Mind of a GM

The inner ramblings of a Pathfinder GM and part time philosopher.

[namicy]

Building a World: Carminia

It started out simple. I was just writing words randomly in a notepad I use for idea generation and story plotting. The idea was to build a bank of words that could be used for NPC's, Towns, Nations, etc... One word stuck out me and I kept going back to it. Carminia.

I don't know what it is about it that stood out to me, but I started to dwell on that word more and more often in my planing sessions, unsure of how to use it. Nothing came of it until I started building a full homebrew world.

Carminia was the starting point.

The word started out as representing the world as whole, then a nation, and then a city. Now the Carminian Imperium is just one of many nations in the new world I have built up.

All thanks to that one word.

Next in Building a World, the history and current state of the Carminian Imperium.

[namicy]

Building a Nation

One of my favorite types of games to run is a kingdom/nation building campaign. It really allows the players and myself to get creative. While I do normally have some kind of overarching story to tell separate to that of kingdom, the time spent with that system allows the players to get in touch with there characters on a different level.

Unfortunately that took a turn in my most recent campaign. The six players ended up splitting into different alliances in an attempt to gain complete control of the kingdom they built. It all came to ahead with a overly complex assassination plot that ended with four of the six players dead. One of the best games I've had the pleasure of running.

[namicy]

Somthing Random

As a Star Trek fan I'm disappointed in how long it took me to watch DS9. I am surprised with how much I am enjoying it.

[namicy]

On Climate Change

There are people who do not believe in the idea of climate change, or that we, as humans, are in some way responsible for the changing climate. Personally I do not know anyone who holds this belief, or they have not expressed this belief with we. I do hold the belief that we are a part of cause of climate change, and that we can be a part of the solution to fix it. 

The problem that we have, is that in order to try and fix the problem on a large scale, we will need everybody. It is valid to hold the belief that climate change is not real, as it is not a matter of fact that climate change exists, it is a matter of hold the belief as true. But that is another matter. It is clear that reiterating the science or calling them ignorant will nor work, as they already don’t believe the science, and insulting them will only strengthen their resolve. What I recommend is Pascal’s Wager.

If you are unfamiliar with the term, Pascal’s wager was a argument as to why people should believe in God. unlike previous arguments that tried to prove God’s existence, Pascal created his argument around the idea that it would be in a persons best interest to believe in God. There are two scenarios. One were God exists, and one were God does not exist. In the world were God does not exist the person who believes in God and the person who does not believe God end up in the same place were they die. Nowhere. But in the world were god exists, if you believe in God you go to Heaven, and if you don’y you go to Hell. The argument is that you should believe in God just in case he does exist so you go to Heaven. Of-course when you hold this up against theological study and theory it falls apart, but Pascal may have solved our problem with climate change. 

It should be clear where I am heading with this now. If we were to apply Pascal’s argument to climate change instead of religion, we can create an argument as to why it is better to believe in climate change, even if you cannot know if it is real. if climate change is not real and you work to stop climate change, you may not have saved the world, but you have definitely made it a better place. If climate change is not real and you don't work to stop climate change, nothing changes. However if climate change is real and you don’t work to stop it, you have aided in bring the slow death of our planet. But if climate change is real, and you work to stop climate changed, you have helped save the world. 

In short we know have an argument to aid in convincing skeptics of climate change to come around, and aid in the fight aganist the problems of climate change. 

[namicy]

I know it exists, I just never had the chance to get my hands on the materials. But I would love to play the Pokemon tabletop rpg someday.

Problem is that I feel it would be the one game I would hate to gm, but love to play. I need to find people to gm games for me to play in.

[namicy]

Just finished the prep work for my latest Pathfinder campaign. So many charts. Planing on running the Kingmaker AP sometime soon, slightly modified to fit my style. Now I just need a group of gullible adventurers to undertake this quest. Can’t wait to get started, its been to long.

[namicy]

It’s a funny thing being a person of religion these days. As a devout person of belief myself people ask me how I deal with science with my religion. I imagine it would be difficult for people to try and merge that way.

I find it simpler to try and have my religion fit with known science, and with that I have no issues. Odd how a simple change of perspective can solve problems.