The Floyd-Hole: Every Pink Floyd Album - Part 3

 MORE - REVIEW

The Floyd-Hole: Every Pink Floyd Album - Part 2

 A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS - REVIEW

The Floyd-Hole: Every Pink Floyd Album - Part 1

 Hello,

I am going to listen to every Pink Floyd album. I will write reviews about it. 

Of note:

I am not generally a Pink Floyd fan. I just don't listen to them enough to form a proper, informed opinion. I am hoping this experience will give me a new appreciation for Pink Floyd (it worked when I did this for the albums of David Bowie at the onset of the quarantine).

I will be reviewing each song on the album briefly, with a summary album review at the end.

I'm listening to all this on YouTube - it may exclude the odd "super rare live event recording" or what have you. For now, I'm just following along with the discography in Wikipedia.

From here on out, I'm abbreviating Pink Floyd as "PF".

Now, on to the show!

THE PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN - REVIEW

Puzzle Basics 101: Lesson 1 - Types of Puzzles

Odd-One-Out - there is something here that doesn't belong and must be identified/removed.

Missing Piece - there is something not here that must be added.

Assembly - something must be put together in a specific sequence and/or with specific parts.

Math - any puzzle that relies on finding a numerical solution to a mathematical formula.

Matching - things paired with other things based on some shared commonality.

Ordering - there are things, they need to by placed/activated/removed in the correct order/sequence/pattern.

Cypher - a message must be translated/understood by cracking a code.

Riddle - like a cypher, except the "code" is flowery language.

Logic - like a Riddle, except not based on language.

Movement - something/someone needs to be in a place at a time, possibly via a specific route.

Navigation - a correct path must be found/traveled.

Process Interruptus - something happening must be stopped from happening/completing.

Lock-And-Key - there is an obstacle that can be bypassed by using a specific item/action.

Social - there is someone you need to interact with in the correct way.

Choice - there is a right choice, and one or more wrong choices.

"Why did I even join this cult?" (d10)

 1 - It didn't start out as a cult, but sure got pretty cult-y, pretty quick

"I don't remember the Pledge of Allegiance having so many references to Draxmar the Undying One. When did that happen?"

2 - I'm susceptible to peer pressure

"That recruiter made some good points - I suppose if all my friends are doing it, then it's probably fine".

3 - Just kinda fell into it, I guess

"Well I was part of the Church of Oog initially, then I joined an offshoot of the Temple of Heavenly Pleasure, then I did a stint with some people who called themselves 'The Order of the Hidden Eye', and now I guess I'm here."

4 - Long family history of cult activities

"I remember when I was a kid, my dad had me sacrifice our gardener to the Dark Consuming Void, and it just bummed me out so much. Ah, the naivete of youth."

5 - This is a cult? You guys told me it was a book club!

"I was wondering why every week's choice ended up being The Necronomicon..."

6 - Seemed like a good way to spend my Tuesday nights

Yeah, there's too much chanting and I'm not keen on giving away my wife and all my material possessions, but I'll be damned if I'm ever going bowling with Brian Mathison again"

7 - The benefits package is amazing!

"Ok, yes... I'm on some government watch lists now - but these guys have a dental plan! And free childcare! Plus all the 'eternal bliss of paradise' stuff sounds pretty sweet, and these robes are super plush."

8 - These people are like a family to me 

"Specifically they're like my verbally-abusive father, my religiously fanatical aunt, and like the cousin that molested me when I was 10."

9 - Cult? What cult? There's no cult here

"No, we're not a cult - we're a multi-layered upstream lifestyle platform that leverages relationships and empowers you to be your own boss."

10 - I like these real human connections

"The therapist said it would be good for me to get back on my feet and mingle a bit after the divorce."

The Why: Pits

Pioneer Footsteps 
The classic 10' deep pit... I'm no historian, but I'd wager the pit was one of the very first dungeon traps. Gary probably used a million of them. They were so ubiquitous - every dungeon key in nearly every dungeon ever designed (both in the professional and the "bored in Math class" style) would have an entry for pits. Pits were expected, as much as in the days of blue grids and typewritten addendum as they are now.

There's something wholly nostalgic about encountering the first pit of the dungeon - the thief sizes up the jump, the cleric starts measuring rope, and the fighter ponders dropping things into the darkness. It's a scenario we may not all have experienced in exactly the same way, but it's something we all inherently understand.

By the same virtue, there's a similar connection one makes to the players of the past when their party comes upon a pit; a shared universal experience of the game. When you stand upon the edge of a pit, you stand in the footsteps of a thousand characters before you, going all the way back to the start of the hobby. Groups of friends, gathered together in game, all pondering "how should we approach this pit situation?".

How did Gary Gygax describe his first pit? What about Dave Arneson? How did Rob Kuntz get past his first one? Or Monte Cook, or Ed Greenwood, or Chris Perkins?  We may never truly know. They've all done it, most assuredly, and in doing so perhaps we all hold a small bit of the same feelings, frustrations, and ideas that touched their minds when they came upon their own pits. In that sense, we've all gone through the same sensation, we've all been there. We've all paused at the pit for a moment or two.

The Plausibility Factor
There's not much complexity to the common dungeon pit. It's design - literally a hole - is a concept even a brain-damaged goblin could grasp. It's a trap one could build with their own bare hands, had they the time for it.

Importantly, a pit can take many different simplistic forms; easily recognized for what they are, but not so out of place wherever they're found. A muddy sinkhole, an open manhole, an empty mine shaft, a patch of termite-eaten floorboards... just "re-skinned" pits. Yes, there is a touch of imaginative effort required to ensure a thematic match (or "the right pit for the right place"), but DMs will rarely find themselves needing to justify the existence of a pit trap - as a design concept, almost any kind of pit can reasonably be encountered in almost any kind of environment.

Even the most outlandish of pits in the most implausible of places can be spun into a pertinent fixture with a believable re-skin. A lava tube jutting up into the castle stables could be spun as a probe from the Magma Empire. A punji stick trap at the bottom of the sea might be skinned as a breeding bed of Firecone snails. Loose flagstone in the arctic snow might well become the thin-tiled rooftop of some ice-buried laboratory. And so on, and so forth.

Spectrum of Danger
A pit can be filled in, jumped over, or climbed out of. At it's base design, it's hardly an impediment at all, especially considering the pit is a benign trap (as opposed to a more pro-active trap, one which actively moves to harm, like a falling stone or poison dart gun). A basic pit trap can be made less and less dangerous with such simple changes as reducing its depth or making it visibly obvious.

However, as simple a concept as the pit trap may be, it can also paradoxically become one of the most difficult traps for players to overcome merely by incorporating a touch of creativity. Rain from above, jab from below, pivot the walls, entomb in the muck, spawn horrors, lock the cage, flood everything, crush everyone. The pit trap is eminently customizeable. DMs learn fast that a straight fall just doesn't excite players after the first few encounters, and as such, pits become a veritable breeding ground for sadistic trap ideas (as Grimtooth would certainly attest).

A Humble Map

While experimenting with some existing techniques, I made this:

Feel free to appropriate for your own personal use.

OS(atire)R - a Blog borne of boredom

 Here's a link to something I did a while back, for a lark. Check it -

Eons of the Illuminated Pepperoni

Those involved in the Old School Renaissance know what I'm talkin' about.

UESF DISCO - Rooms in the Foredeck

1d20 Random Exiles

 

Roll	Backstory/Reason for Exile
1	Would-be-Martyr: Their death would have dire political consequences
2	Denounced: Their particular sect in the church was undeservedly branded heretical
3	Legendary Mistake: Committed a small gaffe in the worst possible way
4	Offensive: They had upset the wrong people (for what is an obvious reason)
5	Error: A bureaucratic mistake has turned a slap on the wrist into exile
6	Secret Shame: Their very existence would prove scandalous if uncovered
7	Victim: A jealous and power-hungry official has unjustly banished them here
8	Disgraced: Now a nobody, but was once important enough to be exiled out of respect/fear.
9	Ironic Loser: Took a mighty fall from the top and now here out of a sense of poetic justice
10	Just Some Guy: Sent here as a punishment and doesn't really want to talk about it
11	The Wrong Guy: Insists innocence and that the truth will one day vindicate them
12	Plea Bargain: Criminal escaping the noose by using a legal loophole
13	Too Popular: They were spared the noose due to public outcry and exiled to save face
14	Well-Connected: Powerful friends are saving them from a well-deserved death penalty
15	Smart Guy: Knows something they shouldn't know and was made to disappear
16	Agent: Working for an outside interest to fulfill a mission, they are here only briefly
17	Linchpin: Their death would complicate part of a grand plan, so they wait here
18	Doesn't Know: Just woke up in exile one day with a bad case of amnesia
19	Weird: Too strange to live among society and yet too special to kill
20	Native: Was born and raised here

The Way of the Zen DM

 First Tenet: I know what I know

I know my rules; my rules are law, therefore I know all laws by virtue of my being ruler.

Confidence is manifestation of knowledge; Confidence in arbitration, manifestation of a knowledge of rules. So long as I know my rules, my confidence will be made manifest by reasonable rulings.

Second Tenet: I know what I do not know

When facing the unknown, I must become flexible as flowing water; able to fill any space and divert at any obstacle.

So long as the rules are consistent, my game can flow around it, moving even while anchored. So long as I know my rules and keep them consistent, my game can become flexible enough for the unknown.

Third Tenet: I know what others know

All that is truth springs into existence upon my creation; all that is truth by others is what I alone have chosen to give.

I create reality. So long as I choose to speak reality to others, then it becomes reality for others. So long as I know my own creations, then I know what others know.

Fourth Tenet: I know what others do not know

All that is unknown springs into existence upon my omission; all that is mystery to others is what I alone have chosen to deny.

I destroy reality. So long as I refrain from speaking reality to others, then it becomes the unknown. So long as I know what I have not yet created, then I know what others do not know.

Fifth Tenet: I know

I am the world; to know myself is to know the world. In knowing the world, I become the world to others.

In being the world I know, I become knowledge. So long as I am the knowledge of the world, all there is to know is within me; So long as all is within, I will never be without.