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They appear right down there, lookit that.

I need new undapants.

In this new year I’ve decided to stop shopping at big box stores, like Bullseye and Walstore, as much as I can avoid it.  Their prices are cheap, their products are cheaper, and it makes me feel like a hypocritical shit when I buy stuff there, because I know that I’m only doing it because I’m lazy.

I need new undapants.  But I don’t want to be lazy.

Another criteria, I decided, was fair wages to the workers, or at least something approaching fair wages.  I also would prefer union labor because in my past life as a history student, I learned how much good they’ve done for both men and women (before the email deluge: there are a lot of oligarchic unions out there, but that doesn’t invalidate them all).  Also, Rosie the Riveter?  Hawt.  I’m talking about the Norman Rockwell version, where she’s eatin’ her sandwich and is all like “fuk u Nazis.”  Oh man.  She can totally rivet my undapants anytime.

I need new undapants.  But Rosie the Riveter has to be involved.

Checking online first for “american made clothes,” I clicked through store after store that only carry clothing that Sarah Palin would’ve worn before the GOP got their hands on her wardrobe.  And the undapants, woof.  Tightie-whities, several pairs of which were off-white and looked like someone had already run twelve marathons while wearing them.  I didn’t see any lined with Confederate flags, but then again, that may be a special available only to returning customers.  “Enter the code ‘MYTHOFNOBILITY’ at checkout to swaddle your freedom-bags in the Stars ‘n Bars!”

I need new undapants.  But my wife has to watch me stumble around in them when I wake up, like a sleepy leviathan emerging from the deep.  Tightie-whities that reach up and touch my nips make her gag and shatter mirrors.

Same thing with most clothing that’s stereotyped as “socially conscious.”  I do steam punk, jeans and shirts with buttons that make me look like a toolbox, not ponchos and raggedy cargo pants.

A search for “fair trade clothing” got me on the right track with plenty of links to start with.  I’m not going to include a bazillion links but I did want to call out No Sweat Apparel because they have Rosie the Riveter on the front page.  Bonus!

The RSS feed should be fixed – the RSS validators report that everything is peachy keen.

Also look for a few new changes to the Greg X. Graves home page soon.  Fancy changes.

This is a test to make sure that the RSS feed is showing the pretty URLs, not the querystring ones.

Most of you know that I run a Dungeons and Dragons game a few times a month. I ordered myself the 4th Edition core rulebooks as an after-Christmas present and now we’re starting a new 4th Edition campaign for the new year (sans Mardok the Corpse-Tripper. We love you!).

The catapult also functions as a Skittles delivery vector!

There’s plenty of opinion about 4th Edition and I’m not going to run a fanboy flag up the internet pole regarding the OBVIOUS SUPERIORITY of one or another, but I’m especially fascinated by the new alignement system.  I like it.  I really do.

But I’m not going to use it in the upcoming campaign. Alignments are banished!

When I played a character in 3.5 I spent a lot of time thinking about how my sorceror would react based on his alignment (chaotic good) rather than roleplaying a decision and figuring out how it aligned later.  It made the ethical decisions seem shallow instead of deep character traits.  Alignment hindered my roleplaying experience because I was using what I now understand to be a description of past deeds to prescribe future deeds.  Starting as out as a new adventurer, I only had my backstory behind me and that did not have the same challenges that an adventurer would face.  That time that you saved a cat from a tree is not dissimilar from delving into a red dragon’s lair to save a prince, but the varying degrees involved displays exactly how committed you are to helping the prince (or saving the prince so that he can give you booty).

Predicting a character’s alignment from the first game would be like me saying that I’m going to be remembered for my bucolic, florid prose.  A PC can angle towards a certain alignment but they’re not prescient.  Whether or not she is really unaligned or actually chaotic evil depends on the context of her deeds.  For instance, McClane from Die Hard, where does he fit?  Nowhere on this chart!  He’s Chaotically (and I would argue, Chronically) Badass.

(Of course, the vast array of ethical issues that alignment raises are staggering and would make for a fascinating game of Dungeons and Dragons.)

Moreover, characters change during the course of an adventure.  That’s roleplaying.

As a Dungeon Master, I’ll keep rough track of my players’ alignments if there’s ever a game mechanic that needs alignment values to resolve.  But I think that it’s more important to the fun of the game that the players feel unhindered in roleplaying a character.  The less they’re shackled to a muddled system of ethics, the freer they’ll be to explore their characters.

Urgoth the Defiler is now available in the short story section of the site!