Darkness and Light

Often, darkness and light are major thematic elements in poetry, literature, movies, myth, and games.  We often focus on the good versus evil aspect, but to a much lesser extent do we ever look into the old meanings, the illumination of knowledge and the darkness of ignorance.  The owl was considered wise for his night-seeing eye, and there's a reason why we consider someone "in the dark."

That's not what this post is about.  Before I shed a light on my purpose (har-har), a bit of what has brought this topic to my mind.  It's a culmination of several incidents, but I suppose the beginning was movie night last Friday.  We watched Brick, a new age film noir with subtle light and dark undertones.  The main character was the only one to wear grey.  The schemer wore black, and the muscle wore white.  It was the seed laid in my mind that only blossomed from my recent play through of Alan Wake.

The core of the game is the power of light and the deep darkness.  I'm sure by now that it's old news to everyone that the enemies are shrouded in shadow.  Only the light can remove this black armor, but the light can only do so much.  Beyond that, firearms come into play.  However, this light against dark permeates the storyline as well as the gameplay.  An interesting game with a certain few flaws, but that is another story for another time.

The idea of light and dark was already strong in my mind when I sought comfort in the night air.  This lark into the night was all it took to solidify the topic in my heart as well.  It has oft been said that light and dark are inseparable opposites, that the absence of one would leave the other undefined, for light is the absence of dark and vice versa.  However, that is not my point.

I came the realization tonight that the light only gains power in the dark - that the darkness is what grants light its power.  In the dark, a shadowy silhouette slivering under silver moon is a threat.  The light is our sanctuary from these demons, the bastion against that which we cannot see clearly.  However, in day, no threat is seen from the passerby or the wandering dog.  All is well.  All is safe.  A shadow is nearly nothing under the noon sun, even if it belongs to the greatest villain.  Our sanctuary has crumbled - accepting all in the light is bound to include a bad seed to grow and ruin the crop.

The ramifications of the light shining in the dark and its lost power during the day can be seen in Minecraft - or at least that's the first example that comes to mind.  During the night, torches are magical and invaluable, providing vision and keeping the monsters at bay.  In the day, they do little - unless they are used to light the dark places of the world.

Of course, we can also examine the Resident Evil series.  In the early installments, the game took place solely at night, where shadows clung to every corner.  A dark room brings with it nervousness, and the bright ones offer safety and sanctuary.  In the light, we can see our foes - offering an opportunity for thrills when one is hidden by a corner.  There's a sense of security in the light, even if it is false.

In the later games, the sun comes out to light the way, shining over the one hero and all the villains.  Now, we know that everyone encountered is a foe, but the light brings no thought of safety.  Here, we can see it all - we know when our doom is coming.  Then the night comes.  We cling to the light to find our hidden enemies - the monsters that sought us during the day are now a greater threat, but the light carries a greater power of protection.

The battle between light and dark is never-ending.  We will always have tales of the heroes of light defeating the monsters in the night.  When the monsters show themselves in the day, they are hidden by the all-encompassing light, but the villain always knows the hero.  Light is only a sanctuary when shrouded by the darkness, for the light betrays us in the day.

Street Pass Chess

I've had a Nintendo 3DS since the end of April, and I must say that I've been quite pleased with it.  One of the brightest design decisions they had was the Street Pass mechanics.  I wasn't at all excited for it when I got the 3DS, in fact I thought it was kind of silly.  However, the inclusion of Street Pass and a few internal games that use it makes the player more likely to keep their system on them.  With the competition of modern day cell phones (an item most anyone keeps on them 24-7), it's dire that a handheld player remember to play your system rather than reach for their Android or iPhone - and if they keep your system on them as well as their cell phone, then the player is more likely to continue playing their $40 game than Angry Birds.

Basically, because of Street Pass, I always have my 3DS with me, even though I've already finished all the included Street Pass games.  I'm hoping they'll add more games to the Nintendo eShop, but I'm still looking for a job - thus, no spare $8 for one of my favorite games of days long past, let alone $1 for a new Street Pass game (an assumed price).   One such game that would be awesome would be Chess.

About a week ago, I had one of those light bulb moments - the type where an idea just strikes you as brilliant.  Why not have Street Pass Chess?  It could be a fun interface, where you Mii is used as the king, and you could even pick other Mii's to fill the rest of field - as long as each piece is clearly represented with a hat or such.  I Street Pass my roommate about three times per day, so it'd be entirely viable for people you see daily.  Unfortunately, Nintendo hasn't released such a title.

However, you don't need to wait, you could play right now if you wanted to.  Chess has long had a system of describing moves.  Thus, all you need is a chess board for each player to update and an understanding of algebraic notation.  When you Street Pass someone, you've got 16 characters for a short personal message, which is more than enough for chess moves.  All in all, you spend a miniscule amount of time playing chess each day, but still be able to play complete games from start to finish - a task that some have trouble finding time for these days.

If Nintendo were to implement Street Pass Chess, why stop there?  Checkers, Backgammon, and all sorts of classic games could be created.  Considering how many times these games have been created in electronic forms, it would likely require little cost in development.  If released for just $1, this could pull a nice little profit.  If  released for free, it would continue to encourage players to keep their 3DS on them - and continue to fight the Android invasion (or iPhone, if you're of that persuasion).

Important Life Lessons Learned From GDC 2011

Over the last week, I've been at GDC 2011 in San Francisco, California.  It's been a blast, especially a certain toga party (go check out Gods and Heroes Rome Rising).  However, there are some very important lessons I learned this year that I feel should be passed along.

Lesson 1:  Open Your Own Tab at the Bar
For me, this was a new thing.  I've never really been to a bar before this GDC, so when I arrived and the waitress asked for my drink, I was none the wiser that my drink was being added to an open tab.  Since I only had a twenty on me, I was a bit concerned when people got up and left without paying.  Mind you, some parties are open bar, but this was just a bar.  I didn't want to get stuck with the tab, so I left my twenty for the one drink I'd had and meandered a bit.  However, I still got picked out of the crowd as a jerk not paying his tab - which is BS since I'd paid more than enough for my rum and Coke.  Since I got stuck with it, it was then my job to start harassing people to get the waitress her money.  Let me tell you, that's not fun.  Luckily, my friend had also dropped a twenty on her single drink, and a fellow student helped cover the last $20 left on the tab (including tip of course - we've all been in food service).

Lesson 2:  Meet the Press
For another of our parties, we arrived to an empty bar with a few GDC attendees standing out front.  While there, we met a certain press member from a certain website.  He knew of a different party that night, so he ended up bringing us to a much better time.  However, he did grab our attention for the rest of the night, going out with us to dinner and otherwise being our only contact made that night.  The press does seem to be quite knowledgeable about parties and such, and they are terribly friendly.  Don't get me wrong - I have no regrets for that night, but if you're trying to hit up a new contact every five-to-ten minutes, the press might throw you off your schedule.  If you don't take the time to hang out with the press like I did, you might get yourself a list of parties for the week - and a new friend.

Lesson 3:  Enter Raffles
I've never considered myself lucky.  I'm bad at rock-paper-scissors, and I never really win at things that are purely luck based.  However, I entered a raffle at the IGT happy hour on the expo floor and won myself an All-Access Pass for a GDC of my choosing.  Enter them all - you never know what you might win.

Lesson 4:  Go to the Theme Party on Wednesday
Last year, there was the Speakeasy party.  It was a fun time with awesome entertainment, not far from the convention center.  This year, the theme party on Wednesday was the Gods and Heroes Toga Party.  It was awesome.  This was the best party I've ever been to - great music, semi-open bar, and toga-fun time.  In my limited GDC experience, it seems the theme party on Wednesday is the biggest blast.

Attacks of Opportunity

In DnD 3.5e, there's something that always bothered me about attacks of opportunity.  When moving out of a threatened square, you provoke an attack of opportunity - okay, I'm going to be using the term "attack of opportunity" a lot here, so let's shorten that to AttOpp.  That rule doesn't seem at all silly, but it breaks down in the following case - or at least it does in my book.

We have four characters in all:  The noble paladin (Pal), the clever rogue (Rog), the devious hobgoblin (Hob), and the insidious orc (Orc).  The paladin and rogue are fellow adventurers who have ambushed the dark alliance of the orc and hobgoblin.  The paladin has engaged the hobgoblin in melee, and the rogue used his crossbow to stay at range from the orc, hoping to fell the beast with his sneak attack.  However, due to poor luck, his crossbow misfired, and now it's the orc's turn to act.  Here's the setup on a battle grid (note that I've marked facing with white).

So, let's make sure everything is defined.  The rogue and paladin got the drop on the monsters, so they've had a surprise round.  During that round, the rogue acted at initiative 19, misfiring his heavy crossbow at the orc.  The paladin acted on initiative 10, using a partial charge action to engage the hobgoblin with his longsword.  During the first standard round, the rogue reloads his crossbow, taking the full round due to the misfire.  The hobgoblin acts on initiative 12, striking the paladin with his own longsword.  The paladin swings again, his blade deflected by the hobgoblin's shield.  At initiative count 8, the orc finally gets to act, and that rogue looks terribly vulnerable and full of blood to spill.  He charges the rogue.

Here's where our AttOpps break down.  The orc rushes forward to the closest square threatened by the paladin.  So far no AttOpp, but if he continues his charge one more square, he will be moving out of a threatened square, provoking an AttOpp from the paladin.

The paladin suddenly turns around as the orc is rushing by behind him, taking his AttOpp and striking the orc for 5 damage.  Meanwhile, the hobgoblin politely waits for the paladin to turn back around before reengaging combat with an opponent who has clearly left himself wide open.  Once the paladin has turned back around, combat resumes.

The orc continues his charge, brutally crushing the rogue with his greataxe for 10 damage.  Luckily, the rogue selected Toughness as his first level feat and has a high constitution score.  He's hurt, but still standing.

So how can we correct that breakdown there in the middle.  We could really care about facing - add to our AttOpp rules that to threaten a square, it must be within your field of view.  However, a clever player might just stand sideways in order to threaten the squares he finds tactically pleasing.

To fix that, we'd have to add rules that state that you must be facing the target you are engaging, but then we'd have to define every little detail for the rules lawyers out there (for example, how do you deal with diagonals?).  Basically, that rules out facing as a possible limitation if we want to keep combat quick.  So how can we do this?

I've already given a clue to my solution when I was describing the break point.  The real problem is that the paladin leaves himself open to attack by striking the orc, but the hobgoblin just stands there.  To quote our good friend, the Player's Handbook - "Sometimes, however, a combatant in melee lets her guard down.  In this case, combatants near her can take advantage of her lapse in defense to attack her for free.  These free attacks are called attacks of opportunity."

So, by definition, the paladin should provoke an AttOpp from the hobgoblin for lowering his defenses in melee, and that's what I propose.  In short, taking an AttOpp is now an action that provokes AttOpps.  Of course, you must limit this immediately else it be abused:  The attacker does not provoke the defender.  Without that stipulation, our paladin would attack the orc, provoking the orc, who chops the paladin in half along his way to kill the rogue.  That would just be stupid.

With this system in place, here's how our previous scene plays out.  Orc charges rogue, provoking an AttOpp from the paladin.  The paladin now has to choose if he wants to lower his defenses against the hobgoblin and take his AttOpp against the orc, or if he should let the orc pass unharmed.  Our paladin chooses to put himself at the risk in order to attack the orc and help his friend out.  He slashes the orc for 5 damage, but his defenses are down against the hobgoblin, provoking an AttOpp.  The hobgoblin now has flanking bonuses since the orc still threatens the paladin during the charge.  The hobgoblin takes his AttOpp against the paladin, dealing 4 damage.

With this system, combat gets a bit more straightforward since there won't be as many characters taking roundabout paths that avoid AttOpps entirely.  Instead, characters are more willing to rush by an enemy currently engaged in melee.  However, this makes AttOpps more risky, unbalancing the usefulness of feats like Combat Reflexes.

You could stop there if you wanted.  Combat Reflexes would now require much greater tactical planning in order to deal as many AttOpps as possible while provoking as few AttOpps as possible.  However, I feel that the usefulness of AttOpp feats is fairly dented, so I've modified Combat Reflexes. Under my rules, Combat Reflexes now allows one fewer AttOpps per round, but you no longer provoke AttOpps when taking them.  In case that doesn't make sense, look at the full writeup below:

Combat Reflexes [General]

You can respond quickly and repeatedly to opponents who let their defenses down.

    Benefit:  When foes leave themselves open, you may make a number of attacks of opportunity equal to your Dexterity bonus (minimum one).  For example, a fighter with a Dexterity of 15 can make a total of two attacks of opportunity in 1 round.  If four goblins move out of the character's threatened squares, he can make one attack of opportunity against two of the four.  You can still make only one attack of opportunity per opportunity.

    With this feat, you may also make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.  You also no longer provoke attacks of opportunity when making an attacks of opportunity.

    Normal:  A character without this feat can make only one attack of opportunity per round and can't make attacks of opportunity while flat-footed.  Also, a character without this feat, when making attacks of opportunity, provokes attacks of opportunity (excluding the target of this attack of opportunity).

    Special:  The Combat Reflexes feat does not allow a rogue to use her opportunist ability (see page 51) more than once per round.

    A fighter may select Combat Reflexes as one of his fighter bonus feats (see page 38).

    A monk may select Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat at 2nd level.

How well does this work?  I've been using this system for six years now, and I feel that it has done very well.  Combat is leaner since we don't have characters going through some very exact and clear path between all the threatened squares.  Combat is more "realistic" - we don't have issues such as the case above.  This has added a fair amount of fun and changed up some tactics - if you need to withdraw, your ally can engage the enemy, allowing you to slip away.  And again, I've been using this for six years - it is tried and tested in various forms, and has survived through a longspear user, countless monsters, and the rare character specializing in AttOpps.  In short, it works.