More XDM: Prestidigitation
Posted April 16th, 2009 by Howard TaylerMy thrill at working with Tracy Hickman has probably resulted in me understating his son Curtis’ contributions to XDM: X-treme Dungeon Mastery. Recently I’ve started drawing the technical illustrations for contact juggling (one of which was posted over at Tall Tales Radio) and for neat tricks like this one:
Yes, Curtis and I are going to teach you how to levitate dice.
There might just be superconducting magnets involved. And we’re going to teach you how to make everything you need.
What possible purpose can this serve in a game setting, you ask? Well, an Extreme Dungeon Master (an “XDM”) will also ask that question, and then will begin to snicker as the ideas unfold.
Yes, yes… I can hear your evil laughter from here. SHHH! You’re scaring your co-workers.
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April 16th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I should point out that I drew this from a photograph in which the superconductors with which the die is suspended were completely invisible. I couldn’t see where to portray them, so I didn’t.
Other pictures were taken in UV and high infrared, so the diagrams I draw will be a bit more useful.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:48 am
I’m so looking forward to this book. I may even force my players, who are going to GenCon Indy, to find your table to get me one in person.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:45 am
If they get it in person it will be signed by Tracy, Curtis, and me.
If there’s not too much of a line, my signature will actually be a picture.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:37 pm
I must say – I am new to ordering books. But I plan to order a copy of everything. Howard – you are the best web comic I have read in a long time.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I think I can understand the point of the levitating dice, but I’m not telling. I might have my own reasons for using the trick.
When I run a game I am not a D.M. I am a Game Operations Director, or G.O.D. It gets the point across better to some players.
BTW Howard love the hands in the drawing.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
Oh, shucky-darn. And here I was hoping you’d mastered one-handed juggling and were going to teach the secret.*
* You’ll have to comb the archives if you don’t get that reference.
April 17th, 2009 at 5:49 am
Okay, now I am worried that you can actually hear me laughing. Next you are going to tell me that you also know what my next grand scheme is as well.
April 17th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Muahahahahahahahahahahah.
Only 2 uses so far, but that’s because I like to test practical applications before developing more.
April 17th, 2009 at 9:43 am
Gee, the players already believe the dice love the GM.
What does it mean when they start defying gravity for him?
We’re doomed… :D
April 17th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Nice.
Makes me wish there’d be a dungeon in an M.C. Escher painting ^_^
April 17th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
Okay- so I’m wondering… when are the WWSD caps and t-shirts coming out? DIBBS ON #1 of each of those series!!!!
April 17th, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Really? ‘Cos Schlock looks more like #2…
April 18th, 2009 at 12:24 am
Tuyu knew the answer. That is why I would make the dice levitate, because even the dice can’t defy the dungeon master when the adventure has to go a certain way.
April 18th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Perhaps, but know this:
When you start doing d100 kamehamehas, you’ve gone too far.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Funny story about the illustration here… it’s supposed to be an illustration as part of a back-and-forth toss of the die, which is a setup for a fake-toss (similar to a french drop, in that the die ends up in the hand that nobody thinks it’s in, and you make it disappear.)
Curtis had trouble getting the camera to catch that moment where the die was airborne, so he used the hovering die rig, positioned his hands and the die just so, and had his buddy snap a picture for me.
The photo had no motion-blurring, so I assumed it was a picture of a hovering die, and drew it that way. I couldn’t for the life of me see HOW the die was hovering. I’m going to have to go back into the image file and add some moovles and perhaps an arrow or two in order to clear things up. Yes, you CAN hover a die in this position, but that’s not the trick this picture is trying to teach.
April 20th, 2009 at 3:57 am
For some reason I am now thinking of the good ol joke concept perfected by the Harlem Globetrotters, in which you would throw the die, but as it looks like it’s about to land, the elastic cord snaps the sucker back into your palm.