes!) and sword fighting demonstrations to be paid for. Certainly more than I spent on mine.

The Faire was fun; we hung out for a while until the wedding procession and fortunately the kids didn't get into too much dirt before the ceremony. (I can't say the same for the wedding photos, of course; they were after food and everything.) Afterward, I wandered around with the kids and let them buy $1 souvenirs, which were promptly lost, of course. I bought myself a frog for my sword; unfortunately the one I picked up was a left-handed version. I can use it in reverse, but it won't look as nice. There were a lot of cheap leather bracers too, but nothing anywhere near sturdy enough to replace the ones I had commissioned from Nashova. :(

After the wedding photos, we were sick and tired of chasing kids so we headed out. It sounded like the joust was just starting too - a shame, but we all have bad enough sunburns already that I really can't say I'm sorry I missed it. We went to see Andrek joust a few years ago anyway; there's not as much point to watching a stranger do it. The other thing I missed was playing battleguard; apparently Yestare was being held jointly with the Faire, but nobody mentioned it to me so I didn't bring my weapons. Not that I couldn't have bought some there - I've never seen so many boffer sword vendors in my life!

Back to Tuesday...at work I made a decal for a fellow blogger named Julene. She's got some pretty cool art on her blog, and we managed to make one of the more simple designs into a decal for her car. Now she can advertise her portraits in style. :D

Now then, it's time to go sleep off this sunburn...

D&D 4E Monster Stat Template

@Name

@Level # @Elite/Solo @Role (Leader)

@Size @origin @type (@keywords)

XP #

Initiative +# Senses Perception +#; @other senses
@Aura aura #; @effect.
HP #; Bloodied #; see also @power reference
AC #; Fortitude #, Reflex #, Will #
Immune @immunity; Resist @resistance; Vulnerable @vulnerability
Saving Throws +#
Speed #, climb # (spider climb), fly # (altitude limit #, clumsy, clumsy grounded, hover), overland flight #, swim #
Action Points #

@Melee Basic (standard; at-will) @Keywords

Reach #; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Ranged Basic (action, recharge) @Keywords

Ranged #/#; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Melee (@action, @usability) @Keywords

Reach #; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Melee Recharge (@action; recharge ) @Keywords

Reach #; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Ranged (@action, @usability) @Keywords

Ranged #/#; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Ranged Recharge (@action; recharge ) @Keywords

Ranged #/#; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Close (@action, @usability) @Keywords

Close @blast/burst #size; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Close Recharge (@action; recharge ) @Keywords

Close @blast/burst #size; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Area (@action, @usability) @Keywords

Area @burst/wall #size within #range; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Area Recharge (@action; recharge ) @Keywords

Area @burst/wall #size within #range; +# vs. @Def; #d# + # @type damage, and @other.

@Continuous Effect

@Effect.

@Non-Attack Power (@action, usable only @; @usability)

@Effect.

@No Action, Triggered Effect (when @trigger)

@Effect.

Alignment @Alignment

Languages @Languages

Skills @Skillname +#

Str # (+#)

Dex # (+#)

Wis # (+#)

Con # (+#)

Int # (+#)

Cha # (+#)

Equipment @equipment

Here is a stat block template for displaying a monster from the new D&D 4th Edition Monster Manual, as presented in the SRD. Theoretically, this is a complete template, and thus contains more information than anyone should need for a single monster.

There's a few things I'm not quite satisfied with, as far as this template goes - some indentation issues I want to clean up, for example - but for the most part it should work for presenting any monster created by myself or my fellow gamers.

My next project is building CSS templates for each type of power; At-Will, Encounter and Daily. Mostly it's just busy work now; I've got all the presentation stuff figured out, including an annoying glitch which was shortening one of my images by 10 pixels every time I edited the content of the block. I'm still not sure what was causing it, but the fix is simple and seems to have done the trick.

Speaking of CSS and all that, my current theme is based on one I found over at Blogger Templates. It was a little too narrow for my uses originally, but it was much easier to edit than the standard template I started with, and adding a couple hundred pixels (just enough for this text right here, in fact) was a simple matter of trial and error. Then I just had to undo a few changes which adversely affected my monster template, such as extra line space and borders around each of my images. Nice in theory, but not very helpful.

My motivation for building this D&D monster template and others to come is a surprise for later; we'll just say they're part of a couple of much larger projects. For now we'll call it a successful test of CSS as well as a learning experience.

What's in a Name?

Have you ever noticed that when you're trying to do something creative, particularly a writing project, half the time seems to be spent just deciding what to name things?

Take this blog, for example. Before you ever write your first post, possibly before you even know what you're going to be blogging about, they make you choose a name. Somehow this name has to relate to whatever you intend to write about, encompass any future topics you might decide to expand into, and sound cool all at the same time. And the burden of choosing is forced upon while you sit staring at your monitor pondering your first post and wondering if you really have anything worthy of publishing for all the world to see.

Then, once you have your title, as wonderful and creative as it could be, you suddenly think to wonder whether somebody else might not have thought of it first.

Assuming your name is unique enough to be available, you then have another name to choose - the post itself. Sometimes this is easy enough to come by, or it comes to you during the process of writing your post, but other times it feels like pulling teeth to come up with something meaningful and yet still original. Then there's the pressure to finish and post before your browser decides to forget who you are and dump all your hard work.

Of course, you could always decide to put off naming things like your NPC's and cities and World of Warcraft pets, hoping that just the right name manages to come to you before crunch time, before you're forced to name the recurring NPC Reggie just to get your friends off your back. Or you could pick a throw-away name, only to realize later that everybody you want to talk to knows you by a screen name that you never liked in the first place.

They should have a Cool Name Generator for all those of us whose writing is inhibited by the search for the perfect name. It needs to be able to simultaneously look up every related wikipedia page, scan every foreign language dictionary, filter through all those baby name websites, and read your mind. Then you can just push a button and DING! instant name!

Now, what was I blogging about again?