Christmas Day

We will be having our annual Christmas Day open house from 10am to 8pm. Drop in anytime. Eat. Visit. Play Games. Build Legos. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas!

Winter Guild Party 2014

Our next quarterly party for the Guild is on Saturday, December 20. Party starts at 1pm for fun and games. Potluck dinner at 5:30pm. Announcements at 7pm.

Non-Guild members may attend IF they join that day.

Please have all fulfilled quests for the Fall quarter reported in by Friday, December 19. I will not wait for quests on the 20th.

Shiny!

Distractions!  Look at that!  But this is so shiny!  And that is new...and improved!  We are often suckered into giving our time energy and money into distractions.  They can prevent us from living our lives and doing what we really want by taking what we have and spending it on something right now because it's shiny. This is the time of year when we start writing wish lists and trying to grant others their wishes.  However, in our desires, we will often put on the list things that are just simply newer or shinier than what we already have.  We also have a tendency of putting time wasters on our list.  Don't get me wrong, I love getting and playing games and certainly enjoy getting movies to watch, but we (myself included) need to be aware of how our time is spent.  Is it spent only on ourselves?  Maybe only on our pleasures?  Remember that the reason for many of the quests in this guild exist to better ourselves and further our options in life.  Maybe you want to improve at drawing/writing/singing/insert activity.  It takes time and practice and that, my friends, is the reason for the quest.  Don't let shiny things distract you from--Hey look at that!  Huh?

Kindness helps

On my way home from work yesterday, the mother of a boy I work with saw me walking and offered a ride.  I graciously declined, but it was nice to see people being nice, especially after my week.  This past week was a trial by fire with daylight saving Time and a menagerie of difficult tasks.  Feeling burnt-out, I was desperate for the time I could walk home.  The walk itself is not hard, but I trudge at the speed my day allows.  Yesterday turned a 30 minute walk into 45 without much effort.  As I trudged, she pulls up in the center lane, obviously having turned around to catch me, and asks if I would like a ride.  The thought is what counted for me and she brought a smile to my face and gave me hope in a dreary world.  Now I am not saying that as you drive by to offer everyone you pass a ride, but little acts of kindness can go a long way to brighten someone's day.
-The Mighty Q

Villains!

Does your story need a good villain?  Villains can be a little tricky sometimes due to the fact that you are a good person.  So here are some basic ideas that I have found helpful in my own story writing and role playing.

1. Villains are purposeful.  A villain needs a purpose to act.  Does he want something?  Maybe he loves someone.  Maybe he want to rule the world.  Maybe he is bored and wants chaos for a while.  Give the villain a purpose and let that run his decisions.

2. Villains are proactive.  Villains act while heroes tent to react instead.  Villains make their own story.  If they want something, they work at taking it.  They set their plans in motion instead of waiting for things to come to them.  This also means that they will do what they can to have backup plans and remove obstacles, including people. This is often how the hero gets involved.

3. Villains (unintentionally) give heroes a chance to prove themselves and thwart them.  Many villains have elaborate schemes that are needlessly complicated, like having a devise to control all the sheep in the world with a beam that can only be activated under the light of the harvest moon.  They might also have a large dungeon filled with monsters and minions to help the hero understand how to fight the villain in his final chamber.  They monologue, telling backstory and how to defeat them (unintentionally again, of course).

4. And last, villains are bad people.  They may have started with good intentions, but used evil means to reach their end or they might be doing good causes for bad reasons, but in the end, they are on the wrong side.  This is usually due to selfishness but any vice works.  In writing a villain, it is important to remember that the value of the hero is based on the villain.  This means the hero has the opposing virtue.  If the villain is bad enough, the hero can show his own quality as a contrast rather than a comparative.

I hope that this has helped give some definition to how villains function.  Good Luck in your writing!
-The Mighty Q

2014 Fall Guild Party

The Fall Guild Party this month is Saturday, September 27. Party starts at 1pm with games and such. Announcements will be at 4:30 with potluck dinner at 5pm.

Women's conference will begin at 6pm. All female guild members are welcome to stay and watch upstairs. Male members are also welcome to stay, but will be banished to the basement to play games or with toys or whatever.

See previous post about deadline for reporting Summer quests.

Report In!

Reporting Quests is your responsibility. If you don't care about Ranks and Titles, then reporting in is not a big deal. However, if you like earning ranks and titles, you will need to report your completed quests. The more often you report in, the easier it is for you to remember what you have done.

Sorting through everyone's quests and determining Ranks and Titles earned is a FAT LOT of WORK. It takes me HOURS. The next guild party is September 27. The last day of Summer is September 22. ALL quests need to be reported by September 22. I will NOT take quests reported after that day. On September 23, I will record quests and wipe the spreadsheet for the fall quarter.

Summer Guild Party

The Summer Guild Party is scheduled for Saturday, June 21, 4pm - 8pm. Dinner will be potluck at 5:30 and announcements will be at 7.

Please report all quests before that day. I will be recovering from surgery and will not be happy to record your completed quests at the party.

Living the Dream

What have you always wanted to do?  Why haven't you tried to do it yet?  Many times we have dreams that we put aside because it is inconvenient or we are not good enough at it or we don't have the time or money; But what are we putting aside?  These aren't just ideas we are leaving behind, but hopes and aspirations.  Who are we if we don't hope for something better?  Who are we if we don't strive to be better?  So get out there and fulfill a few dreams.  Bring family into it.  Get help from those in the know.  Be all that you can be (go army).  Enjoy life in anyway you can.  I am putting a short list of things that I wish to do or learn and the status of completion.  Feel free to add to it, sometimes all you need is a buddy.

Parkour- started, but inconsistant
Japanese- 1 year at college, need a practice buddy to continue
ASL- ditto the Japanese
riding a unicycle- need a unicycle
computer programming- not started
forging- need equipment and practice
build a greenhouse- need a good location
plant a sanctuary- need to move fencing and plants
draw- practice

I will stop there as the list could probably go on forever.  Make your own list and see what you can do.

-The Mighty Q

WHY DO YOU WRITE?

Why do you write?

Do you wish to share information?

Do you want to share someone's life?

Did you read something, and was left unsatisfied, so you have to tell it your own way?

Did you read book, and decided there needed to be a sequel?

For the fun of it?

Do you find joy in storytelling?

Because you can?

Inspiration from another's writing?

Escape?

Agenda?

Meditation?

To entertain those around you?

To make people laugh, cry, think, etc?

There are many reasons for writing. Choose carefully. There are reasons that will kill your story if you are not careful. Beware of agenda. Beware of rewriting other people's stories. These are very difficult to do successfully.

Tolkien wrote for the fun of it. Dickens wrote to get paid. Rowling wrote for her children. Austen wrote to provide decent literature.

Why do you write?

Welcome Back Sun!

Well, I have been seeing something that I have been missing for a long time: the sun.  During the week, my work schedule mostly prevents me from being out when it is, but of late I have been seeing it as I walk home and even hints of it in the morning.  With the time change, I will see it more in the afternoon, but lose the morning for a while yet, but it tells me that winter is passing and summer approaches.

Let me share a few interesting things about the sun.  First, it is so far away that light (traveling at the speed of light) needs 8 minutes to get here.  Just like the earth, the sun has weather patterns that can be monitored and tracked.  Obviously it isn't rain or snow, but it does have seasons of storms called solar flares.  These can shower the earth in harmful radiation that is stopped by the magnetic field and creates the Aurora Borealis.  The sun is a fusion bomb, turning hydrogen into helium and then into lithium and so forth.  The sun is a relatively young star and only considered to be a medium size, despite being able to hold billions of earths inside.  The sun emits radio waves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-ray and gamma radiation.  The radiation that we get from the sun can give us cancer but if we don't have it, we can't make Vitamin D, a necessary ingredient to hold back depression.  The sun shines night and day (we just can't see it).

As such, Christ is the sun...or son?  Well, He's both.  He gives us light.  He is the creator of all.  He has patterns that we monitor through the scriptures that tell us what we need to turn potentially harmful things into beautiful Auroras.  And even if we can't see Him, He is still shining light in the darkest of times.

I hope this has been enLIGHTening.  Enjoy the sun!
-The Mighty Q

SPRING GUILD PARTY 2014

Spring Guild Party is Saturday, March 22. Party starts at 3pm, announcements will be at 7pm. Dinner will be potluck at 5:30pm.

Spring Equinox is Thursday, March 20. Make sure all quests for winter quarter are reported by March 19. Feel free to use the spreadsheet in Google Drive I sent you, or you can call, email or text the GuildMasters.

Dreaming

Can you remember your dreams?  Dreams are an amazing part of life.  You can act out situations that are unreal, be someone else, gain insight or just be confused.  The mind does interesting things when allowed to run rampant, but how often do we remember or learn from it?  A good number of years ago (back when I was still single) I had two dreams in the same night that told me to first to cut my hair (I had a ponytail) and second that the girl I was dating was not to be my wife.  Over the next couple of weeks, I made good on those two things and am now more happily married than I would have been and closer to God than before.

Great, so some dreams are meaningful; so what about the other nonsense?  Write them down.  They are good story fodder as they came form your mind, but if you don't remember them later, you can't use them.  I came to a realization this morning after finishing a rather interesting dream about a story I am currently working on.  I now have greater ideas and potential for the characters as the world  around them is understood more by myself and the characters.

What sorts of dreams are you having and are you writing them down?
The Mighty Q

SLAY A DRAGON

Slaying a Dragon is an Epic Level Quest. It is not the Ultimate Epic. Slay a Dragon can mean many things. It can mean Slay a Dragon in a Game or Story, but mostly, it is something that is particularly difficult for you personally. There are many Epic Quests that are officially listed with the Guild. The difference with the Dragon is, it's tailored to the individual. For example: I Slew a Dragon when I finally got my Driver's License at the age of 32. This would not be a Dragon for an 18 year old.

Leading Roles

ME (the other guild master) and I were discussing an interesting idea, main characters.  We were trying to understand why some main characters are so wonderful while others fall flat.  Here are a few of our conclusions.

Is the character too mundane?  Reading a book or watching a movie is only as entertaining as the main character.  If the main is blah, the story could be just as blah and who wants to read that?  Now everybody has a story to tell, but is it just history?  The character has to be significant in some way or the story has no reference point or reason.  Blah characters tend to do things in a blah way.  Example: let's say you are playing a video game and you never move the character forward with the story.  Was that a fun game?  Can you become engaged in a story that the character doesn't want to engage in?  Mundane characters don't want adventure, romance, action, thrill or anything else a story offers and if they are thrown into it, they try to get out or are removed from the story.  The point: dull characters make dull stories.

But here's the next one: is the character too special?  Harry Potter was special.  He was a wizard first and a history breaking one at that.  But on the whole, he was still just a dumb, lost kid trying to survive school.  He still had some qualities that made him normal.  He was a mundane character with special power and a drive to follow a trail.  But would the story have been as interesting if he had been able to survive year one and go on the hunt, destroying Voldemort before the diary incident?  Would it have been as much fun if he were as smart as Hermione AND as powerful as Ginny to go with his guts?  Super characters can be fun, but they are hard to relate to and can't show the growth needed to engage the reader.  Oh sure, the story was fun, but it was unreal.  The point: Super powered characters distance the audience for the story.

Main characters have to be likable.  It doesn't matter how despicable a character might be, there has to be a likable quality present or the character is a flop.  For instance, Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean is a goofy character who is absolutely horrible.  I can't stand him.  Jar Jar Binks.  Same thing, but luckily, Jar Jar isn't the main character, but how many people like that movie?  Frodo Baggins (either the book or the movies) is a character that you just want to throttle.  Thankfully Samwise is there to balance him out (mundane in a special way).  On the other hand, Po of Kung Fu Panda is a character that could easily be annoying, but isn't.  Now I will say that not everyone has the same taste in characters, but consider for a moment that idea of why you like some and dislike others.  Does it matter how good a story is if you don't like the main character?  The point: if the audience doesn't like the character, they won't like the story.

The long and the short of it, main characters can make or break a story.  Know your character and the story will be that much better.

Happy storying
The Mighty Q

Where are you going?

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where –" said Alice."Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.
"– so long as I get somewhere," Alice added as an explanation.
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."

So where are you going?  Or doesn't it matter?  Are you going through life on auto-pilot, hoping your day will come?  Or are you working towards something?  Heavy questions.  We have made it into February and I am still completing my goal of better health.  I stretch every day and walk everywhere possible: work, church, the kitchen- you know, everywhere.  I can't say that my health has improved spectacularly, but I have a plan that will soon be implemented.  Why am I telling you?  Because you are special and to give you hope.  Nothing was ever completed without a little work and sacrifice.  No, not virgin sacrifice, well, maybe on occasion.  If you don't believe it can happen, it won't.  If you don't know where you are going, you'll never get there.  If you don't care to change, you will stay the same forever and that goes against the eternal plan of happiness.

Goals are our way of improving upon ourselves for eternal happiness.  You find out who you are, become who you want to be, and  do something you can be proud of.  Don't sit back and wait for life to hand you opportunities because most of opportunity is being in the right place, at the right time and ready to seize it as it appears.  But if you are never prepared for it, how can you know it?  If you never change to BE in the right place, how will you know it is time?  Act.  Don't react.  Make choices and follow through with them.

The Mighty Q

Antiquated Pleasure

My place of employment has decided to encourage reading by having all employees use a sign to display what they are currently reading.  The idea behind this is that if all can see what is being read, it will encourage others to do more reading and spark conversation about good literature rather than the mundane.  Reading is not the focus of what I do, but I am supporting the idea because I believe that reading is a dying art that helps hold up the efforts of society.  What is our language, but words to convey ideas?  Can you convey all the ideas of your soul with only a handful of words?  So I posted the book I was reading.

But I guess something more needs to be said about reading as a whole.  Books are a wonderful things as they are able to take us to unknown places, explore topics never before understood, have the thrill of adventure (without the danger) and expand horizons beyond our own life experiences.  They provide a way of relaxing without diminishing ourselves.  They increase our vocabulary and help improve our ability to write and speak.  And if that wasn't enough, most of them are pocket-sized or otherwise easy to carry.  Technology has furthered this by giving us entire libraries on one device.

Reading is a pastime that is fading away because we don't have the time, energy or attention.  Yet it is one of the most valuable things we can do in our down time.  I am not voting against movies, TV, video games or other activities, but we ought to try to get more reading time in to supplement these things (that and it is a perfect Sunday activity).

So pick up a book and read!  It can be anything and you will be better for it.  I know I will.

REPORTING IN

Remember to report your quests to the Guild, so you can earn Titles and Ranks. It was before mentioned that quests completed outside the guild house will not be rewarded by the Guild Masters. However, there are certain (not all) Epic Quests that are the exception to that rule. Epic Quests are the only quests with negotiable rewards, which will be discussed upon reporting in.


Note on Eliminate a Debt (Epic Quest): Credit Cards are tricky. If this is the debt you eliminate, you need to continue with it for 3 months. You can still use the credit card, but it must be paid off each month before interest accrues.

The Spirit of RPG

I recently ran into a girl who was part of a short campaign that I was running to help new players get oriented in the ideas of role playing games (henceforth RPG).  This girl had the spirit of RPG as did her new comrades in arms.  Only she had a previous experience, but it was limited.  So allow me to elaborate on a few dos and don'ts of RPG.

Do: have a backstory.  Know who your character is and what motivates them to do things.  A Game Master or Dungeon Master can only throw so many plot hooks before they will give up.   This will give depth to a character that would otherwise be: "I rolled a 24 with my sword and did 12 damage, now where's my loot?"

Don't: tell your backstory to every warm (or even luke-warm) body in the world.  We appreciate your character, but we would rather see how their past affects the future than have it told.  This does not explicitly count the DM/GM, but at least keep it within reason for them.  They need to include your character in the history of the world, but don't need you to tell the whole story.

Do: play nice with others.  This is a team sport...sort of.  You need to work as a team to defeat the enemy.  Use your strengths to HELP the cause.  Remember, this is their story too.

Don't: play someone else's character for them.  Who knows the character better than the one who created them?  No one likes to have their character stolen.  Telling someone HOW to play their character or what to do is equally frustrating.  Let them decide what their character does no matter the consequences.  If you want to tell all the characters what to do, write your own novel instead.

Do: let the story tell itself.  The world is bigger than just you or your team.  Many things happen as reaction to your actions, but many things just simply happen.  Let the GM/DM tell that story as much as you participate in it.  Many times, if you force a GM/DM to do something for your character, their will be unintended consequences that may result in a worse situation.

Don't: be a kill-happy jerk.  If you walk into a town and start slaughtering citizens, the world screeches to a halt and fights you.  If you stab your teammates in the back without good plot development, you end the campaign (or at least your character is now a corpse, possibly on fire).  Know the targets, act rationally or your character will have a very short run as either GM/DM or party members target you instead.

In short, have fun!  The more secrets you reveal, the harder it is to do the unexpected.  The more unpredictable you are, the more likely your campaign will go on without you.  Play nice with others or you will play by yourself.  Open your mind and imagination and the universe is open to you!

End of Year and New Beginnings

Out with the old and in with the new.  Ringing in the New Year always brings such feelings of change and desires for the better.  But are you one of those people who starts a New Year's Resolution only to have forgotten by February what it was?  I hope you are and here is why: you strive to be better.  Is January first the only day we can start fresh?  Now we are getting to the meat of this idea.  What are you doing to improve yourself?  It doesn't have to be big.  "By small and simple things are great things come to pass."  Maybe it's big to you but insignificant to someone else.  Are you taking the steps to become better?  Perhaps you are improving your health, or maybe trying to learn more.  Maybe you want to be more social or know when to stay quiet.  Maybe you want to grow closer to God.  What are you going to do today to accomplish your goal?  Whatever you do, be true to yourself, do what you love and be pleasing to God.  All else will fall into place.
P.S. I started this as a much longer blog about three weeks ago and failed to complete my goal...