In my last entry, I tried to provide a look at the high-handed exercise of the central government’s power to initiate processes for the creation of new states.  In this part, I try to look at two issues (1) Constitutional provisions regarding state formation, and (2) centre-state relations in relation to state formation.

The provisions for creating new states, and changing the boundaries of new states are provided in Articles 2-4 of the Constitution.  Simply out, a simple law passed by both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is enough to create a new state.  However, only the central government (“President”) can introduce a Bill for this purpose.  And prior to introducing the Bill, the states which will be affected have to be consulted.

The process of consultation followed has the following features: (1) The matter is referred to the legislatures of the affected states.  (2) No specific time period within which states have to send their decision back to the centre has been mentioned in the Constitution.  The central government can specify the time period while referring the matter. (3) The Constitution does not mention that the state legislatures have to agree to the proposed creation/alteration of states.  The Parliament can therefore, pass a law creating a new state even if affected states do not agree to the proposal.

lastly, the names of the states in the Union are mentioned in the First Schedule of the Constitution.  Similarly, the Fourth Schedule lists the number of seats each state is allotted in the Rajya Sabha.  Any law creating a new state would necessarily affect these two Schedules.  Schedules to the Constitution are usually considered parts of the Constitution, and any change to the Schedules has to be done through a constitutional amendment.  However, Article 4(2) of the constitution clearly says that no law creating or altering a new state will be considered a constitutional amendment.

The implications of these provisions are clear: for all practical considerations, the Constitution only requires that the central government should have a simple majority in both houses of Parliament.  The obvious question to ask is whether this system is representative enough to create a new state, and this brings me to the second issue highlighted at the beginning of the page.

These provisions in the Constitution were created at a time when India’s security and sovereignty was at stake, when a number of independent states were forced to merge with the larger Indian state.  There were obvious concerns about giving greater representative power to states who had recently agreed to be governed under the Indian union.  Over the years however, threats of secessionist politics have reduced greatly.  People almost throughout the country acknowledge themselves to be part of a greater Indian union.

However, maintaining the status quo in the Constitutional scheme has greatly reduced political space for raising legitimate regional or geopolitical aspirations within the country.  The parliament maybe the supreme representative platform for raising issues affecting citizens, it may however not be representative enough.  Though there is no bar for state legislatures on discussing these issues, there seems to be little substantive gain from debating issues they have no practical control over.

Therefore, not only does the present constitutional scheme make it exceedingly simple for the central government to pass laws  creating new states, the procedure involved also undermines the importance of local governments and state legislatures in the consensus-building process.  It is little wonder then, that groups resort to violence to attract national consciousness.

I kid you not, this is exactly what a wedding would be like for 90% of the characters we played back when we were playing Top Secret in the early 80’s. It wasn’t an espionage RPG in our hands, it was commando action, 24/7.

The re-organisation of states in India may not simply be a question of giving voice to the aspirations of neglected groups within a specific region of the country.  It is also a question of whether such a group will be able to form capable institutions of administration to reap the benefits of statehood.  This is one of the major points of Prof. Mehta’s recent article in the Indian Express.  So on the one hand, while there is a definite case for giving greater regional autonomy to regions which feel they can manage themselves better as independent states, there is also the question of the country as a while assessing whether such a smaller state has the capability to do so.

This is where the central government’s decision to unilaterally concede to the demand for a separate state appears high-handed and arbitrary, and even weak (since they gave in to the demands of a political party which managed just two seats in the last general elections).  It will probably never be known whether the Congress high-command just gave in to blackmail, or whether the decision has been based on a deeper understanding of the issue at hand.

What we do know is that even in 2001, the Congress Working Committee was in favour of a separate state of Telengana, and had asked for the creation of a new States Reorganisation Commission to consider the whole issue.  If the ruling party did have an inclination to look at the Telengana issue favourably, why has it failed to constitute a new States Reorganisation Commission so far?  Why could the government not announce the setting up of a States Reorganisation Commission to look into demands for smaller states in a rational and well-thought out manner, instead of conceding to the demand for a smaller state?  Why did it risk throwing its state-party unit into virtual turmoil soon after it had recovered from the unrest created due to YSR’s death?

There is also the justness of the demand to consider:  The first States Reorganisation Commission (1955) had this to say about Telengana:

“377. When plans for future development are taken into account, Telangana fears that the claims of this area may not receive adequate consideration in Vishalandhra [Andhra Pradesh]. The Nandikonda and Kushtapuram (Godavari) projects are, for example among the most important which Telangana or the country as a whole has undertaken. Irrigation in the coastal as of these two great rivers is however, also being planned, Telangana. Therefore, does not wish to lose its present independent rights in relation to the utilization of the waters of Krishna and Godavari.

378. One of the principal causes of opposition of Vishalandhra also seems to be the apprehension felt by the educationally backward people of Telangana that they may be swamped and exploited by the more advanced people of the coacation is woefully backward. The result is that a lower qualification than in Andstal areas. In the Telangana districts outside the city of Hyderabad, eduhra is accepted for public services The real fear of the people of Telangana is that if they enjoy Andhra they will be unequally placed in relation to the people of Andhra and in this partnership the major partner will derive all the advantages immediately, while Telangana, itself may be converted into a colony by the enterprising coastal Andhra.

379. ‘ The Telangana’ it has .further been argued, can be stable and viable, unit considered by itself. The revenue receipts of this area on current account have been estimated at about Rs. 17 crores, and although the financing of the Krishna and Godavari projects will impose a recurring burden on the new State by way of interest charges, the probable deficit, if any is unlikely to be large. In favorable conditions, the revenue budget may even be balanced or indicate a marginal surplus. This fairly optimistic forecast can be explained or justified by a variety of reasons.”

The Committee therefore had focussed on the source and quantum of revenue collection, the capacity of the region to generate revenue, and the apprehensions of the local population.  To put in a nutshell, poorer Andhra would feed off richer but smaller Telengana, and the lack of political space within the state would retard the region’s growth.  For reasons justified or unjustified, these concerns were overlooked, and Telengana has remained a part of greater Andhra for more than five decades.  A new States Reorganisation Commission needs to be setup now, if only to examine whether present agitations  highlight the justification of these concerns, or whether the agitators are merely continuing to voice the same apprehensions which have not borne fruition in Andhra’s history as a state.

Well… i know i haven´t post anything for TS3… so just click on TSR – Sims 3 and there was it … Harmonia Set 018 !

Its almost perfect, but its for subscribers… so its for them only . But next to Harmonia Set  was Bad Romance !!!!!

Lovely bikini set for girls!

Yap… now your gonna ask me :”Why did you even  post that Harmonia Set ?”

And the answer is :”Cause some people are subscribers .” And the creators are Harmonia for Harmonia Set and yani961 for Bad Romance. Now go and download !

Harmonia Set:  http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-clothing-female/title/Harmonia%20Set%20018/id/931924/

Bad Romance :http://www.thesimsresource.com/downloads/details/category/sims3-sets-clothing-female/title/%20Bad%20Romance/id/931692/

A perfect home – that´s what we all dream about and what we all want. Our sims have the same desire and it´s our duty to fulfill their their wishes.

The past weekend I noticed for the first time that there is an amazing magazine for the sims around – Living Sims. There you can find a lot of helpful tips and links to create the perfect home for your sims. I was amazed by the magazine and its professionality. Seeing the pics of the rooms there made me feel like reading the “Elle Decoration” magazine. And I wanted to decorate instantly a house.

I built right before a small cottage – 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, placed on a 20×30 lot. So the house doesn´t offer a lot of space and the little space you have needs to be in harmony. Through the magazine I learned that the best results you get with a 3 colour theme. I followed that advice and started to decorate the cottage.

The colours I choose are a light blue, a sandtone and eggshell coloured white. I started with the kitchen and ended with the bathroom. And what can I say – I am happy with the result.

As it is a cottage I wanted to show the cottage style a bit, so I needed the respective furnitures. My favourite kitchen is the Warwick Kitchen by Angela created for TSR (The Sims Resource). Main colour for the kitchen is blue.

In the great room there is not really a main colour. All 3 colours work all equally together.

Regarding the masterbedroom there is just one important thing: create a cozy atmosphere which makes you to have wonderful dreams.

95% of the stuff shown in the pics are from The Sims Resource. I am a subscriber there and every day I see the new downloads there makes me happy to be one. But there is also really great free stuff – perfect for your new home.

Happy simming.

K.

Yes I can help you! Aside from my weekly events , I also have my Day job!

I am working as a Marketing Manager for One World Learning Inc. Its a BPO Staffing and Training Company. We give FREE Call Center training to all qualified applicants. So if you’re looking for a high paying job, contact me asap!

I’m currently looking for Customer Service Representatives & Technical Support Representatives. I am handling sites from Alabang, Makati, The Fort, Ortigas and Quezon City.

Here are the Requirements:

• Candidate must possess at least a Bachelor’s/College Degree or must have completed at least 2 years in college.
• Required skill(s): fluent in English and customer-oriented.
• Applicant with call center experience is preferred but not required.
• Applicants must be willing to work in any of the following areas: Makati, Ortigas, The Fort, Alabang.
• Applicants must be willing to work in shifting schedules.
• Fresh graduates/Entry level applicants are encouraged to apply.
• Full-Time positions available.
• Applicants should be Filipino citizens or hold relevant residence status.

Our company, ONE WORLD LEARNING offers FREE Call Center and English Training.

This is an URGENT REQUIREMENT. Our clients are offering competitive salary ranging from P15,000-P20,000 as starting salary,apart from night differential pay, hazard pay, performance bonus and other benefits. career advancement opportunities, professional development and training for their employees!

Interested applicants may send their updated resumes to JOLIVERIA@ONEWORLDLC.COM

Sendung vom 12. November 2009

Grundsätzlich neigen wir zur Nüchternheit. Dasselbe erwarten wir auch vom SF. Die allabendliche Sendung, dieser zwanghafte Versuch helvetische Steifheit als knackiges oder schwülstiges Infotainment-Paket an die schweizerischen «Hüüsholt» zu schicken, könnte von uns aus wie ein Kommandorapport aufgebaut sein (nachts, im Regen). Offenbar definiert der vormals bärtige Urs Leutert, den man auch ohne Bart dem Publikum nicht mehr vorführen darf (das SF ist offiziell keine freakshow), die Zielgruppe des immerhin einzigen Schweizer Landessenders so, dass genau diejenigen Zuschauer aussen vor bleiben müssen, die die urtümlich schweizerische Eigenart der Unaufgeregtheit auch dann noch kultivieren, wenn Rainer H.M. vor lauter Zappelphilippigkeit kaum noch stillzuhalten vermag (er versucht es natürlich, worauf sich seine Miene derart verfinstert, dass man unweigerlich an «Armaggedon» denken muss).

Ein Sieg ist ein Sieg ist ein Sieg. Punktum.

Wir leugnen nicht, dass nebst der reinen Resultateorientiertheit gerade in einer Sendung mit einem Anfang und einem Ende auch narrative Elemente einen Platz haben müssen (1977 hätte die Sendung den Charme eines DDR-Grenzpostens verströmt: Die TV-Legende Max Wolf mit einer Standardhornbrille aus dem Zeughaus verliest hinter einem spanplattenbraunen Pult die Resultate; «an der U17-WM in Nigeria schlägt die Schweiz im Halbfinal Kolumbien mit 4:0. Die Schweiz steht somit im Final. – Fechten: …») Auch wenn wir aufs hervorragendenste damit bedient wären, verstehen wir den Versuch, die Emotionalität, die einem Sportanlass per se innewohnt, darzustellen. Man mag nun kalauern, dass viele Wege nach Rom führen, und während die einen sie metaphorisch mit «Hamlet unter dem Kirschbaum» explizieren, greift das SF rein gewohnheitsmässig zur musikalischen Unterlegung. Verströmt die geflügelte Metaphorik den antiken und untrübbaren Glanz der Originalität, wirkt Letzteres oft nur noch platt (das liegt weniger am Sound/Image-Compositing als vielmehr an der Sterotypie am Leutschenbach: Bei Freestylesportarten greift das SF zur Stromgitarre, bei grossen Siegen zu Hymnischem, bei Rücktritten oder schmerzlichen Niederlagen zu irgendeinem Time-to-say-goodbye-Verschnitt).

Gestern war nun endlich wieder mal so ein Tag, und dem SF fiel nicht mehr ein, als zum Sendeschluss Aufnahmen der jubelnden Spieler der U17-Nati mit der Filmmusik aus Ridley Scotts «Gladiator» zu unterlegen.

Was geschähe mit Urs Leutert, träfe er in der Arena auf ihn?

Das alles wäre nicht mehr als gähnende Gewohnheit, hätte nicht gleichzeitig das Bakom verlautet, alle (genau: alle!) müssten TV-Gebühren zahlen, speziell diejenigen, die gar keinen TV besitzen (oder die Sendungen wie wir bei unserer Freundin Wilmaa schauen). Abgesehen davon, dass die tumben Riesen Bakom und Uvek mit ihren Hohlköpfen den Verstaatlichungsunsinn langsam aber sicher in Kölliken neben der Autobahn deponieren könnten, fragten wir uns, ob das SF eigentlich selber auch Gebühren bezahlt und Rechte einholt, bevor es den Soundtrack von «Gladiator» einfach so benutzt. Uns mit Billag-Werbung zu drohen, Gebühren für «Happy Day» und «G+G» zwangsmässig einzuziehen, ist das eine. Das andere, Urheber von verwendeter Musik auch zu entschädigen. Wir können uns, aller Einbildungskraft zum Trotz, nicht vorstellen, dass Hans Zimmer je einen roten Rappen für den gestrigen Beitrag erhält. Hans Zimmer? Hans Zimmer, Komponist: «Black Hawk Down». «Gladiator». «Madagascar». «Pirates of the Carribean». «Aramageddon». Bei Fragen, kann sich Urs Leuter hier melden: hans.zimmer@hollywood.com.

P.S.Worin besteht der Unterschied zwischen der Produktion des Schweizer Fernsehens mit Rainer H.M. von gestern abend und der zweiten und dritten Senderkette der SRG (TSR und TSI)? Beim zweiten und dritten braucht es keine Fremdsprachenkenntnisse. (L.T.)

This is an interview I recently did for Swiss TSR TV. It’s odd, but you invest an entire day for minutes of final footage. It’s a report about people who sell their bodies. Not even sure if it’s Pro or Con WimTim, my french is terrible. The production team for the program was very nice and easygoing, but once you’ve seen yourself enough on TV, you begin to feel like a caricature of yourself. So, that’s it for now… And I’d like to thank Matt Powers and everyone at the Rue de Framboise in Zürich’s Niederdorf for letting me repeatedly use their quarters as a filming location. Merci. (french / german)

‘Bringing the pain’… Image courtesy of Stephanie Schleiffer.

In the early 90’s, I wanted to be an independent software developer. Heck, I wanted to be an indie in the 80’s, too. I just didn’t ever seem to be able to harmonize software I’d written with any kind of a need in the marketplace.

At this time, I was still in the habit of frequenting electronic bulletin-board systems (BBS’s). Although I had picked up this hobby while the venerable Commodore 64 was my computer of choice back in 1984, I primarily frequented bulletin-board systems running on MS-DOS ( often supplemented with Quarterdeck’s DesqView to support multiple incoming calls. )

A few of the BBS’s I was particularly drawn to were running on a nice little system called the Spitfire BBS written in Turbo Pascal by fellow Iowan Mike Woltz under the company name Buffalo Creek Software. Mike was selling this software independently. The sysops loved it. The users loved it. I was very impressed that someone who probably lived just a couple hours away from me was actually selling his own software independently and was obviously picking up some sales in my neck of the woods.

In addition to the BBS software itself, Spitfire was able to host third-party plug-ins called “doors”. Doors were simply external programs that observed a predefined parameter file format which contained information about the current user and such. The door program could then take over the online experience as an extension to the BBS itself.

One of the non-game-oriented doors available for Spitfire was a message-board add-on called CircuitNet. This was a networking plug-in that provided a series of nationwide, special-interest, moderated forums not unlike FidoNet.

Later, Woltz wrote his own add-on for Spitfire called SFNet which ultimately replaced SFNet on the BBS’s I used to frequent.

One of the SFNet nationwide forums was specifically for door program discussion. A number of doors were discussed. Game doors were quite popular. One door author would show up from time to time on the forum and would release some pretty good games as try-before-you-buy shareware. He made what I assume to be a small but nice enough amount of money at it, so I decided to try my hand at writing some software that I felt would be of interest to the Spitfire community.

My first attempt to write and sell my own software using the shareware marketing concept was a program called keymac. Keymac was an MS-DOS TSR ( terminate but stay-resident ) utility that I wrote in assembly language. It ran in the background, intercepting all keystrokes that were gathered via the standard BIOS and DOS API routines and would check for keys that had been defined in a macro file.

The macro file allowed one to cause a single key ( with CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT as modifiers ) to generate multiple virtual keystrokes. One could configure the macro text file so that by pressing F8, the characters for a string such as “Hi, there, friend!” would appear to have been typed at the keyboard.

I wrote this utility because a sysop on one of the Spitfire forums was hoping for some kind of macro facility in the Sysop chat mode so that frequently asked questions and such could be answered with the touch of a single key.

I wrote and tested the program and decided to sell it for three dollars. I thought that I’d be able to sell a couple dozen copies of the software over one of these forums and that really would have been enough sales for me.

I released the utility with no nag-screen nor expiration time-outs nor any limiting features on one of the sysops’ BBS’s and gave them a free copy for hosting it. Then, I announced it on one of the forums.

Another sysop … the one who had wished out loud for a macro feature … tried keymac and thanked me for it … but no payment ever came my way. I was dumbfounded. I had written this utility in some very tricky, very tight code and had gone through some considerable testing to make sure that it worked properly. People were using it but I wasn’t getting rich. I wasn’t getting anything.

One day, I had gotten home from work and was opening my mail when I noticed a personal letter from someone in a distant city that I didn’t know. Sure enough, a check for three dollars and a letter thanking me for the utility were in the envelope.

I ended up calling the guy to thank him and asked him how he used the software. He was just ecstatic about the program. He was a sysop, but he used the software on other computers for his own BBS’ing as a client. He said that he’d found many uses for it outside the realm of telecommunications altogether.

I was very happy. The money wasn’t really the issue. By sending a check, the gentleman had sent me an affirmation that I had written something that he found useful enough to pay me for it. That really made my day.

Inspired by my first sale, I ventured out to write another program for the same community. This time, I decided to write a door program as I thought that by targeting something that the BBS users would want instead of the sysops, I might make more sales.

My door was actually a door utility that ran as part of Spitfire’s scheduled maintenance activities. ( I can’t remember exactly how this worked, but I believe there were batch files that ran nightly that could be customized by the sysops ).

I wrote a little utility that would read the users scores from another door game and would post a message to a specified forum containing the high-score list or something like that. Again, I gave a copy to the sysop for the BBS I visited most often and made an announcement on one of the forums.

This time, I actually think I sold two copies of this utility, again at three dollars each. I was quite happy with that. I didn’t take long to write, except for some work with the sysop to ensure that I was posting the message according to the published data-structures. It took me a bit longer that it might have others because I was writing this utility in C and had to deal with data types specific to Turbo Pascal such as counted-strings/packed-arrays-of-characters; strings with a length byte at the beginning instead of a C-style zero-byte terminator.

I was just happy enough that a couple more people registered in a rather timely manner. However, one of the two had a problem with the program. I ended up spending enough time on a long-distance call to correct the program, that my gross sales for the two copies were eaten.

At that point, I ran out of enthusiasm for publishing much more in this particular genre of software. Soon enough, the Internet became readily available to the public and the BBS’s started to disappear.

From these early experiences, I had found that I needed to strongly consider how to price my products in future attempts at marketing software and also needed to ensure that I had some way to keep my support costs down.

Something that wasn’t quite obvious to me yet was that I was going to have to find a way to ensure that people who had planned to pay but were procrastinating could be nudged into paying in a timely manner.

My next steps into becoming an indie software developer were much more fruitful. I’ll tell you more about those in this Tale Recursion section of my blog soon.

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Unless otherwise noted, all code and text entries are Copyright © 2009 by James K. Lawless

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Saudações goblinóides, pessoal.

Enquanto o Arnaldo tenta resolver uns problemas elétricos na casa, (vai demorar até ele descobrir que inverti a bipolaridade eletrostática do meu difusor de partículas quartziáticas) eu resolvi trazer aqui as últimas novidades RPGísticas que acabei de receber: hoje foi lançado o segundo livro básico do Pathfinder RPG, the Bestiary.

Antes de falar sobre o Pathfinder, vamos falar um pouquinho sobre o D&D e o recente D&D 4ª Edição. O Dungeons & Dragons (abreviado como D&D ou DnD) foi publicado primeiramente nos EUA em 1974, pela TSR, empresa fundada por Gary Gygax (falecido no ano passado), que criou o jogo ao lado de seu amigo, Dave Arneson (falecido em Abril deste ano). 3 anos depois do lançamento, o D&D foi dividido em 2 vertentes, uma mais simples que continuaria a ser chamada de D&D, e outra mais complexa com sistemas de regras mais robustos e completos que foi nomeada de AD&D (Advaced Dugeons & Dragons), e que teve sua 2ª edição lançada em 1989. Assim continuou até que, em 1997, a TSR foi comprada pela Wizards of the Coast (empresa criadora do jogo de cartas Magic: The Gathering, lançado em 1993). A Wizards por sua vez, em 1999, foi comprada pela gigante dos brinquedos Hasbro (criadora de jogos como Banco Imobiliário, e detentora de marcas como Pokemon e Transformers).

Em 2000, a versão mais simples de D&D foi descontinuada e o AD&D retornou ao seu nome de origem com o lançamento do D&D 3ª edição (ou D&D 3.0). Junto com esta edição, a WotC trouxe a OGL (Open Game License), permitindo que quaisquer outras editoras pudessem criar suplementos compatíveis com o jogo (claro que tem suas regras e restrições, mas não vou me entreter nisso). 3 anos depois, novas modificações vieram para o jogo com a chamada D&D versão 3.5 (ainda sob OGL), e, em 2006, o sistema era destacado como o mais conhecido e mais vendido RPG do mundo, com uma estimativa de 20 milhões de jogadores e mais de US$1bi na venda de livros e equipamentos relacionados.

Em Junho de 2008 foi lançada a 4ª edição de D&D, aguardada com bastante expectativa pelos fãs. Para a surpresa de praticamente todos, a nova versão não seria mais licenciada pela OGL, trazendo uma nova licença, muito mais restritiva (a D&D GSL – Game System License). Além disso o número de mudanças de regras no sistema foi enorme, fazendo com que jogadores veteranos tivessem que “desaprender” quase tudo do sistema antigo. Eu, particularmente gostei de muitas das melhorias, mas odiei outras, que fizeram com que cada jogador precise consultar o livro pra cada ação que ele vai tomar (a não ser que decore ou copie em umas folhas de papel). No geral, muitos jogadores de D&D se decepcionaram com a nova versão, e veem a nova licença como uma barreira para que a versão alcance o sucesso da versão anterior.

Mas enfim, onde é que entra o Pathfinder RPG? Entra exatamente nessa grande mudança do D&D 3.5 para D&D 4E. A editora Paizo, produtora de vários suplementos e material do D&D3.x, resolve transformar o seu cenário (Pathfinder) e transformá-lo em novos livros de regras, a partir do sistema do D&D3.5, fazendo as modificações que os jogadores queriam, criando o Pathfinder RPG. Para isso, todas as mudanças foram discutidas e testadas via fórum específico com diversos jogadores, e versões Beta foram disponibilizadas gratuitamente via download para que as mudanças fossem testadas pelos jogadores ao redor do mundo. E, em agosto desse ano foi lançada a versão final do Core Rulebook (algo como Livro de Regras Central) do Pathfinder RPG (e sob OGL). Também já foram lançados escudo do mestre, guia de transição do D&D3.5 para o Pathfinder RPG, além do (belíssimo) pôster abaixo.

Pôster Pathfinder RPG - 3.5 sobrevive 3.5 evolui

A grande novidade é que exatamente hoje, foi lançado o segundo livro do Pathfinder RPG, the Bestiary (o Bestiário), trazendo todas as informações monstros, animais e os diversos seres que povoam as aventuras dos jogadores. Novamente foram disponibilizados gratuitamente para download betas e previews antes do lançamento da versão final, cuja capa está aí em baixo (vou te contar… os goblins já eram feios, mas agora tão realmente asquerosos… gostei).

Pathfinder RPG Bestiary - soltaram as feras

Eu, como bom estudioso e inteirado das coisas, já me deliciei com os betas e previews dos dois livros. Posso dizer que o sistema d20 chegou em sua melhor forma com o Pathfinder RPG. Infelizmente, não há previsão ainda para tradução e lançamento do Pathfinder RPG aqui no Brasil. Mas de acordo com a D&D GSL, parece que a Devir estaria impedida de lançar outros materiais de regras do sistema D20 (já que ela já lançou a versão brasileira dos três livros de D&D4E). Uma das esperanças é o pessoal da Jambô, mas não há nada confirmado até o momento, e a produção dos novos livros básicos de Tormenta podem inviabilizar a vinda do Pathfinder. Abaixo um vídeo mostrando o Core Rulebook para vocês babarem na tela.

Como eu sou um goblinóide poliglota (único, talvez) não tenho problema nenhum com o anão arcaico inglês. Para quem também não liga muito para diferenças linguísticas, acesse o site da Paizo e confira as novidades. Para as novidades do sistema d20 em português, recomendo o blog dot20.

Beijo do goblin. (agora com conta própria no WordPress se não perceberam… só falta achar uma câmera que não queime para tirar uma foto minha)

PS.: o terceiro livro de regras de Pathfinder RPG, the GameMastery Guide (o Guia de Maestria de Jogo), deve ser lançado em fevereiro de 2010.

 Textures: Almighty Hat @ GOS
Mesh: Mirake single book (included).
Notes: Firstly, I would suggest downloading this book by Azaya @ GOS. It’s a smaller, slaved (meaning it will take all textures from Mirake’s original) version of Mirake’s book – you can see their sizes compared in the header/photo with the chest. Very handy. Almighty Hat @ GOS was super kind (& awesome & amazing) and offered the PSDs that she used to create her Maxis default replacment books (go download! Now!) so I transfered them to some deco books. I intend to do it to a few more different books at a later date as well.

I love books bound like this. I recently brought a few at a local book fair just because they looked purdy. I will read them eventually I hope xD

Download here.

I always miss my Core Skill Team in Sykes but I missed them more when a major flashback hit me just this morning.

I remember trying really hard to familiarize the troubleshooting steps for AT&T in preparation for my mock call. Thank goodness Mackoy gave me situation #1 where I’ll only need to instruct the end user to power cycle the modem and pc. We were only 3 who got the highest grade of 92%.

During the evaluation after the mock call, Mackoy congratulated me for the job well done. I was overwhelmed considering that I used to be a Telephone Banker-slash-Customer Support Representative. Sykes made me a certified Technical Support Representative and for that, thank you.

I miss my wavemates. I miss Popcorn Wave87-B.

Si vous avez raté Scènes de ménage mercredi passé sur la TSR, pas de panique! Le sujet sur l’open space est accessible en ligne, et vous trouverez le petit reportage qui nous est consacré tout à la fin, vers 15 minutes 45.

Enjoy!

I first started playing Dungeons & Dragons when I was 15. My mother got me started with the D&D Basic Set and I soon progressed to Advanced D&D.

While I thought the D&D system was rather awful when compared to the elegant and realistic system of games like Runequest and Call of Cthulhu, AD&D had two main selling points. First, it was so simple that even a high school stoner could roll up a character in the same time it would take them to roll a joint. Second, it had a level system that people loved. The idea of getting more an more powerful while playing has a tremendous appeal and the level progression system has become an essential aspect of almost all RPGs (computer and traditional).

I did try the 2nd Edition of D&D, but did not like it very much. To be rather vague, it did not have that “D&D feel.” I did try to run a game or two, but the magic was just not there.

When D&D 3.0 came out, I ended up giving it a shot. While it was a different sort of game (that is, it had fairly coherent and rather playable rules) from AD&D, it had the D&D feel. When 3.5 came out, I upgraded to that. When I heard that 4.0 was coming out, I looked forward to it. However, when I read the books and heard stories of people playing, I decided that it was not really D&D. I’m not going to go into the details, but the gist was that D&D 4.0 seemed more like a video game made into a traditional RPG. Crudely put, it was a bit like trying to play WoW as a tabletop RPG. While some folks like that, 4.0 lacks that D&D feel that is important to me. Some folks love the system, and I have no more to say against them than I have to say against folks who like Windows Vista.

I had looked at the Pathfinder beta (put out by Paizo) when it first came out, and had mixed feelings about it. However, when I actually played a campaign based on the rules, I realized that I rather liked it. The folks at Paizo took the 3.5 rules and revised them to address various weak points in the game. For example, they retooled the grapple rules from a mess to a workable system. They also revised the core classes in a way that gave players reasons to stick with one class from level one to level twenty. Best of all, they kept the D&D feel alive.

Of course, Pathfinder is not legally D&D, but rather a D20 system released in accord with the Open Gaming License. D&D was first owned by TSR, then it was bought up and it now belongs to Wizards of the Coast. WoC is, of course, owned by Hasbro.

This, as I see it, shows once more the downside of corporate ownership of such iconic entities. Since D&D is owned by a company, they can do pretty much anything they please with it and it will still legally be the D&D game. Of course, the fact that a company owns D&D does not entail that they own the “essence” of what it is to be D&D or that they are even fit to keep that essential nature going. The same sort of thing happens with movies. For example, Alien and Predator started off as cool and awesome movies. But, the corporate masters degraded the franchises into horrific parodies of their original awesomeness.

Naturally, I am not claiming that 4th Edition D&D is a horrible degradation on par with the Aliens vs. Predator movie. However, I am saying that it is unfortunate that the 4th edition D&D is the legally official D&D simply because the company making it legally owns D&D.

While Pathfinder is not legally D&D, to me it is D&D. It is, as I see it, the true spiritual successor to the Basic Edition I played all those years ago. So, I still play D&D, only the book sitting on the table in front of me says “Pathfinder.”