This is the opposite of an "ask me anything" thread. Feel free to answer any questions you feel you're qualified for. These are kind of random (and specific) because they relate to various creative projects I've been brewing.
1. I'm putting together an english to conlang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) dictionary. What FONT should I use for the body? (in b4 "lol arial") Right now I'm using Centaur (http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/centaur/), but it doesn't look very good bold at 9pt size.
2. Id / Ego / Super ego (freud). Lion / Lamb / Bull / Eagle (leary's circuits 1-4). These are two ways to describe the forces underlying individual human psychology. Do you know of any other ways to categorize the forces within the human mind? (the function of this question is actually to brainstorm different races one might play in a weird live adventure game)
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
4. Is anybody interested in playtesting a larp? This means actually gathering up 3-5 friends with boffer weapons and playing this game I'm writing. If not interested in play testing, anybody interested in reading over some rules and telling me if they're comprehensible?
5. I need a new career. What would I be good at / have fun doing?
6. Can you recommend a website which will teach me web design / css? I want to start putting together profitable projects, and one of the key elements is learning how to design a goddamn wobsite. I dabble in html, but feel like I should advance my knowledge until it is worth cash-money.
Quote6. Can you recommend a website which will teach me web design / css? I want to start putting together profitable projects, and one of the key elements is learning how to design a goddamn wobsite. I dabble in html, but feel like I should advance my knowledge until it is worth cash-money.
This post is just assuming you have no prior knowledge to programming -
It is very easy to pick up HTML / CSS, and for the sake of making things easier pick up either PHP or ASP (My personal opinion - Avoid the .NET framework, its a fucker to host)
Personally, PHP is very good with backend, and with a opcache installed (and good programming practices) its damn fast. Think facebook (Ok but they have a tonage of cluster servers, you can still achieve very good speeds via caching however)
As for HTML / CSS - Your best off with
http://www.w3schools.com/Css/default.asp (http://www.w3schools.com/Css/default.asp) - Css
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp (http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_intro.asp) - Html
http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/DEfaULT.asP (http://www.w3schools.com/PHP/DEfaULT.asP) - PHP
php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php (http://php.net/manual/en/tutorial.php) - PHP
http://www.w3schools.com/JS/default.asp (http://www.w3schools.com/JS/default.asp) - Javascript
As you can see, I think the w3schools.com website is the Number 1 stop, as always it helps to have prior programming knowledge. If not, work on experimenting .. I'll be happy to give you a hand whenever possible.
If you know what to look for -
http://planet-source-code.com/ (http://planet-source-code.com/)
--- I'll find my other links and edit
I recommend you getting DreamWeaver CS4 - it is the best damn IDE imo, and your best to get into the habbit of avoiding using the WYSIWYG editors and just hardcode the HTML.
PHP is my prefered choice, there is alot of support out there for it. And it is easy to work on a local environment (I just use WAMP Server, there is LAMP server for Linux - Apache/Mysql/PHP server)
*edited to fix links*
awesome thanks :) I just pirated dreamweaver, was looking for the best angle to attack it.
#4- I'll read over the rules at least.
Tizag (http://www.tizag.com/) helped me loads when I was getting started in web development.
ETA: Stay the fuck away from Dreamweaver - kill it with fire.
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 19, 2010, 08:58:25 PM
ETA: Stay the fuck away from Dreamweaver - kill it with fire.
Why fore? :( whats your prefered?
1. I don't know jack about font / editing.
2. 2 axes, Calm mindset vs. Agitated mindset and Will to change what is vs. Accepting what is.
3. Creative (crafting / home / trickery), Fertility (including romance / attraction), Elemental, Death, Leadership, War
4. Yes.
5. Writing or editing gigs with various publications? You will go into various depths of WEIRD without blinking, you make non judegmental NICE with just about anyone, and can write / edit no questions.
6. Ask Suu.
Quote from: NotPublished on January 19, 2010, 09:03:30 PM
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 19, 2010, 08:58:25 PM
ETA: Stay the fuck away from Dreamweaver - kill it with fire.
Why fore? :( whats your prefered?
I prefer notepad++ Dreamweaver produces hideous markup and gives you next to no control over the end result. It's ugly, dumbed down and pointless.
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 19, 2010, 10:09:04 PM
Quote from: NotPublished on January 19, 2010, 09:03:30 PM
Quote from: P3nT4gR4m on January 19, 2010, 08:58:25 PM
ETA: Stay the fuck away from Dreamweaver - kill it with fire.
Why fore? :( whats your prefered?
I prefer notepad++ Dreamweaver produces hideous markup and gives you next to no control over the end result. It's ugly, dumbed down and pointless.
I forgot about notepad++...
With regards to Dreamweaver - If you plan on using the WYSIWYG editor, then of course its going to do terrible unspoken things (Which was why I mentioned your best to hardcode).
I just hardcode in DreamWeaver (So its like an expensive Notepad++) - If I wasn't given the CS4 suite I would probably go with Notepad++
1. Sorry to respond to your question with another question, but you say your making a conlang dictionary? Does the language have a name?
1. Dunno.
2. The Warrior, The Sage, The Fool, The Judge. I have jackshit to back this up and would be hard-pressed to come up with any examples of it that aren't completely pulled out of my ass.
3. Gods of the World (the Earth, weather, sun god, the natural world, other things that exist regardless of humanity), and Gods of Humanity (War, leadership, generosity/compassion, knowledge; things that are, at least in some sense, human-specific)
4. Yes. I can have a group of 3-5 people ready to go on nearly any given weekend, with boffers to boot. Also willing to look at the rules and, if you like, forward them to others who might be able to offer an informed opinion.
5. Con artistry, Cult leader, professional bon vivant
6. I think other people are more qualified to answer this.
#2 I would say, based on things I've read, another way to think of it is Childlike-self, Adult-self, and Elder-self. In that Id = the child who wants what it wants now. Ego = the adult who knows it can't have what it wants but keeps wanting it anyway. And the Super Ego = the elder who tells you that you can't have what you want so sit down, shut up, and back in my day I had to walk to school 40 miles etc etc. (Does that make sense.) You can use this with any form of life, just sub out child for "hatchling" or "cub" or whatever.
Also, I like your catagories for the Gods. I would use the same ones. :D
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
2. Id / Ego / Super ego (freud). Lion / Lamb / Bull / Eagle (leary's circuits 1-4). These are two ways to describe the forces underlying individual human psychology. Do you know of any other ways to categorize the forces within the human mind? (the function of this question is actually to brainstorm different races one might play in a weird live adventure game)
Isn't the traditional 4 Lion,
Man, Bull (Ox) and Eagle unless, of course, lamb is an applicable substitute. Then that would lead to the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or Earth Air Fire Water, there is maitri (kindness,) mudita (pity,) karuna (joy,) and upeka (equanimity) as the four noble truths...IHVH tetragrammaton or fourfold name of god...The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death...DNA: adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine...
Quote
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
Lunar, Sun (dying), Love, Communication, Sky, War, Masculine, Feminine, Omnipresent.
Quote5. I need a new career. What would I be good at / have fun doing?
Work with the dying or go be a carny.
Quote6. Can you recommend a website which will teach me web design / css? I want to start putting together profitable projects, and one of the key elements is learning how to design a goddamn wobsite. I dabble in html, but feel like I should advance my knowledge until it is worth cash-money.
W3schools is seconded.
my html/css webdesign bookmarks:
w3schools is a great quick-reference for CSS
yes boring but i really have these all bookmakred separately for easy access.
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#pseudoel
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#pseudoclasses
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#text
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#table
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#positioning
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#padding
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#outlines
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#margin
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#list
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#generatedcontent
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#font
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#dimension
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#classification
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#border
http://www.w3schools.com/css/css_reference.asp#background
and also for HTML:
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/default.asp
http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_entities.asp
quirksmode is your first stop to check what things work in which browser and why not:
http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=box+model&as_sitesearch=quirksmode.org <-- I have programmed this as a quick search into Opera. Also check out those articles on the box model, not right now, but when you got a decent grasp on CSS and are running into your first browser incompatibility bugs.
random web design related bookmarks and articles
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/code-html-email-newsletters -- if you ever need to write an email newsletter, be very wary that it's a completely different world of html, like you're coding for the web of '98 all over again.
http://css-tricks.com/css-sprites-what-they-are-why-theyre-cool-and-how-to-use-them/ -- good article on CSS sprites
http://www.alistapart.com/articles/sprites/ -- possibly better article on CSS sprites. also ALA is a good blog with good other articles
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/web_design_contracts/ -- if you're gonna start freelancing webdesign, you're gonna need a good contract otherwise you WILL get screwed.
http://24ways.org/2008/contract-killer -- the guy who wrote this is pretty awesome.
http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/previews/index_abc.png -- free set of icons for use in websites
http://dev.opera.com/articles/view/grid-design-basics-grids-for-web-page-l/ -- grid design is a useful foundation for designing a page.
http://www.opera.com/company/education/curriculum/ -- i haven't read this, but it seems pretty fucking thorough, if you need a fully-assed tutorial on webdesign, I think this might be your ticket.
http://www.37signals.com/svn/ -- something about signal vs noise in design
http://www.usabilitypost.com/2009/05/29/the-1kb-css-grid-part-1/ -- more about grid design
http://drewish.com/tools/vertical-rhythm -- vertical rhythm is a part of grid design
that's a straight dump from my bookmarks. there might be more but i haven't bookmarked those.
another tip, don't learn PHP. that language deserves to die out. you were already going to learn Python, right?
either way you;re probably not going to code web applications yourself. however, you can knock out pretty awesome websites using WordPress. the trick is to use the Sandbox Theme, which is a barebones semantic HTML skin for WP. then with CSS you can easily make it look like whatever you want.
Ahh biased views all around, I think PHP is a great language :) Its soo very easy to find work when with PHP (I find so atleast)
Python is also good to learn to.
Absolutely. I agree with everything you just said.
Also, PHP is an outdated mutant fossil that deserves to die and be forgotten entirely.
I doubt it'd die out anytime soon though ;)
#4 I would like to read the rules and mmy group of gamers might playtest. Some of them are into boff stuff some are not, we have a weekly tabletop game and have done a little Larping, but it was more in the VtM style (actually the Discordia RPG that some folks posted about on here but I turned it into a LARP) than the hit each other with foam weapons stuff.
oh, and number 1. Acidic Basic and Salt (from Alchemy) Blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile (the four humours of mideval medicine)
5- you should become an Under Water Basket Weaving Professor. :D
#2: The mind (whatever that may be) can be functionally modeled by natural selection.
As the man himself said:
"In the distant future I see open fields for far more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation. Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history."
So, posit a set of environmental conditions in your fictional setting and decide which kind of "mind" would be best suited to propagate itself.
I could do some of that for you if I knew some more about the setting.
Quote from: dimo on January 19, 2010, 08:55:14 PM
#4- I'll read over the rules at least.
same,
might be useful to leave at gaming stores as well, the final version of course...
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
4. Is anybody interested in playtesting a larp? This means actually gathering up 3-5 friends with boffer weapons and playing this game I'm writing. If not interested in play testing, anybody interested in reading over some rules and telling me if they're comprehensible?
Sure.
Quote
5. I need a new career. What would I be good at / have fun doing?
A stripper.
6. Can you recommend a website which will teach me web design / css? I want to start putting together profitable projects, and one of the key elements is learning how to design a goddamn wobsite. I dabble in html, but feel like I should advance my knowledge until it is worth cash-money.
[/quote]
Lynda.com is useful.
6: Also http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/
Quote from: Triple Zero on January 20, 2010, 12:12:48 AM
Absolutely. I agree with everything you just said.
Also, PHP is an outdated mutant fossil that deserves to die and be forgotten entirely.
Ideal world v's real world. PHP gets the job done and the OOP aint faked and icky like in JS
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
1. I'm putting together an english to conlang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) dictionary. What FONT should I use for the body? (in b4 "lol arial") Right now I'm using Centaur (http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/centaur/), but it doesn't look very good bold at 9pt size.
did you try printing first? because most fonts do not look very good at 9pt size on a screen, except for the standard fonts (Georgia, Times, etc), this is because the pixels are just a lot bigger than the dots of a printer. The standard fonts contain lots of "hinting" information to juggle the pixels at small sizes so that they appear readable on the screen.
so if you were going to make a screen version, I'd use Georgia, Times, Cambria or Constantia, which all contain screen hinting information for small point sizes. the print version should look good in just about any font that has some decent kerning information. [a lot of the weirder fonts on free fonts websites do not have that, and as such are only useful for logos, which you can hand-kern, if necessary].
another good font that has a similar feel to the Centaur type you linked is Bookman Old Style. I'm not sure how it looks on the screen, but I have succesfully used it in print with body text.
finally, I want to point your attention to Essays1743 (http://www.thibault.org/fonts/essays/). it's not very readable on screen, and probably also not in print, but it might fit some kind of roleplaying prop use to you some day, as it looks just like ancient book printing type [because it's a scan from a Montaigne essay]
Quote2. Id / Ego / Super ego (freud). Lion / Lamb / Bull / Eagle (leary's circuits 1-4). These are two ways to describe the forces underlying individual human psychology. Do you know of any other ways to categorize the forces within the human mind? (the function of this question is actually to brainstorm different races one might play in a weird live adventure game)
the I-Ching has 8 elements, you could use those.
or the water/fire/earth/air elements but those might be a bit trite.
if you want to go psychology, there's the enneagram.
or the Belbin test (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belbin_Team_Inventory) that divides people into roles within a corporation (looks good for RPG classes).
3. Bureaucrats, Politicians, Generals, Party Animals, Sex Fiends and Janitors
Prickle, Boom, Setting Orange, Pungent and Sweet.
Thanks for the answers, guys! Given me a lot to chew on.
Now to answer some of your questions---
Basically-- I was in a creative mood the other day, and realized I have 1001 creative projects I've started but not finished. So I thought, okay, I'll just pull one off the shelf and try to complete it. The one I grabbed was this language project called Ancient Brisbanian.
Ancient Brisbanian was made for a LARP. Basically I wanted to run puzzles in dungeon settings which involved translation. I've made 3 or 4 conlangs in the past, and the trouble is always that you're the only one who can speak it. So I wanted to come up with something extremely simple that other LARPers would be able to use.
So in the world of Tyrra (the setting for NERO LARP), the common tongue doesn't have a lot of history. We just know that people used to speak other languages, and at some point, everybody started speaking common (english). So I've invented this language which common is descended from, using a mix of latin, german, and made-up words. Brisbanian doesn't have its own grammar, its grammar is identical to English. So where you need a present participle, add -ing. To make a noun plural, add -s. You can more or less translate each word exactly where it is and not worry about grammar. It's a bit basic, but it had to be something that you can puzzle out while in a dark dungeon and monsters are coming, and you've only had 3-4 minutes of intro to the language, and you're reading the translation dictionary by candle light.
So I've got about 1500 words, which is enough to say most things. And I figure it's time to throw the whole goddamn thing up on lulu and sell it to NERO players for ten bucks a book. If I give some free samples to chapter owners, and they start using Brisbanian in their puzzles, I bet their players will buy the book so they can have an edge on other players.
PART 2
the other project is this evolution of several other projects.
Those of you who were interested in LARPGASM will recall our rather ambitious goal:
*to create a game which scales (meaning you can play it with 2 or 200 people and it's basically the same game)
*and is self-sustaining (meaning the staff doesn't need to keep spending hours each week writing and running the game, the game's content and direction emerges from the game itself)
So I've been thinking about this for MONTHS now. And I've taken the concept for a 24/7 LARP I used to run on campus, called Tales of the Dreaming, and repurposed it for this new idea.
So the larp is called The Dreaming
it takes place in the world where we go when we sleep. It borrows from Neil Gaiman, (both Sandman and American Gods are pretty core to the setting) but is fairly original nonetheless.
It'd be a 24/7 game where whenever you want to play, you put on an arm band or badge or something. You and your friends would play at a park, at your house, you could hang out at a bar, whatever. Players get to pick spots which become official game locations. Some game locations are combat-active, meaning you can get into traditional larp boffer and spell packet fights there.
You and your friends go on adventures called Dream Walks, in which you wander around the physical world looking for good spots to have encounters. When the encounter begins, certain players in the group will follow the Dream Walk script, which may require them to become monsters and attack you. So the game's NPCs are actually the players - no need to recruit a staff and cast who don't really get to play! The Dream Walks are also submitted by players, and aggregated on the web site - over time, we will develop a codex of fun larp adventures.
There are a couple other layers of the game, but the design I'm working on now is character creation. There are a lot of races in the game, and I wanted to give them a lot of depth for people to build from.
In the previous incarnation of the game there were four races, and each race had several subraces. One of the races was Dead Gods --- basically every God that was ever worshiped in is Real.. but when their followers stop worshiping them, the God is banished to the Dreaming to await the End of the World. So you're playing a character who once had thousands of followers, but now nobody remembers your name. You can be a fictional god, or borrow one from real mythology. In the previous game, each god had some kind of power or gift it could grant to its followers. We had five or six types of gods, each with its own unique gift. But it did lead to these, "okay what kind of God is loki?" "uhhh I guess you should build him as a god of war?" ---------hence my question about how to categorize the Gods in a way which doesn't leave anything out. It's tough!
And Visions -- Visions are dreams themselves, the natural inhabitants of the Dreaming. In the past, the subraces were Nightmare, Succubus, stuff like that. Types of Dreams. But I didn't really like those categories, and I wanted to tie them in with real world psychology. Perhaps id, ego, superego? Dreams of the past, present, future? ah, more brainstorming... but you guys have given me some good ideas.
after I've done some more work on the website, I'll pass you guys a link. It's still to barebones to show off right now.
Quote from: Cain on January 19, 2010, 09:02:00 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom
Someone shut down the internet; Cain just won everything.
Cram, about 1500 words being enough to "say everything" in English, did you ever check out "Basic English"?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_English#Word_lists
it has a word list of about 850 words.
it's also got a wikipedia: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
yes, when I was originally writing Brisbanian (circa 2006?), I kicked it off by absorbing the basic word list and a few other lists of "most common english words".
The problem with only having an 850 word set is that you can say anything, but you have to talk very simply, and have to be creative to get around certain words. I was originally aiming at 3000 words (including compounds and whatnot), but 1500 seems to cover most of the bases.
I never know when I've reached the edge though -- my litmus test is to take some piece of writing and translate it into Brisbanian... if I don't have to come up with any new words, I'm doing well. But often, I try to translate a sentence and find two or three words I'm missing. For example yesterday I realized I don't have any words relating to warnings, like "forebode", "beware", or "caution". Then there's all this little stuff which would fill itself in naturally if I had a real grammar -- like I have a word for "create", but was missing a word for "creation".
I find this to be a really interesting process. It's actually really difficult to come up with over a thousand gibberish words.. but you start to build on concepts. You have to get inside the Brisbanian mindset, and start to connect different meanings. Like in NERO, the world used to be more magical than it is now ; magic is slowly fading from the world. So the word for Old and the word for Magic are similar. The word for Green, Youth, and Enchant are all very similar. It makes me understand why Tolkein had to write a book which showcased this fantasy race he came up with. He had all these ideas about who these people are, ideas that evolved just from making up words.
Quote from: LMNO on January 20, 2010, 02:25:06 PM
Quote from: Cain on January 19, 2010, 09:02:00 PM
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom
Someone shut down the internet; Cain just won everything.
:thanks:
I was sure someone here would get it.
Quote from: Cramulus on January 19, 2010, 08:42:58 PM
This is the opposite of an "ask me anything" thread. Feel free to answer any questions you feel you're qualified for. These are kind of random (and specific) because they relate to various creative projects I've been brewing.
1. I'm putting together an english to conlang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructed_language) dictionary. What FONT should I use for the body? (in b4 "lol arial") Right now I'm using Centaur (http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/agfa/centaur/), but it doesn't look very good bold at 9pt size.
Code2000. That way, you can draw the funny Universal Phonetic Alphabet characters.
Quote
2. Id / Ego / Super ego (freud). Lion / Lamb / Bull / Eagle (leary's circuits 1-4). These are two ways to describe the forces underlying individual human psychology. Do you know of any other ways to categorize the forces within the human mind? (the function of this question is actually to brainstorm different races one might play in a weird live adventure game)
Jung's set of archetypes fit that. I can't really remember all of them, and I don't think anybody uses the same terms. They might be closer to 'occupations' in an RPG -- thief, wizard, warrior, whatever. Think hero/child -> warrior, senex/sage -> cleric, animus -> king...
Quote
3. If you were to sort all Gods into five or six categories, what would those categories be? For example: Love, War, Nature, Wealth, Trickery, Sovereign. (function: same as above)
* Knowledge
* Culture
* Fertility
* War
* Trickery
Quote
4. Is anybody interested in playtesting a larp? This means actually gathering up 3-5 friends with boffer weapons and playing this game I'm writing. If not interested in play testing, anybody interested in reading over some rules and telling me if they're comprehensible?
I'll read the rules.
Quote
6. Can you recommend a website which will teach me web design / css? I want to start putting together profitable projects, and one of the key elements is learning how to design a goddamn wobsite. I dabble in html, but feel like I should advance my knowledge until it is worth cash-money.
Often, once you are at the dabbling stage, the best thing to do to advance is to attack something ambitious and use only a reference. I think the w3c site has links to a comprehensive reference.