User blogs
Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you've never been we have an invitation for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
There is an ongoing discussion thread on this topic at Gamer+. This will be the starting point for Inspired Unreality tonight.
Draklorx wrote "I think this is a cool aspect of old school games that isn't common anymore. I love the grittiness of it, and the mixed levels never bothered me when I played. ... That said, for a dungeon master it's much easier to do milestone leveling and have all the players be the same level."
ZDL wrote, "There are several aspects of old school games I like, most notably the increased diversity that randomness tended to cause.
The wildly divergent capabilities of characters, however, was not one of them. In the presence of most GMs, having the weakest character meant a) dying, or b) not having anything to do. Neither of these is really conducive to enjoyment."
hairylarry wrote "And then there's the whole non combat side. The role playing, puzzle solving, exploration part where characters of all levels are more equal and the results depend more on the player than on PC stats."
hairylarry wrote "There is a built in premise in OSR games. PCs need XP to level up. You get XP by killing monsters. So, let's go kill some monsters. At a lot of tables that is the game. To me, it's a side show and as I get older I run more games that are all exploration and role play without any combat at all."
CarlHeyl wrote, "I'd like to add that in the oldest of old school most of your XP came from earning treasure not killing monsters. Which means two things 1. You don't have to fight that big bad monster if there was a way around it to get the treasure behind it. and 2. Your lower level character would level very rapidly because of the amount of gold the higher level party was able to procure."
If this interests you there's more here.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4131
Worldbuilding Magazine is proud to present our June 2021 issue: Cosmology. We’ve taken a step back from our usual in-depth look at the details of worldbuilding and this time we’re talking about the cosmos.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4133
I hope to see you tonight on Inspired Unreality to hear you opinions about mixed parties. Or you can log on to Gamer+ and share your thoughts.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
My stream schedule has been changed. Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00 PM Central. Sunday at 5:00 PM Central. Some Sundays my band, Bebop Beatniks, will be streaming from the porch.
If you are producing videos from your twitch streams like I talked about in the last article most streamers post to Youtube. I have an active Youtube channel and I do post there but it's actually the 4th place I post and Youtube won't see every video.
It's important to have a posting strategy and a procedure that makes posting easy. I use a notes.txt file in a dated folder for the stream performed on that date. This notes.txt file is very much the same for every show. The playlist is changed. The date is changed, and occasionally comments are added. So I work from a template modifying it as necessary for each stream.
I also have a template for posting songs. Again I only change the date, the song title, and add an occasional comment.
So, for me, playlists are important. I deal in sets of short videos that are related, in my case all performed on the same day. So if you're going to produce highlights videos from your game stream you may want to put them in a playlist so viewers can go through all of them easily.
And here's where it gets kind of geeky. The first place I post my videos is to my own servers.
Most people don't run web servers at home so this probably won't apply to you but it is an option every production studio should consider because uploads to in house servers don't take nearly as long as uploads to The Live Music Archive or Youtube.
On my right I have the Hairy Larry Rocks server hosting my peertube.
https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks
On my left I have my MixRemix server that also hosts HairyLarryLand.
Let's say I played a stream and then I produced 4 song videos from the stream.
I number the songs based on their order in the set as logged in my logbook.
I create a playlist for the stream.
I upload each video to my peertube using the songs.txt template so I don't have to do a lot of typing. After it's posted I add the link to the video into the text and I add the video to the playlist.
This goes really fast because these large mp4 files never leave the house. Nevertheless, as soon as I am done the songs are available on the internet and I can click a share button to link or embed the videos.
On my HairyLarryLand server I have a file sharing program called NextCloud. After I have finished uploading to peertube I create a folder for the stream and upload all the video files to NextCloud. Then I create a text file for each song and copy the exact same text I used for the songs on peertube. When that is done all of my highest quality video files are available for download here.
https://hairylarryland.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/Z9RFW4QS6XGa3qo
Why both?
The peertube interface is user friendly making it easy for viewers to find and share videos. It is even possible for other peertube instances to include my songs for people to enjoy from there.
The NextCloud interface is a file manager where you can download the best quality videos as rendered by OpenShot. So if someone wants to collaborate with me or just wants to download best quality that's the place to go.
The song.txt template cross links both of these sites so it is easy to switch between interfaces from a Youtube like federated social network to an all business file manager for downloading what you want.
In the next article I will discuss uploading videos to the Live Music Archive and Youtube. I am also uploading mp3 files of the audio to the Live Music Archive and I plan on making them available on my on demand KGPL internet radio station.
\os Hx/s
\os \u/s
^x^+
Tonight! On Inspired Unreality Ari and the Milyagon witch continue researching the potion book that Ari's cat Tude found near the witch's garden. So far they have tested a brew that enables far sighted telescopic vision. When stirred with the silver wand King Groads sent to the witch they also enabled microscopic vision. A kind of a scrying tea with a twist. They have decrypted another recipe that may be a love potion.
Join us on Inspired Unreality tonight to test a love potion or just to chat about gaming. Everyone is welcome. All gaming is on topic.
Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chatrooms every Monday night at 9:00 at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been we have an invite for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
Every gamer knows about thieve's cant, words and symbols only thieves know. Inspired by Ari's book discovered on Inspired Unreality I am working on Witch's Chicken Scratch, a kind of shorthand that witch's in the past used to record the exact ingredients in their teas and potions. Since they knew their ingredients and how they blended them together all they needed was a short list to remind them exactly what they used.
Silent letters ignored, past witch's scrawled geometric figures in neat rows as a way of remembering their recipes while at the same time concealing them from prying eyes. Witches do love their secrets.
Ari and the Milyagon witch have deciphered two recipes so far. One is at the top of the page. Here are the witch's notes that she made while reseaching the book.
m = ^
n = ^
v = v
t = +
l = |
r = \
d = /
o = o
u = u
w = w
other vowels = x
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4126
See if you can decipher the recipe at the top of this newsletter.
Maybe it's a mood elevator.
Or maybe it's a love potion.
Join us tonight and maybe we'll find out.
After drinking this Tea of Prescience I can see another Milyagon minizine in the future, "Tea Recipes In Witch's Chicken Scratch".
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
m = ^
n = ^
v = v
t = +
l = |
r = \
d = /
o = o
u = u
w = w
So
mint = ^x^+
lemon = |x^o^
lavender = |xvx^/x\
So it's just a substitution code but all the marks are very easy to write and, coincidentally, easy to type.
Inspired Unreality is held at 9:00 PM Central every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invite for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
I posted another article about Setting Up A Twitch Studio where I discuss workflow. In any job workflow is important. In video production a streamlined workflow is essential. I know workflow sounds boring and wonky but it's not. This may be the most important article in the series.
https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/775
Gamer+ Gamers Do Stuff
Peter_R posted Troika Cards! Woo Hoo! to his Solo Roleplaying & Game Mastery blog.
https://www.ppmgames.co.uk/2021/02/09/troika-cards-woo-hoo
https://gamerplus.org/user/Peter_R
TheEvilDM posted another episode to his actual play podcast, The World of Arkonis Episode 51 – Evil Lair 3, is this the one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZrFFLGH4M
https://gamerplus.org/user/TheEvilDM
If you're doing stuff let me know. I want to add your stuff to Gamer+ News.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
Everyone wants to buy equipment but nobody wants to think about workflow. Yet, without a well defined idea about anticipated workflow it's difficult to even know what equipment to buy.
One of the advantages of livestreaming is simplified workflow. For instance.
Prepare for the stream.
Do the stream performance.
Check your stats.
Twitch keeps your streams online and it's possible to download them if there's one you want to save. I press the record button in Streamlabs OBS and record everything. So I need big hard drives, video eats disk space. This is how workflow drives equipment purchases.
My workflow is more complicated because my livestream is also a video production environment. I am livestreaming my shows. But I am also producing song videos of me playing my original songs. This is where workflow is most important.
Because there's this thing about video production. It's time consuming. So if you're going to do a lot of video production it's important to simplify your workflow or you end up bogged down in post production. This leads to the dreaded post production backlog where you are unable to keep up and end up with unwatched video footage that you worked to make but will never see the light of day.
The only way I know of to avoid post production backlog is to finish with post before you produce more video. When your performance is on a schedule, like mine, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 3:00 PM Central, you have to be able to zoom through post production and uploading your videos. There is only two or three days until the next performance.
So here's my workflow.
Pre Production
Write songs.
Create backing tracks.
Learn the songs well enough to practice them.
Production
Perform the stream which is livestreamed over twitch, recorded on twitch, and recorded on my hard drive.
Post Production
Log the show.
Create the song videos.
Upload the videos to my peertube instance for easy viewing and to my NextCloud file sharing site for best quality downloads.
https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/video-channels/twitch/videos
https://hairylarryland.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/Z9RFW4QS6XGa3qo
Promotion
Share links to the songs on my blogs, websites, and social media.
Upload song videos to Youtube or other websites.
I will do an article on promotion later.
Now I want to discuss Post Production and just how I manage to produce a handful of song videos every two days.
I watch the whole show on twitch logging the songs start and end times and marking the songs that should be excerpted for song videos. I add other comments while logging. Most commonly I note where the song video should begin because I don't always hit the groove right from the top.
This takes a little bit longer than it took to play the stream. Producing the log is only part of the purpose here. I am also monitoring my stream quality as viewed on twitch and I am learning from my performance.
For editing my videos I use OpenShot because of ease of use.
I load the stream recorded to the hard drive into OpenShot and I do a rough cut of the songs beginning and end.
I zoom in and fix the cuts to exactly where i want them. I leave the spoken intros and outtros where possible.
I use templates for my title and credits screens changing only the song title. I add them to the video and I place the fades to go from title to video and from video to credits.
This goes really fast. While I still have the song loaded in the editor I do a quality control viewing. Sometimes I decide the song isn't really good enough to post. Sometimes I choose different edit points. Most of the time I am happy with the song and deem it ready to upload. So besides checking the song I am also doing another learning pass listening again to my best performances. So I play the song, log the song and select it for post production, and then I listen again for quality control. This repeated listening may be the most valuable part of my piano practice.
Sometimes I want to include the spoken intro and then start the song later in the performance. This takes only one extra cut. To avoid a jump cut I zoom in on the spoken part so it's just a video of me talking. Then when I start playing I'm back to full screen making a very natural transition. Here's an example.
Bunnies
https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/videos/watch/955242be-6dd2-45f9-b2cb-a09a49b15a1a
Here's a video from the same show without the zoomed in intro.
Eventually
https://peertube.hairylarry.rocks/videos/watch/ebdd8dcb-cfde-413d-b7ec-fbbad81d6e9a
Today's Monday. My last stream was two hours on Saturday. I logged the stream Saturday night. Sunday I produced Something Blue and uploaded it to KASU. So today I get to produce eight song videos. I know I will be able to finish this today, no problem, because of my streamlined workflow.
Because tomorrow I'll be playing another show.
Tonight on Inspired Unreality join Ari and Caper in their quest for mushrooms and tea. At least that's what we did last week when Ari's cat, Tude, found a book, Ari and the witch deciphered a tea blend from one of the pages in the book, Caper went to the woods to hunt for mushrooms, the witch brewed the tea, and when Ari and the witch drank the tea they became far sighted and could see Caper leaving the woods several miles away as if they were looking through a powerful telescope. What will happen next? Nobody knows. Because we're winging it.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4113
Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkar's Tavern we have an invitation for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
Those who are Related To Geeks finally reconvened in person after over a year of getting together in Zoom and on Gather. At our Saturday family game we fought the giant ants that invaded Fair Day. On Sunday we restored a wizard who had been turned to stone. We also ate a lot and talked a lot and I played piano. Great weekend, especially that last part.
Follow Me And Die posted a new podcast, Episode 197 - Down the Rabbit Hole of UAPs/UFOs. "With the recent buzz over the release of some videos of various sensor data of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, the new term for UFO, I decided to explore "What if...." and apply it to the realm of RPGs." He also posted a companion blog post.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4114
Saturday afternoon I had my family participate on my twitch stream. I set up on the front porch using all battery operated equipment, piano, PA, tablet, laptop, and a hotspot on my phone. There were some problems. The battery died on the laptop and I had to plug it in. Webcams are not good in daylight. I am working on these issues and will discuss them in a blog post, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Going Portable after I figure them out.
You are invited to join Ari and Caper tonight on Inspired Unreality. Please update us on your games and projects. My contact info is below or better yet post to Gamer+.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
Join Ari and Caper and Tude (Ari's cat) as their adventures unfold. What will happen next? Nobody knows. Cause we're winging it.
Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkars Tavern we have an invitation for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
Here's a shout out to Follow Me And Die for 44 years of D&D. I've been playing for 30 years. How long have you been adventuring? Add your story to the comments here.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4109
I added another post to my series, Setting Up A Twitch Studio. This week it's all about free software for streaming.
https://gamerplus.org/blogs/768
After I finish these blogs Megan and I will have to get back together to compare notes on where twitch has taken us. What is your experience with twitch? We'll both be glad to compare notes with you too.
Here's our links.
https://www.twitch.tv/megantopia
https://www.twitch.tv/hairylarryland
Stay in touch.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
Here's the good news for a change. The software needed to set up a twitch stream is free.
I am using Streamlabs OBS as my streaming platform. Before that I used OBS. These are both free software. I used OBS recording audio only podcasts but for my twitch stream I wanted to view the live chat as part of the stream, and not just see the chat on the twitch interface. Streamlabs OBS supports that so that's how I get my live chat on the left side of the stream.
https://streamlabs.com/
To display my tablet playing iReal Pro on the right side of my stream I use scrcpy, also free software.
https://github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
I had to download and install a windows driver for my Zoom H6. No charge for the driver and the install was painless. I use the Zoom as an interface between my PA and my computer.
I am planning on implementing the ability to record multitrack to make it easier to collaborate with other musicians. Pro Tools First is a free download and Pro Tools is the industry standard for sharing audio files.
https://www.avid.com/pro-tools
I use Openshot for video post production. I like it. I even use their titling templates. It makes life easy.
https://www.openshot.org/
I am using VLC to monitor my videos. Under tools I can view the codec information to make sure I'm recording everything right. VLC will also compress your video files in case they end up too large.
https://www.videolan.org/
GIMP is my photo editor. Video producers need photo editors the same as anyone else.
https://www.gimp.org/
Some of this software is open source. Some is not. But it is all free to download and install. Which is good news because twitch can be an expensive hobby.
Next week I'll discuss workflow and backups. Can't wait.
Inspired Unreality open game chat is held every Monday night at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you are new to Tenkar's Tavern, a notorious drinking hole for OSR discussion, we have an invitation for you here.
https://gamerplus.org/index
Ari, Caper, and Tude survived Feyland after an exchange of gifts with King Groads. They are on Wilkin Way heading back toward Milyagon after their three fey friends helped them return. Tintee danced up a fairy circle that opened up into the rapids. Quin went through first and got all wet so when he came back Tintee danced up another fairy circle and this one went to the owl's eyrie just north of Wilkin Way. After feasting on the mushrooms Caper found (his gift was he would be lucky finding mushrooms in the woods) they said goodbye to Tintee, Quin, and Pantoo.
https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4099
I have added another post to my twitch series, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Equipment. Here's the link.
https://gamerplus.org/blogs/764
Have you played Keep On The Borderlands? Of course you have. At the Save Or Die podcast they discuss B2 or not B2?
"The Keep on the Borderlands! The name alone evokes images of battling monsters in caverns and wilderness in the earlier days of Dungeons & Dragons. But is the module really all it’s cracked up to be! The Sodcast discusses the good, bad, and chaotic of the most famous basic module."
http://saveordie.info/?p=1990
Post you adventures on Gamer+. Everything takes equipment whether it's webcams or miniatures. Let us know about your recent equipment aquisitions.
And have you done any role playing on twitch? Just how does that work? I am very interested in this and would like to cover it on Inspired Unreality and in my twitch series.
Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com
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