User blogs

Saturday morning. Inspired Unreality. 11:00 Central. It's the first Saturday so our topic is fantasy and science fiction. Games, movies, books, televison, art, poetry. If it's fantasy and science fiction it's on topic.

I finished "Gideon The Ninth" and while I'm waiting for "Harrow The Ninth" I'm reading "The House In The Cerulean Sea" by TJ Klune. Megan recommended it and she also recommended a beautifully written book, "This Is How You Lose The Time War" by Amal El-Mohtar. She's reading it with the Eclectic Geekery fantasy/sf book club.

https://gamerplus.org/user/EclecticGeekery

Join us tomorrow for more fantasy and science fiction.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info and a link go here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Here Lies The Hatchet. Vivian said the words that inspired this meme. I found the public domain photo by Linnaea Mallette at publicdomainpictures.net. Megan created the engraved effect in GIMP. It was a family effort.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4875

It's a little early for Halloween but Megan disagreed. Please share.

Here's some great fantasy illustrations by Donn P. Crane published in "Journeys Through Bookland" in 1922. All illustrations are public domain.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/130

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/986

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Join us Saturday morning at 11:00 Central for Inspired Unreality open game chat. Bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic. We went to Tobbins Shire last night and we might go again. Or we can talk about your projects and your games.

Inspired Unreality is held in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. If you need a link, go here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

From last weeks Inspired Unreality discussion about Fantasy and Science Fiction.

It seems that horses are the most common animal in fantasy while science fiction authors prefer cats. And also, of course, there be dragons, not just in fantasy but in science fiction as well.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4495

Check out this fantastic Year Of The Tiger art by Kim Herbst.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4497

I filled in a few blanks on the now named Tobbins Shire.

In Tobbins Shire there are Tobbins and Mubbins and Muffens plus an occasional Baggins or Took. It is a trading Shire, on the river, with docks, warehouses, and stores. On one street there are big houses for biguns whose kids like swimming in the river off the docks. Some of the Tobbins, Mubbins, and Muffins join them but you won't catch a Baggins or a Took in the water.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4513

And Ari and Caper rescued the people only to find a big bad wrapped in a fey enigma.

Caper shows Ari the Book of Kings and Cyndre, the lady boss of the rescued humans, pops over to look. She says, "Oh, aye! I ken him. Old King Cartyr, he died last year."

Ari and Caper look at each other and Caper says, "King Cartyr is legendary. He died 400 years ago."

Cyndre looks up noticing details in Ari's clothing she hadn't see before. Finely woven cloth with rows of silver buttons. She also notices Caper's well fitted boots, made by the cobbler at Tobbins Shire. She bows to Ari and says, "Sorry, my lady, but I worked in King Cartyr's Castle and he died just last year.

400 years ago, Cyndre and her party left Tobbins Shire and when they crested a ridge they saw a beautiful field covered in mist with an abandoned farmhouse. When they went to see the farmhouse they walked through the mist and that's the last they remember until Ari, Caper, and Tude led them out of the mist and back up to the road.

Ari and Caper have a short confab and decide that there's nothing for it but to take these people back to the shire.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/900

Please forward this email to your gaming friends and share this link.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/901

Stay in touch and Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Inspired Unreality open game chat begins at 11:00 AM Central on Saturday, January 29. We do not believe in predestination so we have predetermined no topic. Opening topic - Studying Noumena. If you get just crosseyed enough this paragraph makes sense.

Join us in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. You can find a link to Tenkar's here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Next Saturday will be the first Saturday in February so our topic will be Fantasy and Science Fiction. The opening topic next week will be Why do RPGs parallel fantasy and science fiction literature?

Eclectic Geekery
Books, Games and More!

My daughters are opening a book shop in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. You can expect regular updates.

Great poster art here.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4453

Shop Eclectic Geekery. You'll be glad you did!

I was scrounging around in some of the back rooms at Delta Boogie and I found some wizard artwork Kier drew for me in 1996.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4452

Please welcome austin_grafx to Gamer+. He drew his own avatar.

https://gamerplus.org/user/austin_grafx

Forward this email and share this link to Gamer+ News.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/884

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
https://mastodon.social/@hairylarry
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality we are talking about books and stories. The opening topic will be The Origins Of Fantasy. Fantasy is the well spring that D&D grew out of. Do fantasy stories predate civilization? Or is there an era in literature when fantasy was born?

Inspired Unreality is held every Monday night in the gamerplus chatrooms at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord. For more info go here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

Last week Ari and Caper worked on Caper's Song Book. And we started on a list of songs for the book. Then we wrote this.

Song of perception

tin tin aree tin tin aroo
look about look about could be you
jump about jump about one and two
tin tin aree tin tin aroo

To be sung by the whole party twice through to increases alertness and perception.

Here's a link to my post about Caper's Song Book.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/798

Carl Heyl linked to the Conan Artbook Kickstarter from the Troll Lords!

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/4186

I added a chapter to my book in progress, Setting Up A Twitch Studio - Using Tech Creatively. The new chapter is about Web Promotion.

https://gamerplus.org/blogs/post/801

What have you been reading? Join us tonight on Inspired Unreality and let us know. What have you been writing? Post a link. Do you use tech creatively? Comment on my post.

Please share this newsletter with your gaming friends.

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

Tonight on Inspired Unreality open game chat our opening topic will be "D&D grew out of fantasy literature and then a branch of fantasy literature grew out of D&D". As always Inspired Unreality begins at 9:00 Central in the gamerplus chat rooms at Tenkars Tavern on Discord. If you haven't been to Tenkars Tavern we have an inivite for you here.

https://gamerplus.org/index

I have posted a new gallery of public domain fantasy art called, John Anster Fitzgerald takes us to Feyland. Fitzgerald was a Victorian illustrator who specialized in fairies and other fey creatures.

https://gamerplus.org/photo/useralbum/hairylarry/94

After looking at these pictures sound and I started discussing fairytales. Fairytales predate history and yet are still being written in the 21st century, often melded with other types of literature. Click the link to join the discussion.

https://gamerplus.org/newsfeed/3306

Please welcome our newest gamer, TabletopBellhop, creator of blogs, vlogs, and podcasts about tabletop gaming.

https://gamerplus.org/user/TabletopBellhop

I hope to chat with you tonight about fantasy literature and gaming. As always, bring your own topic. All gaming is on topic.

https://gamerplus.org/groups/9

Thanks,
Hairy Larry
https://gamerplus.org/user/hairylarry
hairylarry@curators.mixremix.cc
hairylarry@deltaboogie.com

We played Virtual Dirty Santa on Discord yesterday. We all passed the wrapped gifts around on a gameboard and then we opened them in order.

Here are the gifts given by those who are Related To Geeks (my family).

Half Halfling

by Larry Heyl CC-BY

My Mother, the midget

Fell for a halfling bard

Who sang her sweet love songs

beneath the pine trees in his yard.

They married in April

Which makes me a Winter's child

Quite mild for a human

As halfling, quite wild.

So yes I'm half halfling

From bald head to hairy toes

I hunt through the forest

Where wild mushrooms grow.

Will I seek adventure

Or farm in the shire?

Sing for my lady love

While I pluck the lyre.

Megan Heyl produced by Megan Heyl

Carl Heyl drawn by Kier Heyl

Gretchen posts Megan dancing behind Megan

Gamer Space
by Larry Heyl aka Hairy Larry

Here's a concept for an AI gamer space or animation engine for use in any creative project.

A scenery is created for example a meadow with some trees and shrubs. The scenery is created using graphic assets and can be placed by a person or by the AI engine. A camera is set to view the scenery and display it on the computer screen. The camera would have an xyz location and a direction vector. All of this is well established gaming and animation software technology.

Characters are created. An artist would draw the concept for the character. Several faces would be drawn showing different expressions. An animator would draw several sequences, running, walking, jumping, swimming, fencing. This concept art would be fed into a heuristic AI software that would be taught how to animate that character. Additional characters would be drawn and the software would be taught how to animate them.

Monsters and animals would also be created.

---

I am now going to discuss this technology from a gamers perspective. I think it's potential use in other animation projects will be obvious.

Let's say there are two adventurers warming themselves by a fire while they discuss their plans for storming the castle. Each player's computer screen is generated by a camera that gives their character's view of the scenery, trees, bushes, campfire burning right in front of them.

The DM tells the software that from behind a tree an Orc jumps into view on the other side of the fire. The software animates the Orc surprising the adventurers. They each say "I jump back drawing my sword/axe/etc. The software uses voice recognition software to determine the players intent and generates the animation sequence showing the action. The players screens reflect their change in perspective and the actions of the other characters and  the Orc.

The DM says, "Roll for initiative."

---

This project is certainly beyond my abilities but I don't actually think it's beyond current technology. The most difficult part might be the parsing of the players language. This could be made easier by having the characters type in their actions but that may not be necessary. I think either way, speaking or typing, the players will have to adapt their language to an English like coded instruction. "I back up 3 steps and draw my sword." could be easily parsed. Players will quickly learn which instructions work and which don't.

The project also requires many skill sets. Artists and animators, graphics, database, and AI coders working together. I think this could be best accomplished as an Open Source project where people with these skill sets could volunteer to contribute knowing that their work would remain free as in libre.

So I am licensing this article CC BY, Creative Commons Attribution. Distribute it freely, enhance it if you wish, but keep my name attached. If anyone ever does start a project like this I would definitely like to know about it.

Serpents Fall

caeora.com/product-page/serpents-fall

"Here is the finished Serpents Fall map! The colossal remains of a dead sea serpent, twisted around a few dark rocks and shallows just off shore. When I was making this I imagined that the serpent has been killed by something even bigger in the ocean like a Kraken! And the creepy statue in the top right was brought to the rocks by a kraken worshipping cult, using the blood and organs of the sea serpent for dark rituals."

Caeora will be our guest on the Gamer+ Inspired Unreality open game chat at Tenkar's Tavern on Discord next Monday, August 12, at 9:00 PM Central.