MindWanderer

Oh, I'm not saying that it's an inappropriate action for the god to take. But what you have is a character who would never exist. He's supposed to have dedicated his life to a good god who's supposed to respect treasure, and right out the gate he violates that. If the character had been under the control of this player earlier in his fictitious life, he would have fallen out of favor earlier. It's not like a video game, where you're playing someone like Commander Shepard who's mostly a blank slate before the game starts. What I would do as DM is talk to the player and discuss the possibility that he really never should have chosen this character to begin with. He can then switch characters, or reveal a secret backstory to the character that would explain his actions, which would result in staying the same character story-wise but changing the character sheet. For instance, he might have told everyone he worships Njord (and could continue to tell everyone this) but secretly worships Loki or Hœnir, or isn't actually a cleric at all.

I've actually done a couple of different formats. The CoCo was a PvP format, with a lot of house rules to cover abusable corner cases. Since it was forum-based, each player would send the "pitlord" (sort of a one-shot DM) a set of tactics to follow, then the pitlord would try their best to follow those tactics and see how the battle played out. I've also done tournaments that involved dungeon races like what you describe, with or without PvP allowed. Your cleric player is a classic archetype, I've seen that in just about every game I've ever played with inexperienced players. It takes a few games to figure out what actually makes for a fun game for everyone involved. People used to video games, in particular, take a while to get out of the greed mentality. I try not to be heavy-handed with divine sanction like that, though--it doesn't teach the long-term lesson, and if the same player rolls up a non-divine character next game (and he probably will), you'll be back to square one. And this guy seems like he needs a lot of work, if he's actually taking multiple treasures for himself and not letting the other PC's get any.

I played the hell out of D&D for most of my life, but like DS, I'm busy "adulting" now. It's rare I can even squeeze in an hour or two for a video game, much less coordinate several hours of sit-down play with friends. Also I don't really have any friends. I've played with a lot of lousy DMs, a couple of good ones. Most are either great at storytelling and world-building but lousy at mechanics, or vice-versa. I played a ton of Living Forgotten Realms before D&D Essentials kind of killed 4e (and then WotC dropped support). I was the GM of the Core Coliseum, a competitive format, over on the WotC forums for a year or so, right at the tail end of 3.5e. Since WotC discontinued their own forums, enworld.org has become the primary online forum for D&D and several other RPG's. You should check that out to share experiences and advice.

So am I, and I'll reiterate: There should be a mixflood to showcase it. Maybe there aren't enough preview copies out there to merit it, but by all accounts it's flying off the shelves. Plus, if you do a mixflood callout, I bet there will be at least a person or two who will buy it just for the expedited judging.

I wouldn't have called that Nash's theme... it's specifically the theme of Magical Weapon Nash, which would be spoileriffic to explain.

Any remix you submit and which is approved by the judges will be available to download for free from the site. If you're not OK with that, you should contact them and withdraw your submission. OC ReMix as a general rule doesn't promote tracks not hosted on the site. There are some exceptions, mainly ones being sold on sister site OverClocked records, but that's at their own discretion.

Nice. This, though not music, is even older. It's a little too obvious to have been completely original.

Voting is already open, here:

I have the HTML/CSS/JS/whatever technical skills to build a website, but I'm rubbish when it comes to aesthetics. If someone wants to design a page (layout, art, etc.), I can do the coding.

Some great stuff in there! In addition to track 4 and track 8, track 9 sounds awfully familiar... glad something good came of that! I really like the Final Fantasy V, Mario Kart Wii, and Undertale mixes as well.

Actraiser's pretty obscure these days. Considering a full orchestral arrangement for it exists, I'm not sure how much demand there would be for sheet music of the 16-bit instrumentation. Fan-made MIDIs do for most people for most purposes. Koshiro already has the data, presumably, so it's not an issue of transcribing by ear or anything. (And if he doesn't have the original data and is re-transcribing it by ear and memory, it's not much better than a fan MIDI.) Putting it down in sheet music notation shouldn't take more than a few hours of work. I suppose it depends on how much they plan on selling it for. The big overhead component would be setting up a distribution system.

Hm... where you hear "passionate and aggressive," I guess I'm hearing more "shouting his voice raw." It's a pretty small difference between that and the third example I posted, though, in terms of rap style. In terms of the piece as a whole, the WWE main theme songs tend to be much more musical than DMX's style, and thus would probably be best accompanied by a more musical rap style. The theme songs of individual wrestlers are sometimes much more similar to his, though. However, ultimately, if we found you a partner to provide the instrumentation and production, they'd be the best person to have this conversation with. A coherent piece of music is the most important thing.

The main advantage I see for Macs is that level of consistency. As Flex said, the limited number of options for what goes into a Mac (both hardware and software) means that it can be easier to develop a product that delivers a consistent experience on one. Fewer compatibility issues, so fewer crashes and other wonkiness. For that reason, a Mac can be a safer choice if you're not very tech-savvy; they're harder to screw up. Otherwise, PC's have, in their favor, a much greater breadth of software options, and a much cheaper price for comparable power.

Yeah, Sir Jordanius has always been the soul of the best hip-hop OCR has had to offer, and with him MIA, all that's left is a bunch of supporting artists. I don't know much of anything about rap outside of the WWE research I've been doing, but here are some WWE theme songs for some example styles. Additionally, Flo Rida seems to be the single most prolific contributor of WWE themes in recent years; he seems to do hip-hop which isn't always rap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr3zB3gDYq8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkoCVOCPGME https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUjFPsCj5UM

I'll put you down on the list of available collaborators, then, and I hope someone will take you up on it! The OCR rap scene, never strong to begin with, seems to be in a bit of a downturn lately.

I've just finished listening to the stuff you've put up for the PRC's and on Soundcloud, and it's really not what I'm looking for. First is genre: Everything I heard was some very basic synth work. Most of the WWE themes (there's a playlist in the first post) are made primarily with live instruments, with a few rare exceptions such as EDM. And second, I'm afraid, is quality. Album remixes don't have to be quite at the level needed for an OCR mixpost, but they do need to be in the general ballpark, and you're not there yet. That being said, this album is still in the very early stages. If you'd still like to get involved, what you can do is work on a remix in a compatible genre, post it in the WIP forum, and get some help getting it up to par. I'd be happy to provide feedback to the best of my own ability, but honestly, my own remixes wouldn't be good enough either! Other forum regulars and the WIP mods will be of more help than me. If you can show me a finished remix that's close to the style I'm looking for and the quality level the OCR panelists are looking for, I'd be happy to have you on board.

I didn't realize so many OCR folks had not only contributed to this, but have been working with preview copies for a while now. @djpretzel, any chance for a mixflood that shows it off, on its release day? (Or at least within the first week of release?)

Nope, not buying it at that price. But that's just me, I'm really not willing to pay anything like a reasonable price for music stuff, since for me it's just an occasional hobby that I'm not very good at anyway. But I'm looking forward to seeing what others come up with using it! I think the association makes sense. This is a product centered directly around OCR's core focus, competency, and mission. I wouldn't be thrilled about OCR endorsing a general purpose tool like a microphone, a multipurpose synth, or a DAW, but, like OverClocked Records, this is right in the zone IMO.

Oof... I've never yet bought a VST--the ones that are substantially better than the free options are insanely pricey--but this could be the one that changes my policy.

Conversely, if one of the two sources you're working with has a lot of accidentals, use its mode and adjust the other source's mode to match it. Accidentals and mode changes are poor bedfellow.

Or by that logic, any of the few Atari 2600 games that had actual music. Moon Patrol, Pitfall 2, Bump 'n' Jump... that's all I can come up with there.

The various "versus" compos generally work by each participant choosing one source, then the various participants are matched together using a bracket, round-robin, or similar format. The music itself never determines the pairings. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's harder. They'll usually be in different keys, and they may even be in different scales or time signatures. Sometimes the ones that seem hard come out really smoothly, and sometimes combinations that seem obvious just don't work out. And it's very possible for two people to listen to the same two songs and come to very different conclusions about how or whether they can be combined smoothly. Because OC ReMixers never use recordings of the original source to create their songs, instead resequencing everything themselves (or, rarely, using a MIDI as a starting point), having the two (or more) sources be in the same key isn't necessary or even particularly helpful. Different scales or key signatures are harder and require creative reinterpretation, but IMHO no more so than if they have very different pacing or chord progression.

Some other options for smaller turnouts: Instead of providing a separate source for 6 participants, you can do A vs. B vs. C and D vs. E vs. F in round 1, then, for example, A vs. D and B vs. E in round 2. Swiss brackets. There are a few ways of doing these, but the usual way is to start off ranking all participants by seed of some sort, and matching everyone with their closest peer. In round 2, you would rank everyone by how decisively they won or lost the first round (i.e. percentage of votes, with a forfeit counted as 50%), and again match everyone with the closest score to theirs, with a little bit of fudging if necessary to prevent rematches. Round 3 would count the results of both rounds 1 and 2. The finalists are the ones with the highest total scores. One advantage of this format is that it's elimination-free until the finals. If there's an odd number of participants, round 1 can be a free-for-all with a separate source, similar to the gauntlet format. Then you eliminate however many low-scorers you need to get it down to the number you want.

Well, what I had meant by "breakdown" was starting at 1:57, but the original stuff I was complimenting was specifically 2:26-2:44. Not so much the SFX portion of it, but that starts off with a little bit of original music, and ends with a reverse crash leading into a solo lead. None of that was in the original, and that's the kind of thing you need more of. There are several approaches to making arranged remixes, but unfortunately it's largely a creative process. Riffing on existing melodies, playing sections out of order, taking a melody line and making a harmony line out of it or vice-versa, stripping out key components (with or without replacement), adding completely original content, etc. For me, it's mostly a lot of futzing around, either in my DAW or in my head, until I get a "eureka" moment. Not sure if others have a more refined process than that. What I meant by the "buzzy bass" was the bass that's used at the very beginning of the piece. It has a mid-frequency timbre that sounds very much like a fly buzzing in your ear. Because of that "buzz," the bass sounds much higher-pitched that what it's actually pitched to, and the result is a sound that lacks low-end.

I haven't bought a PS4 yet, and I still don't see a compelling reason to do so. Most of its games are either on PC, or are a genre I don't care for (military shooters and hardcore horror/action games). Uncharted 4 and Ratchet & Clank look good, but they're not system sellers for me. Between the PC I have hooked up to the big screen, and my Wii U, I just don't see an upside. I haven't even used my PS3 for anything except Netflix, Amazon, and DVD's for a couple of years now. Maybe VR will be a deciding point, but that's still in its infancy.