text:
Take a mom of 3, stir in 4 vegan cookbooks, add a rounded cup of staying at home, and mix with a hefty pinch of recipe testing!
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
New Vegan Cookbook Details!
First, I want to express how valuable working on this blog has been to me. When I started 'blogging' in November, I had already finished some new recipes and was toying with the idea of a new book, but that was about it. As I've mentioned on occasion, my life is beyond hectic at times with two young kids (and no family really nearby for support/babysitting), and so it is just hubby and me working through our days with the girls (some of you are probably in the same boat).
Anyhow, despite my life being very busy, I feel very inspired and creative, and that has largely come from the feedback I get from all of you that comment, and also from reading about cooking adventures (and fun food tidbits) on some of your blogs. So, I THANK YOU, all of you, that comment from time to time (and those that e-mail) with words of appreciation, encouragement, and also feedback on what you like/don't like about my recipes and blog posts. Sincerely, this communication from all of you has given me the interest and excitement to work on this next book...
which will be titled: "Eat, Drink, and Be Vegan!"
The theme of the book is celebratory! Vegan food is fun and fabulous, and is not about what we "cannot" have, but rather is about everything we do have!!
I will focus greatly on easy, fast foods - things like dips, spreads, casseroles, soups, stews, wraps, fast sandwiches, baked goods and pancakes (people seem to love pancakes), and yes, of course, what would the book be without desserts! As with most of my other recipes, these will again be based on legumes, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds, some soy, and of course minimal amounts of refined flours and no refined sugars.
So, that's the brief for now!... I will be including some of the suggestions some of you mentioned yesterday - and thank you all for those great ideas!
The tentative publication date is late 2007, and I will update you more on the exact date as I iron out more details with my publisher!
34 comments:
- jess (of Get Sconed!) said...
Dreena, this is so amazing and excited! Excellent title, too. I look forward to the release and blog postings about it.
Veggie Tales- those guys are cute, though creepy. My younger sister had a big toy cuke few years back that danced (like one of those hamsters if you've seen them).
Dips are greatly appreciated. - 3:28 PM
- Everyday Superhero said...
That's great news. I can hardly put my Vive down. I thank you for giving me confidence to bake.
By the way, the baked beans were delish. - 3:30 PM
- julie hasson said...
Congratulations Dreena! Awesome title too!!
And, if you need some recipe testers, you just might have a few from your blog : )
Julie - 3:34 PM
- Everyday Superhero said...
I forgot to mention a couple of things in my comment above.
I love the layout of Vive. The font is easy to read and the portion at the back regarding baby food is brilliant. - 3:38 PM
- Dreena said...
Thanks, Jess! I like the title too - it just came to me one day, whereas the other books we poured over different titles to agree on one with my publisher! I've never actually seen the veggie tales, so it's funny that you say they're creepy - they look awfully cute - who knew?! :)
I'm so glad you liked the beans, sweet pea, and gee, thanks for that about the baking... I won't take all the credit - you're the one in there with the mixing bowl and spoon! :) It is very gratifying to know also that you find the baby/toddler section useful. It was very important for me to include it, because people think it is near impossible to feed babies on a vegan diet - NO, it's not!!! :) I like the layout of Vive a lot too - more than TEV - I will be aiming for a similar kind of layout with this one.
Thanks Julie!! Very much appreciate your support, as always. Oh, a question - I am very keen to buy a Vitamix now... so which model should I go for, any recommendations? I checked it out on amazon, and there are a few there... which do you have? Thanks! - 5:15 PM
I am SO excited about your new cookbook- but late 2007!!! How on earth can you make us wait that long! I also wanted to mention that now that I have both Vive and TEV I like the layout of Vive better- I find it more readable and easy to refer to.
Dreena, it's SweetPotato/Yam Patricia. ;-) I am SO excited about your new book, because I have twin toddlers, and sometimes I'm struggling to put together a decent meal. We eat veggie curry a LOT. LOL
I know I have to wait a year, but I will still have two little kids in a year! I can't wait for the book! - 5:44 PM
- julie hasson said...
Hi Dreena,
I'm sure that all of the Vita Mix machines are great. I have their Professional Series, but I think the main difference is the colors that the machine comes in. Check out Costco too, because they do a Vita Mix roadshow periodically (or at least at some of the Costcos).
You will LOVE the machine! Especially with all of the recipe testing and development you have coming up.
Julie - 8:47 PM
- jess (of Get Sconed!) said...
and I meant excited..apparently my job robs me of intelligence when I'm blogging at work.
- Unknown said...
Looking forward to it Dreena, we've enjoyed everything that I've cooked so far out of the previous 2 books, we're having another 'new to us' recipe tonight and I'm really looking forward to it!
I'm very excited about more casseroles and stuff like that. We're not big on pancakes or dips around here, or even deserts (which I think is a good thing, especially for Little One), but casseroles are so useful as I can chop, mix and stick things in a dish and in the oven and then deal with small child rather than having to watch everything all the time. - 3:14 AM
- Unknown said...
oh, just saw the mention of sweet potatoes/yams there in another comment. I saw yams for the first time ever in the supermarket the other week (of course I didn't need any!) and they are backwards to what you'd call them, yams are the big yellow ones and sweet potatoes the small orange ones in England. Just thought you'd like to know for reference!
- Harmonia said...
Very cool, indeed!
I love Veggie Tales...at least I did when they first came out and I was in college...it was a hoot at parties!
You know me and dips! The more the merrier!
Still busy but "getting" there...hopefully I will have more time tomorrow...I hope.
And my kids are only of the 4 legged variety...lol - 5:08 AM
- Flo @ Yielded Heart said...
Dreena, I love that title!
It's awesome that you'd have wraps and fast sandwiches in it! Will this have more recipes than EV and VLV?
It's good that you remain inspired even with 2 little ones at home. I could relate, with 3 kids with me all day. But I've remained inspired to cook and bake, too- and honestly, big part of that is having your cookbook. So just keep the energy going!
We love Veggie Tales around here, too! - 6:04 AM
- Dreena said...
Thanks, Tina, and yes, I agree, the layout for Vive is more 'readable' and eye-appealing!
Hi Patricia... will have to start using that - "yampatricia" - jk! Twin toddlers - OH dear!!! My 16 month old is enough work on her own toddling, and with our 4 1/2 year old helping me at times - still so much to keep up with, I can't even fathom twin toddlers! Zoinks! I need to get meals together fast too, so these recipes will primarily be everyday easy kind of stuff!
Julie, you have no idea how much I have been thinking about a Vitamix now, and how much I could use it! Thanks for the Costco tip, I'll look into it! :)
Jess, what's really sad is that I didn't notice the grammar blip. You see, I have what you call permanent 'mommy brain'. Yes, somedays I find my green onions in the drawer with the saran wrap instead of in the fridge drawer. That's not uncommon around here. So, if my ramblings don't make sense, you know why!
Hi Anna! Oh, how I relate to having a casserole do the work for you!! It's the easiest thing to get everything in a pot or dish and then leave it to cook. I think that's why I love to make soups so much too. Once you have the prepping done, the stove does the rest of the work really. You might be the first to tell me you're not big on pancakes, dips, or desserts... but, very good to know (and yes, really, you are MUCH better off if you don't have the sweet tooth)! Thanks for the feedback. The yam/sweet potato reference drives me batty, because there is no way to standardize it in recipes. I will just have to explain in my new recipes which ones I'm using ex: yams as "the orange flesh tubers". We always see the orange ones labelled yams here (garnet yams and jewel yams) and then sweet potatoes are the yellow ones. But, I know it varies everywhere - thanks for letting me know (I think! - ha!)
Hi Harmonia, I made a dip yesterday but it had too much garlic in it for my taste. I thought "Harmonia would probably love it like this - or, she'd add more garlic"! I've been beyond busy too, not much time popping into others' blogs - hopefully today! - 6:14 AM
- Michelle said...
great name! can't wait until it's out!
I'm so looking forward to the new cookbook. Celebration foods that are also reasonably healthy sounds wonderful. Feeding my family & friends is an act of love, and it's so nice to be able to do that and not feel that I'm also doing them damage.
BTW, I missed the Vitamix conversation, but I love mine. Would buy it again in a heartbeat. - 6:48 AM
- Eat Peace Please said...
Dreena, this is wonderful! I love the new title to your book, and the whole "theme" around it. I am super-excited to have my third favorite cookbook (1:Vive, 2:TEV, in no particular order, of course).
Thank YOU for your kind words and it makes me feel good that you have been inspired by us all and we have bugged you enough about recipes, photos and new cookbook details that "Eat, Drink and Be Vegan" is coming about! Thank you so much for sharing this with us all and I am antsy already for the book!
Now you for sure have to take my idea about a dinner party/food party/potluck ideas since the theme is "celebratory"!!!
This is super-cool news. - 6:55 AM
- Eat Peace Please said...
Two more things (maybe more?!?)...
1. I like the layout and font and orange-ness of Vive too compared with TEV. I also love how you have tidbits of info on the sidelines. Keep that up, please!!!
2. I would be willing to help out with recipe titles as well as being a taste-tester!
Ok, more than 2 things...
About the VitaMix at Costco, I got mine there at the roadshow. I got some stuff for free with it (or included in the high price?!). - 7:00 AM
- Carrie™ said...
AWESOME! My offer still stands too to be a tester if you need some. Can't wait for more tasty dishes from you.
- Emily said...
I love that title!
- jess (of Get Sconed!) said...
Yes, I would also love to be a tester if you need it! (that goes without saying though)
Excellent, Dreena! Can't wait to see it.
An I promise the VLV review will be done before then. :) (Actually, yours is next in the queue!) - 11:24 AM
- Flo @ Yielded Heart said...
Did someone say tester???
Count me in!
Dreena, you might not have seen my previous comment, but I was wondering if the new cookbook would have more recipes than TEV and VLV.
And I do agree with Leslie on the VLV layout. I wouldn't mind another one just like VLV! - 1:30 PM
- Dreena said...
Hi Kai, how in the world do you do it with 3 kids??!! I don't know if I'd get a meal on the table! :) That is so nice for you to say that you feel inspired partially because of my recipes... too kind, thanks! Funny about the Veggie Tales - I have never seen it, I just liked the 'thank you' icon in veggie cartoon style, so I popped it on there, and of course, now I'm wondering what I'm missing! :)
Thanks Michelle!
Thanks Sue H... I've noticed at potlucks and places where people don't know my dip or other food is "vegan", they just lap it up and say "mmmm, what is this"? Yes, healthy stuff can be delicious stuff too!! (and even the not-so healthy vegan stuff - cookies, etc - aren't as bad as most of their dairy/egg based equivalents). Thanks for the note about the Vitamix too!
Ah, thank you Leslie. So terribly sweet of you (as always). I should have a direct line to you on days I need a 'pep talk'!! :) Hmmm, maybe I should have a 'no oven required' section. I hope you get through your fears of the oven soon - there are some things you just want/need it for! I may take you up on that offer of recipe testing - stovetop stuff or dips (for now) of course! Yeah, I think the layout of Vive is what I'm going to strive for again (if not do almost the same with a few adjustments)!
Super, Carrie - thanks... I'll make note of your offer! :)... oh, and you too Jess!
Thanks as well Emily - I think it is a fun, joyful theme/title that is how we feel about good vegan food.
Hi Ryan - thanks very much, and I look forward to reading your review!
Hi again Kai... your comment posted on just after I posted my responses - that happens with blogger sometimes. Anyhow, I'm not sure about the recipe count at this point. But, it will be recipe heavy (not having a baby/toddler section this time), and I hope to have 100+ recipes. Having said that, I'd better get back to work! (oh, and I'll keep the testing offer in mind too, thanks) :) - 2:29 PM
For those interested in the VitaMix, Erik Marcus' podcast for today talks about using the VitaMix for making flour. You can get the podcast at www.vegan.com
- Eat Peace Please said...
I love the NO OVEN SECTION of the book. There are so many recipes that are no bake (stovetop only) so it may be hard to make a section with only that, but maybe you could do one with something that "could" or "usually" is baked, and have it not baked!
I am getting tired of not baking, I just need to call my PHX firefighter friend and have him stand guard while I bake again (I am not really going to do this...). Do you think the oven will produce a funny gas or smell because it's been months? I have wanted to try the Sunflower Lentil loaf since the day I got the books in the mail (a few months ago).
I think you were joking about the "direct line" thing, but I am pretty sure you have my email... if you don't and you want it, let me know. - 4:20 PM
- Dreena said...
Great tip, Tina - ironic too, hey?!
Thanks Cee... it seems like a long time away, but yikes - not a long time for me!! :)
You're so amusing Leslie... but, I know it isn't funny for you with your oven. The oven *might* give off a funny smell at first. Just like when you turn on your heat for the first time after months of not using it in the summer. (well, you probably don't have that happen in Arizona!) Hmm, start with something real fast to bake - like cookies, at a low temp. That might 'ease' you back into using that dreaded oven! - 5:59 AM
- Harmonia said...
Love the NO OVEN SECTION idea, too!
GARLIC? Did someone say GARLIC?
LOL...I'd love it...your right! Will you be putting the dip in your book? If not, could I bug you for the recipe anyway? LOL
I posted a little diddy today. Still totally slammed but I will live. :)
Jess ~ I have ol' beanie baby type thingies one of bob the tomato and one of the broccoli!
- Julie said...
I love the title...so cute!
Oh, and ofcourse I want to be a tester if you need one---it's a hard job, but somebody's gotta do it!
I am very excited about the new book and I can't wait to get my Everyday Vegan book! - 8:13 AM
- Bookphilia said...
Oh yay!!! A new cookbook on the way! I'll test your recipes any time!
I made the comment about getting frustrated at long or unfamilar titles, but in no way was I saying yours were like that, in fact your books I found to be very simple. I made your apple strudel (sp?) which my children and I had for dessert and my 10 year old said, "finally something that taste good" Because like most Vegetarians/Vegans, I am always cooking and trying out new things, but when you asked feedback It was like you were reading my mind.
I like coming to your site and expecially like it because you are from canada. Thank you for all your hard work because believe it or not it makes our life much easier. - 11:43 AM
- Dreena said...
Thanks, Julie... you'll have to let me know what recipes intrigue you with TEV - I may do one or two for posting!
Thanks dreamqueen - I'll mark you down as 'tester' if needed! Awesome!
Hi Kim - you know, I really appreciated your feedback - even if I misunderstood it (how MANY mommy brain moments am I having this week?!!) :) You see, within a day or two of reading your comment I came across a new review of TEV. It was very positive (always nice!), but the one negative thing she said was "like almost every person who's written a cookbook, Burton uses atrocisouly bad puns and rhymes for titles - ex: the neat balls with sweet and sour balls taste great, but sound almost as stupid as swallow-it-all banana balls". I laughed and said "that's true". Funny, my nephew named the banana balls when he was just about 7 or 8, and I thought it was adorable, but really, it IS a bad name, and 'neat' balls is goofy too! I would change a lot of titles now in TEV, and some in Vive too - and even though that's not what you meant, it (and the review) got me to thinking about how to be more concise and clear with title names. Also, while I'm no different than any of us in that I enjoy hearing warm and fuzzy feedback, I *need* the more constructive criticism to help me fine tune my recipes, my instructions, flavors people like, layout of books, etc. So it's all good. I wasn't upset, and I thought it was some of the best constructive criticism I've received. Having said that... you are extremely thoughtful to write again to clarify, and I thank you. Oh, and I'm delighted that your little guy liked the apple strudel!! I wish my daughter was as accepting of my recipes as other kids seem to be - she is p-i-c-k-y!! I still give her what we eat, but man, it drives me batty! Oh, and thank you even more for your comment about my hard work and that it helps you and others. Wow, that is very meaningful to me. Thanks. I'll stop rambling now! :) - 6:14 AM
- Dr. Melissa West said...
Congratulations Dreena! This is absolutely fabulous! Your cookbook Vive Le Vegan is my absolute favourite cook book. I really appreciate the way you cook with whole foods. I would love some cupcake recipes!
You inspired me to create my own food blog I absolutely adore cooking. - 1:05 AM
- Miso said...
I just bought vive and love it and am exxcited by the thought of a new book, i am all for easy quick recipes as most vegan recipes are long and drawn out and unecessary, i use your book and the how it all vegan girls books the most. My main comment is to include more tomatoless sauces and lots of spreads, loaves and burgers that do not contain soy, oh and more bean and grain salads. There are great sauces to be made with carrots and beets with a bit of added red wine vinegar that resemble tomato sauce but a bit sweeter for those of us that tomatoes cause sever heartburn. I have one recipe but, i bet you could make a really great one that i would be most appreciative of, just basic, but fantastic, no curry or anything, biy am i picky or what. I will keep trying the recipes from vive and look froward to the new book. Keep up the good work.


text:
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
1 year after encampment began, Occupy in disarray
By MEGHAN BARR, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Occupy Wall Street began to disintegrate in rapid fashion last winter, when the weekly meetings in New York City devolved into a spectacle of fistfights and vicious arguments.
Punches were thrown and objects were hurled at moderators' heads. Protesters accused each other of being patriarchal and racist and domineering. Nobody could agree on anything and nobody was in charge. The moderators went on strike and refused to show up, followed in quick succession by the people who kept meeting minutes. And then the meetings stopped altogether.
In the city where the movement was born, Occupy was falling apart.
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"We weren't talking about real things at that point," says Pete Dutro, a tattoo artist who used to manage Occupy's finances but became disillusioned by the infighting and walked away months ago. "We were talking about each other."
The trouble with Occupy Wall Street, a year after it bloomed in a granite park in lower Manhattan and spread across the globe, is that nobody really knows what it is anymore. To say whether Occupy was a success or a failure depends on how you define it.
Occupy is a network. Occupy is a metaphor. Occupy is still alive. Occupy is dead. Occupy is the spirit of revolution, a lost cause, a dream deferred.
"I would say that Occupy today is a brand that represents movements for social and economic justice," says Jason Amadi, a 28-year-old protester who now lives in Philadelphia. "And that many people are using this brand for the quest of bettering this world."
On Monday, a couple hundred protesters converged near the New York Stock Exchange to celebrate Occupy's anniversary, marking the day they began camping out in Zuccotti Park.
About a dozen were arrested after sitting on the sidewalk, but there was no sign of a planned "people's wall" on the streets surrounding the stock exchange.
Instead, protesters held a small meeting where they talked about the ills of Wall Street and corporate greed.
Marches and rallies in more than 30 cities around the world will commemorate the day.
About 300 people observing the anniversary marched Saturday. At least a dozen were arrested, mostly on charges of disorderly conduct, police said.
But the movement is now a shadow of its mighty infancy, when a group of young people harnessed the power of a disillusioned nation and took to the streets chanting about corporate greed and inequality.
Back then it was a rallying cry, a force to be reckoned with. But as the encampments were broken up and protesters lost a gathering place, Occupy in turn lost its ability to organize.
The movement had grown too large too quickly. Without leaders or specific demands, what started as a protest against income inequality turned into an amorphous protest against everything wrong with the world.
"We were there to occupy Wall Street," Dutro says. "Not to talk about every social ill that we have."
The community that took shape in Zuccotti Park still exists, albeit in a far less cohesive form. Occupiers mostly keep in touch online through a smattering of websites and social networks. There are occasional conference calls and Occupy-affiliated newsletters. Meetings are generally only convened to organize around specific events, like the much-hyped May Day event that ultimately fizzled last spring.
The movement's remaining $85,000 in assets were frozen, though fundraising continues.
"I think that movements energized by Occupy have an enormous future."
"The meetings kind of collapsed under their own weight," explains Marisa Holmes, a 26-year-old protester among the core organizers who helped Occupy rise up last fall. "They became overly concerned with financial decisions. They became bureaucratic."
In other words, they became a combustible microcosm of the society that Occupiers had decided to abandon - a new, equally flawed society with its own set of miniature hierarchies and toxic relationships. Even before the ouster at Zuccotti Park, the movement had been plagued with noise and sanitary problems, an inability to make decisions and a widening rift between the park's full-time residents and the movement's power players, most of whom no longer lived in the park.
"We've always said that we want a new society," Holmes says. "We're not asking anything of Wall Street. We don't expect anything in return."
Occupy organizers in other U.S. cities have also scattered to the winds in recent months. In Oakland, a metal fence surrounds the City Hall lawn that was the hub of protesters' infamous tear-gassed, riotous clashes with police. The encampment is gone, as are the thousands who ventured west to help repeatedly shut down one of the nation's largest ports.
"I don't think Occupy itself has an enormous future," says Dr. Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University in New York City. "I think that movements energized by Occupy have an enormous future."
Across the nation, there have been protests organized in the name of ending foreclosure, racial inequality, stop and frisk, debt: You name it, Occupy has claimed it. Occupy the Bronx. Occupy the Department of Education. Occupy the Hood. Occupy the Hamptons.
Protesters opposing everything from liquor sales in Whiteclay, Neb., to illegal immigration in Birmingham, Ala., have used Occupy as a weapon to fight for their own causes. In Russia, opposition activists protesting President Vladimir Putin's re-election to a third term have held a series of Occupy-style protests. Young "indignados" in Spain are joining unions and public servants to rally against higher taxes and cuts to public education and health care. "All around the world, that youthful spirit of revolt is alive and well," says Kalle Lasn, co-founder of Adbusters, the Canadian magazine that helped ignite the movement.
In New York, groups of friends who call themselves "affinity groups" still gather at each other's apartments for dinner to talk about the future of Occupy. A few weeks ago, about 50 Occupiers gathered in a basement near Union Square to plan the anniversary.
There were the usual flare-ups, with people speaking out of order and heckling the moderators. The group could not agree on whether to allow a journalist to take photographs. An older man hijacked the meeting for nearly 15 minutes with a long-winded rant about the NYPD's stop-and-frisk tactics.
A document called "The Community Agreement of Occupy Wall Street" was distributed that, among other outdated encampment-era rules, exhorted Occupiers not to touch each other's personal belongings and laid out rules about sleeping arrangements.
It is this sort of inward-facing thinking - the focus on Occupiers, not the world they're trying to remake - that saddens ex-protesters like Dutro, who wanted to stay focused on taking down Wall Street.
Hanging in the entryway to his Brooklyn apartment, like a relic of the past, is the first poster he ever brought down to Zuccotti Park. In black and gold lettering, painted on a piece of cardboard, the sign says: "Nobody got rich on their own. Wall St. thinks U-R-A-SUCKER."
He keeps it there as a reminder of what Occupy is really fighting for. Because despite his many frustrations, Dutro hasn't been able to stamp the Occupy anger out of his soul. Not yet.
On Sept. 17, he'll be down at Liberty Square again. And he'll be waiting, like the rest of the world, to see what happens next.
"We came into the park and had this really magical experience," he says. "It was a big conversation. It was where we all got to realize: `I'm not alone."'


text:
Daring Bakers: One Cheesecake, Two Cheesecakes, Three Cheesecakes….
I giggle everytime I look a the picture above. It's Daring Bakers time today and my Cherry Blossom Strawberry Cheesecake looks like it is smiling. Maybe it's just me as I am eating some while typing this and smiling to know there is plenty left in the fridge.
And when I mean plenty, I am not exaggerating! For a household of two people this month challenge just kept on giving and we had no problem with it! We were given a simple cheesecake recipe and let loose with our creativity. If you let me loose in the kitchen on a Daring Baker's challenge this can happen, or this.
It might look like I did again but really I did contain myself (no snorting Jen). Somewhat…
This recipe was really straightforward and the end result was smooth, creamy and not overly sweet which I really like. I started by making the entire recipe and used half to make 4 individual cheesecakes. Two were Cherry Blossom and Strawberry Lava Cheesecakes and two were Peanut Butter topped with a chocolate ganache. I piped the remaining batter in different cups and jars and played a bit.
I drew my inspiration from Spring since cherry trees are still blooming and used cherry blossom extract that Rachael from La Fuji Mama sent me while she was still in Japan. For the strawberry lava center, I cooked about a cup of fresh strawberries with some sugar, strained it and thickened it on the stove before spooning it in between the cheesecake layers.
For the remaining batter, I spooned some of the graham cracker crumbs in different jars and topped with some plain cheesecake batter. The others were topped with a quick cranberry compote using frozen cranberries, sugar and lemon zest. And some were baked without crust and topped with a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbs and chopped pistachios.
One year ago: Daring Bakers – Cheesecake Pops.
Two years ago: Outrageous Brownies
The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.
Abbey's Infamous Cheesecake:
Helen's Kitchen Notes: For the cheesecakes baked in individual dessert rings, I lined them with parchment paper and wrapped them around a couple of layers of foil to prevent leaking since they were to be baked in a water bath. Just don't be shy with the foil or you will have some leakage. I lowered the oven to 275F (convection) and baked them for the same amount of time. I also baked all the jars and cups in a water bath at 275F. The possibilities are endless with such an easy going recipe thus I including the recipe as given by the host and my variations and tips at the end.
2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.
Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker's choice. Set crust aside.
Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.
Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.
Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you're looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don't want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won't crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.
Pan note: The creator of this recipe used to use a springform pan, but no matter how well she wrapped the thing in tin foil, water would always seep in and make the crust soggy. Now she uses one of those 1-use foil "casserole" shaped pans from the grocery store. They're 8 or 9 inches wide and really deep, and best of all, water-tight. When it comes time to serve, just cut the foil away.
Prep notes: While the actual making of this cheesecake is a minimal time commitment, it does need to bake for almost an hour, cool in the oven for an hour, and chill overnight before it is served. Please plan accordingly!
Variations I used:
For the strawberry lava center: cook down 1 cup of clean strawberries with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Strain and cook the syrp until reduced by half. Let cool. Spoon some cake batter over the crumb crust, add some strawberry juice and seal with more batter.
For the peanut butter cheesecake: I added 1/3 cup of peanut butter to 1/4 of the recipe and added 3 tablespoons of heavy cream to make sure the batter would remain smooth.
For the chocolate gananche: I heated up 1/3 cup of heavy cream over medium heat and poured it over 2/3 cup of bittersweet chocolate. Let stand 2 minutes and stir to smooth.
For the cheesecake in souffle cups: I just buttered the cups and baked them without the crust which I sprinkled later on with some chopped pistachios.
For the cranberry topped ones: I poured some crumb crust at the bottom of glass jars, topped with the batter and baked them like that. Once cooled I added the cranberry compote that I made by cooking 2 cups of frozen cranberries with 1/4 cup of sugar, a dash of cinnamon and some lemon juice.


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Gallery Wall Decorating Tips + Photo Gallery Decorating
This post was originally done for a guest series over Beth's blog,
but I thought I'd share it here as well, for any readers who missed out, the first time around 🙂
Today we're talkin' about:
I have to be honest. I had seen lots of variations of Gallery Walls before, and never thought twice about their actual assembly, until WE had to put one together! These bad boys are NO easy task. If you think you can dive in head first, without thinking about placement, colors, and frame sizes… then you might be in for a bit of a surprise.
Are you going for an eclectic look, that consists of vintage frames and repurposed goods? Or are you looking for a more organized streamline display?
Using paper templates are an easy way to layout your gallery wall again and again, until you can come up with the PERFECT overall shape, style and layout that you're going for. Once all your paper templates are in place, you can easily nail up your frames with virtually zero mistakes or guess work!
This has GOT to be the best part of the whole process 🙂
Whether it's personal photos, monograms, words, prints, small decor, mirrors, or more! There are so many ways to go about personalizing and decorating your gallery space. And once you have the basic layout down, you are free to play with lots of different options.
The first thing I did before I started adding things to my gallery, was to look around my home and figure out what direction I wanted to go, as far as color was concerned.
A few things to think about when displaying personal PHOTOS on a Gallery Wall:
* Think about placement. Will your poses and camera angles fit into your frames well?
* Does the backdrop of your photos give you the "look" you are going for?
* Is your family's clothing cohesive with the rest of your homes decor?
* Do you plan on using individual shots of your family members, couple photos, candid photos?
I promise you, that if you think about these things BEFORE your shoot, and maybe even jot them down, then you will feel like you have some sort of purpose at your next family photo session. I think that your photographer will also appreciate the fact that you have a vision of what you're trying to achieve with your soon-to-be printed photos, as well! PLUS, it forces you to actually plan on how you're going to DISPLAY those beautiful photos, that you spent all that money on, and so much time preparing for!
Gallery style displays are quickly becoming one of the best ways to fill those large, usually hard-to-decorate walls in your home. They are also proving to be one of the easiest ways to add the MOST personality to your space as well, with endless possibilities when adding decor!
With a little imagination, a bit of planning, and a bunch of great frames that fit your style…
YOUR next Gallery Wall can and WILL turn into a beautiful, well laid out show stopper!


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To make the soup, you need four pounds of fresh tomatoes. I used a mix of varieties including big beefsteak tomatoes, smaller yellow taxi tomatoes, and a few San Marzanos from the farmers' market. The tomatoes should be cored and coarsely chopped. The best thing about a pureed soup is that the ingredients are just quickly chopped for cooking since the shape doesn't matter in the end. The recipe calls for red onion, but I used some locally grown sweet 1015's instead. To begin, the onions were sauteed in a large pot with a couple of chopped carrots. When the vegetables had become tender, some garlic was added and cooked for a minute. Next, the tomatoes were added with tomato paste, stock, basil, and salt and pepper. Sugar was supposed to have been added, but I skipped it since the tomatoes were so flavorful, and I used a sweet onion. Also, rather than using the suggested chicken stock, I made a quick vegetable stock to use instead. Even water would work here, but some extra salt and maybe a little more tomato paste would be needed in that case. The soup was brought to a boil and then left to simmer for about half an hour. Just before being pureed, three quarters of a cup of cream was added to the soup. To top the soup, a baguette was cut into chunks, the pieces were tossed with olive oil and salt and pepper, and they were sprinkled with grated parmesan. The croutons were baked until golden and crunchy.
For more quick dishes or freezer-friendly meals, check for recipes that will be posted for Shelley on these other sites throughout this week:
Anna from Keep It Luce
Renee from Sweet Sugar Bean
Robin from A Chow Life
Sarah from Snippets of Thyme


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Clayton Kershaw (0-0, -.--) vs. Kevin Correia (0-0, -.--).
COMMENTS: Well, it seemed like a beautiful day for a ballgame—until the news of the DUI hit-and-run death of 22-year-old Angels pitcher Nick Adenhart floated across the wire. Condolences to Adenhart's family and to the Angels organization and fans—and to the other families who lost loved ones in the incident.
With a fresh dose of perspective thrown in our faces, let's try to appreciate what we have today. Kershaw goes for the series win and Blake DeWitt sees his first start of the season, spelling Rafael Furcal. Have you noticed the Dodgers have hit two home runs but have allowed none? A nice trend, PETCO Park notwithstanding.
Tonight's Angels game has been postponed. (angelsbaseball.com)
Via BLS, thanks to Will Leitch for transcribing Vin Scully's tribute to Adenhart:
If I may speak for every member of the Dodger organization, our heartfelt and deepest sympathies to the mother and family of Nick Adenhart, and to every member in the Angels organization, for the untimely accident and death of young Nick last night at the tender age of twenty-two. Nick, from Maryland, had pitched six scoreless innings and was in a car with three friends, and a driver apparently went through a red light and T-boned the car, killing three of the four, including Nick, and one other member is in critical condition. And if there is one thing I've learned in all my years — and I haven't learned much — but the one thing I've learned: Don't even waste your time trying to figure out life.Ground ball through for Andre Ethier, and life continues for those who still have it. And with a leadoff single, Russell Martin will be coming up.
But I would say, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take a moment and say a prayer in memory for Nick, especially for his parents. What a shock to lose a twenty-two-year-old.
Andre Ethier at first base, Russell Martin the batter, James Loney on deck, and the Dodgers try to strike in the second inning against Kevin Correia.
photo by duranla at phodroid via Diamond Leung


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Thursday, November 11, 2010
Spell Memorization Effects
As I've long imagined it, a spell formula, the thing a magic-user spends time "memorizing" each day, is a means of temporarily "re-wiring" one's brain to act as a "circuit" for magical energies that are shaped by this to produced certain effects when "triggered." Once a spell is cast, the re-wiring associated with it is undone and that part of the magic-user's brain returns to normal. Where there's potential for adding some flavor is in imagining that, beyond the spell effect produced by memorizing a particular spell, the magic-user also gains some small benefit before the spell is cast. This benefit is a side effect of the cerebral re-wiring associated with the spell and is active only until the magic-user casts the spell associated with it.
For example, suppose a magic-user memorizes the 1st-level spell charm person. While memorized, the character temporarily gains +1 Charisma for the purposes of reaction adjustment and retainer morale. Meanwhile, a magic-user who memorizes the 2nd-level spell levitate gains the temporary ability to "float" a very short distance above the ground -- not enough to avoid pit traps or other ground-based obstacles but enough to give the character an eerie look to their movement.
That's the kind of thing I have in mind here. The trick, of course, is to find useful/interesting benefits for each spell that neither overshadow nor replicate the spell itself. That's going to be hard in some case, like read magic or read languages, whose use is so straightforward that I simply can't imagine what kind of benefit might be associated with having these spells memorized. The other trick, too, is to make the benefits good enough that the player of a magic-user might conceivably think twice about whether he should cast the memorized spell or keep it memorized in order to continue to receive its benefit.
Anyway, this is just an idea I've had for a while that I've never developed fully, so, if anyone wants to run with it, feel free. I'd love to see every spell in the LBBs have a benefit associated with it. Done right, this approach might go a long way toward giving low-level MUs a little more oomph without going to ridiculous extremes and encourage the memorization of certain less popular spells, owing to the benefits they accrue while memorized. That's the theory anyway; I'm sure someone will soon explain why this is a terrible idea.
50 comments:
It's an interesting idea, James. I'm not sure how easy it would be to implement on a practical level, though. You cite some easy examples, but what about some of the less obvious ones? What good do spells like find familiar or wish get you? Also, in the context of AD&D, the impact of cantrips would also need to be addressed. And what of multiple spells?
Those problems are not necessarily insurmountable, of course, but care would also have to be taken that keeping a spell memorized in the long term wouldn't outweigh the benefit of actually casting it. I could see a higher level magic-user deciding that burning a single 1st-level spell slot to get a +1 charisma bonus might be worth it. Or five to get a +5 bonus...There was an article in The Dragon that mentioned this, but memory is hazy. "The Color of Magic" maybe? According to Dragondex, that's in issue 200. I don't think it went into much detail, but it definitely talked about giving some kind of minor benefit contingent on one's memorized spells. I'll dig it up later and have a look.
ReplyDelete- AnonymousNovember 11, 2010 at 8:13 PM
I love this idea but I can see it being a nightmare at higher levels in terms of book-keeping.
ReplyDelete I can't seem to find where I read it (may actually have been on this blog!), but I recall a story about a magic-user who would use his/her single spell and then p'own the rest of the dungeon through cleverness and flasks of oil... single handedly!
I used to think that the "Vancian" system was stupid, but in practice, it's actually perfect for D&D-type games. Sure it sucks for low-level types, but as soon as you start to hit mid-levels it's irrelevant. In the mean time, try using your own ingenuity to solve dungeon problems instead of relying on the ability to cast spells (a.k.a. "powers") at will.
That said, I actually like your "lesser effects" idea, James. Maybe allow the character to light fires if they have burning hands memorized, or allow them to appear "larger than life" (+1 CHA) if they have the enlarge spell memorized, etc."I can't seem to find where I read it (may actually have been on this blog!), but I recall a story about a magic-user who would use his/her single spell and then p'own the rest of the dungeon through cleverness and flasks of oil... single handedly!"
I don't think low level magic users are useless in theory or even in practice. However, I will say that, in almost thirty years of running 1st edition off and on, I have almost never seen a player choose to play a simple magic user. It's almost always a multiclass with something useful for fighting, such as cleric or fighter. (Other classes I almost never see: monks, druids, assassins, and paladins). Oddly enough, I have had a couple of illusionists - maybe getting phantasmal force at first level is considered to be worth it?
But maybe that's just my players.Sounds like blue mages in Final Fantasy 11. They have a pool of spells to select from to ready and each spell has a point value associated with them. The blue mage then has so many points per level to pick which spells they want to ready. Most spells give stat bonuses straight up from just readying them, like more hp or str. While certain combination of spells give greater bonuses like an HP regen effect or dual-wield abilities.
ReplyDeleteI always found the "magic-users aren't like their literary counterparts" to be a weak argument. You look at any culture's depiction of magicians from the Christian "sorcerers" (false prophets and demon worshipers) to witch doctors and it all falls under the same realm; historical magic-users are conjurers, charmcasters, and alchemists. They use mundane objects like drugs and pseudo-science to befuddle the common man. Hexes and curses have been alluded to for thousands of years but were they really anything more than superstition i.e., a mental side effect of the hexed's paranoia?
For me, the quintessential magic-user is Tsotha-lanti from the Conan story The Scarlet Citadel (my first Conan story so it had a profound effect). He has a few tricks up his sleeve but the entirety of his "magic" is throwing dust in people's faces and a ring with a needle spiked with paralyzing poison. Aside from some monsters he has, this is all we see of his magic and it totally scares the crap out of everyone!
I started with 2e but even then I always played up the idea of "mundane magic." Who needs "knock" when you can pour a vial of acid on a lock while chanting? Who needs obscuring mist when saltpeter in a cupcake wrapper can literally fill up an entire city block with smoke? I don't need to blind someone when I can put pepper in tissue paper and throw it in your eyes. You can make a potent poison by extracting the nicotine from common pipe tobacco, something that requires a bowl of water and a paper towel. You can make a powerful bomb out of cow manure or a makeshift grenade (or pipe bomb) out of a jug and explosives. You can make a rocket out of sugar and there are tons of uses for chlorine. The possibilities are endless for someone who takes the time to research mundane chemistry with majority of the components having been available to humans since the beginning of time. The kicker? In a suitable world where most people are illiterate and have never been outside their homes, all of this is like magic. Since "real" magic is nothing but smoke and mirrors, putting on a show by chanting in tongues or waggling your fingers will trick any common buffoon into thinking that you spitting lamp oil into a torch makes you related to a dragon.
Sorry for the rant, I just wanted to speak my mind on my opinion of magic-users and people's complaint that at low levels they somehow "lack magic."Twitt - Well said!
I actually just read Scarlet Citadel last week and I couldn't help but think "How is it that this trickster (Tsotha-lanti) was able to imprison his rival, who seemed to be more in command of true sorceries than his captor?" But as you point out (and perhaps REH was alluding to), a cryptic knowledge of the mundane can be just as powerful, if not more so.- AnonymousNovember 11, 2010 at 10:05 PM
I've tinkered around with multiple options when it comes to spellcasting (rituals, spell points, item-only casting, etc.), & I've always returned to the "Vancian" system. Your idea is as viable as any other alternate method I've either read about or tried out myself. Maybe someone will tweak it to work for them, but I'll stick with "fire-and-forget"; I don't need to know the rationale of why it works. It does, & that's all I need.
I also don't think low-level MU's are necessarily dungeon fertilizer, either. Sure, they'll run out of spells pretty quickly, but there are plenty of things they can do to be useful to an adventuring group other than spellcasting: carrying equipment, deciphering ancient runes, identifying long-forgotten artefacts, & so on. A low-level MU is as useful or as useless as the player (& DM) makes them. "I've tinkered around with multiple options when it comes to spellcasting (rituals, spell points, item-only casting, etc.), & I've always returned to the "Vancian" system."
Really, Vancian magic and spell point type systems are just two different ways of arriving at the same effect. Plus, Vancian magic at least encourages some variety because the casters have to memorize spells within a set level structure; they can't just use all their "spell points" to throw magic missiles.
One thing I may do when I start my Labyrinth Lord campaign is allow even 1st level magic users to create scrolls from the spells in their book, at a cost of 100 gp and 1 week per spell level. That will have the dual advantage of giving the MU's a little more firepower (and maybe encouraging them to take more noncombat spells?) and sucking excess gold out of their pockets. Maybe I can even get the MU's to demand that the rest of the party subsidize their scroll production!@Joeseph
Find Familiar would leave you inexplicably covered in cat hair until you cast it, while Wish would cause your clothing to morph into gold lamé harem pants, a paisley vest with cummerbund, curly toed shoes, and an awesome turban with a huge feather on it for the duration of your memorization.I sort of like the idea of low-level "side effect magic" based on spells actually memorized, but I think I've settled on the Holmes rule on creating scrolls at any level, plus cheaper cantrip scrolls and maybe even the ability to prepare and memorize cantrips in 1 turn, without the need for spell books.
I've mulled over Vancian magic a couple times, and basically I just think of "memorization" as actually preparation: the M-U draws up magic squares and conjuring circles in his study that invoke the powers of Light or Fireball for that week, including symbols representing specific words and gestures that will evoke the power precisely when needed. I might even ask people to pick a phrase and gesture for each spell they prepare, to use as "one-time passwords" that trigger the spell.
And recently, after watching a lot of Buffy and Angel (and thinking back to Supernatural or Merlin,) I've concluded that if each episode were equated to one day in a D&D game, your typical TV drama magic-user is casting about as many spells as a low-level D&D M-U. The people who cast lots of spells on TV shows are either Big Bads, usually near the end of a season, or M-Us on sitcoms, who seem to operate under different rules.For a long time how to justify the literal fire and forget aspect of Vancian magic bothered me. Then I hit upon the idea of pattern magic and suddenly I had a model that made sense to me. I had always thought of spells as being sequences of words, gestures, et c. The thing with a sequence is that is much easier to hold in your mind because you only have to focus on one thing at a time. Now a image on the other hand is very different, trying to clearly picture an image in your mind immutably and in its entirety instead of focusing on its individual bits is extraordinarily difficult.
Spellbooks are not text, at least not in a conventional sense, each page of a spell is made up of a superbly complex, mandala-like design. This design must pressed and held perfectly into memory until such time as the spell will be cast. Magic-users spend many long years to develop the techniques necessary for compartmentalizing the mind to hold that memory in place and still be able to function as a person at the same time. In order to cast the spell the magic-user must manipulate the mandala in its mental space, through the various components of the spell the various gates of the mandala are made to open and close and it's features rearranged to complete the cosmic circuit as it were. However since all mental energies are directed toward holding the shape of the mandala as it is, the mandala as it was is lost forever. If the manipulations are complete the spell is cast, but if it is interrupted before the circuit is complete it is lost since it can never be returned to its starting point without being studied anew.
The more complex a spell is, the more mandala constitute its makeup. So a sixth level spell would be any spell that requires combining six mandalas to cast. They are broken into parts so that the minds of magic-users can digest them, memorizing a sixth level spell means memorizing six mandalas, one at a time, laying each successively over the last to complete the full design in the magic-users mind.
The mental architecture of everyone's mind varies though, and the details of the mandalas vary from spellbook to spellbook as the designs while sharing similar overall structures tend to be intensely personal in the details. Understanding another's mandalas is nigh impossible without the creators instruction, vast amounts of time to reorder one's own ways of thinking, or using the awesome mind expanding power of the read magic spell.
Anyway, sorry that is kind of, sort of on topic. Regarding the idea of held spells giving some sort of bonus I don't see why it couldn't work, however if believe that the magic-user is already the strongest class then it seems kind of questionable to give the something extra, even if extremely minor. I think something like this was done in 3.5 with various feats, for instance if you had the right feat as long as you held an acid related spell in memory you could use a minor magic at will to cast a fairly minor acid bolt spell. There were various ones, though I can't remember of the top of my head the exact details of how it was done, or what book it was in.I would suggest limiting the maximum number of simultaneous active effects. You could cap it at some arbitrary number (3, 5, 7...). Alternatively, you could tie it to the maximum numeber of languages known (INT derived), or you could make it equal to 1, or 2 if the character has a high enough INT to qualify for bonus XP. You could also tie it to another ability score if you want to reward non-traditional MUs.
Limiting the maximum number of simultaneous effects avoids the bookkeeping nightmare that this could become at higher levels.
I also would not feel a need to come up with a significant effect for every spell. Who walks around with Find Familiar running all the time anyways?I like memorization as is but I'd certainly use the significant effects and maybe even the ideas Frank suggested.
as for Find Familiar, well the spell could either be treated as a class ability like later editions do or operate as a buff spell when recast. Cast the spell on you familiar and it gets some chunk bonuses for 1 turn a level.
As for a memorization bonus, thats easy. Speak with animals of you familiars type at will. Handy but no overpowering.
Lastly the one cool think about this idea is the notion one could have a wizard who cleverly almost never casts his spells and instead depends on tricks and minor magic till he really has no other choice.d&d spell capabilities were an unfortunate aribitrary system where 1/2 level-1 = highest spell complexity able to be cast. This gave us the 11th level wizard-lord when the fighting-man maxed out at 9th (lord is 1 level past super hero, wizard-lord is 1 level past wizard).
Far better to ret-con d&d to put the 8th and 9th level wizard on par with the fighter. Where 9th level gets you 6th level spells, which means a 1st level MU gets 3/2. More than enough to keep a 1st level mu busy and a 4th level hero-magic user and 8th level maintains parity with the fighter and you don't end up with the unfortunate, "weak at low levels, powerful at high levels" crap that people pass off as intentional design when it was--in retrospect, flawed transitioning from CHAINMAIL to D&D.
come on! 1st level spells are already cantrip-quality spells. Read Magic? really? Detect magic? unseen servant? grease? This is wizard quality shock and awe? 0 level cantrips where DM's grant players the ability to fart pixy dust is laughable and useful perhaps in a game of ars magica or vampire the masqurade.Seriously, is a 1st level magic user; 3 hit points and an AC of 10 with read magic, detect magic, sleep, web, invisibilty is that game breaking at 1st level? Does that scream munchkin when the fighter rocking 14 hit points 3d6+6 weapon specialized two handed sword with 18/56 strength and AC 3 plate mail?
What happens when you want to switch to CHAINMAIL and the 4th level hero fighter is shredding 4 men per turn in man-to-man combat, forcing morale checks on whole units of enemies, killing dragons with arrows, and adding +1 to whole legions when leading them...but your 4th level magic user has melfs magic arrow memorized and unseen servant? Simply shift the spell progression down 3 levels to match CHAINMAIL.Twitt: Great example, I also just read The Scarlet Citadel for the first time a few days ago. I was struck by the part at the end which showed the first quasi-fireball I'd seen depicted in literature; an explosive grenade physically thrown. If that was how D&D fireballs worked (esp., enormously smaller range), I'd actually prefer that. In general, if the D&D magic effects were at least ambiguously interpretable as physical actions, I think that would've been a very nice guiding principle. (Of course D&D is "big tent" and not really disciplined on that way.)
"'I'll blast the flesh from your bones!'... Tsotha's right hand came back and forward, and the king ducked quickly. Something passed by his helmeted head and exploded behind him, searing the very sands with a flash of hellish fire. Before Tsotha could toss the globe in his left hand, Conan's sword sheared through his lean neck." [The Scarlet Citadel]I never had a problem with the magic system but that may be because of how I thought of it. My idea of it was less of a your memorizing it thing and more of a your loading your brain like you would a gun. You can only have so many a day like a gun can only hold so many bullets and once you fire them you can't do it again till you reload.
ReplyDeleteI've been using the same explanation for memorisation as Talysman for years. I lifted it straight out of the Amber books. A sorcerer casts most of a spell while prearing it, but then leaves it "hanging" a word or two away from the end.
The magical effect is then kind of hovering around, just waiting for that last key word, ingredient or gesture to trigger it. I even have it so that casting a Detect Magic spell can, with a long enough study period, determine exactly which spells a given spellcaster has "hanging" at any given time.- AnonymousNovember 12, 2010 at 4:21 AM
I think it would be also interesting to find flaws you get from having spells memorized as well. While you have fly memorized you also have less strength to push or pull weights for instance. The tricky part is balancing pros and cons but if you find a good even it could give a new look at magic.
ReplyDelete Late D&D 3.5 added a mechanic that gave you a benefit for having an uncast spell - Reserve Feats. There were Reserve Feats for each school of magic and each element, I think. They all gave you some ability based on having a spell of the appropriate type memorized and uncast; the ability varied by level of the uncast spell in most cases. A bunch of them were attacks, a sort of prelude to 4e at-will abilities, but others were defenses and utility effects.
ReplyDeleteI had a game in 3.5 where the DM allowed us to just use our cantrips as much as we wanted. It did not do anything to the balance but made the casters feel more magical. If you let Magic Users have an ability like the spell prestidigitation from 3.5 it would not unbalance anything to much as well as make them feel like they can still do stuff even if they have used all of their spells.
ReplyDelete@Joseph: when a mage has Read Magic memorized, there is a constant cirle of arcane symbols circling his head like a halo, appearing and disapperaing, causing a disconcerting effect. For Read Languages, the mage throws in words from other languages he cannot speak at random, kinda like language aphasia.
ReplyDeleteI've always thought this idea sounded cool in theory but would call for expansion of the spell descriptions to describe the secondary effect. I'm in favor of cutting spell descriptions down rather than lengthening them.
While I'm not really a big fan of the Vancian system, it is a great system for a game. What I've done is remove the need to pre-memorize spells. Casters get the same number of slots they've always got and they need to study or meditate as much as they always have. But they get to pick a known spell at casting time rather than picking it at the beginning of the day.
I require clerics and druids to have lists of "known" spells rather than allowing them to pick from anything on the list and we require a check to see if multiple castings of the same spell on the same day are successful.
This has made spell casters a bit more flexible to play without upping their overall power level and means that the less-memorized spells get used more often because they're available when needed.@i-manticora:
I think it would be also interesting to find flaws you get from having spells memorized as well. While you have fly memorized you also have less strength to push or pull weights for instance. The tricky part is balancing pros and cons but if you find a good even it could give a new look at magic.
This was my first thought as well. Sorcerors and witches in the source literature all have bizarre taboos and weaknesses -- AD&D even addressed this specifically with the M-U class in Oriental Adventures, IIRC.
Why not give each memorized spell a positive effect and a weakness or taboo? That actually lets you make the powers a bit more powerful without it being unbalanced. And it lets you have a fire mage who has weaknesses to water-based attacks, a death mage who gets burned by holy symbols, etc. In fact, this would seem to me to be a great way of subsuming M-U sub-classes (clerics, illusionists, druids) into a single class and a unified framework. For example, the cleric's ability to turn undead could actually be tied to having unmemorized spells of healing or Protection From Evil. A magic user's weapon and armor restrictions (or a cleric's ban on edged weapons) could be the result of his repertoire of memorized spells. And so on.
Obviously, this would be a major rewrite to D&D. But what I'm describing is only the most extreme version of such a system -- one could certainly adopt it piecemeal.@Jeff, I think the reserve feats from Complete Arcane.
And this idea, like the reserve feats, are similar to the psionic focus system from the 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook. A psion could 'maintain focus' to have a small ongoing effect, or 'expend focus' to basically cast a spell.
I like the idea of holding focus to get minor color effect. I think i've seen it before in OSR-land. But it does require more judgement, and could expand spell descriptions too long. And having lots of spells with different minor effects could make bookkeeping a chore, or make the world less 'magical' feeling. Just like the christmas-tree of magic items in 3rd edition.
@toddroe, I remember that story too. I think it was an LL blog. If you want to hear good stories about how bad-ass Level 1 MUs are compared to normal men or Level 1 fighters, I think JB at B/X Blackrazor has some good posts.
@theshadowknows, I agree that opening up player-MUs to make scrolls at first level does give them breadth and staying power. Or at least the feeling of staying power. Also, what else are they going to spend money on. I think this rule comes from Holmes Basic.the biggest problem of vancian system is not the fire and forget but going from 1 single 1st level spell at 1st level to 45 1st to 9th level spell (5 each level) at 25th level!
that is 45 time the number of spell and 225 time the total levels of spell ready
maybe vancian mage should have the same number (or almost the same number) of spell at each level (say from 3-4 to 7-8) but in gaining levels you can prepare more powerful spells (as in Vance novels btw)
than you add lesser powers usable more often or you give the mage the ability to charge magic items like wand and staff....
@twitt the problem of your observation is that not everyone want to play an alchemist@Fabio
My observation is that historical/mythological people associated with magic (Hermes, Merlin, Dr. Faustus, Morgan le Fay, witch doctors) are pseudo-scientists, chemists, astrologers, scholars, and charmcasters. Their magic is smoke and mirrors but as a famous saying goes, science is indistinguishable from magic.
The common complaint with Vancian casting is how weak a 1st level magic-user is. I disagree when the simple fact remains that the cleaning compounds under your sink can be used to kill a man in 100 different ways. Unfortunately, D&D is at fault for having always pushed alchemy aside despite being an important part of fantasy literature and mythology. Bard Game's The Complete Alchemist (for AD&D) is the only publication (off the top of my mind) that does alchemy justice.I agree think that the "Vancian" system could use some reworking. I have been following Old Skool on his blog House Rules:
He has some great ideas about alternating the system of memorizing and casting spells. I have found that in my own attempts to house rule a spell point/mana point system, the bookkeeping side of it is always the problem. Tables and charts and points to be calculated... arghh.@Twit I understand it, but as I said not everybody sees it this way, many want to be a "mage"
I played mage and illusionist from 1st to about 15th level in 1st edition AD&D and had a lot of fun... but they went from too little to too much :)
@Christian with mana you have other problems, in particular if at 20th level a 1st level spell cost just 1 point do I cast it at 1st level effect or at 20th level (I mean do I cast 1 magic missile or 5, do I cast a 5d6 fireball or a 20d6) the system is geared toward a fixed amount of spell mana goes in another directionTo Fabio:
I always ran into similar issues. The biggest problem I had was that a high level character with many points of mana would be able to blast tons of lower level spells. i.e. a 10th level mage blasting off about 100 magic missiles a day!
Take a look at the blog I posted above. He has some great ideas.- AnonymousNovember 15, 2010 at 12:32 AM
A little bit off-topic, but having actually read The Dying Earth and its sequels, I've come to take exception to the traditional approach to Vancian spellcasting. To wit, so far as I can tell, there's no in-world rule in Vance's writing that actually limits a spell to one casting per day. The few times we see magicians memorizing their spells, they do indeed use each spell but a single time within the story; however, I find no reason to view this as anything but a literary device.
That said, the limit on spellcasting is a great element of D&D's resource management aspect, so for my Whitebox-based campaign, I've used the following rules: A spell, once memorized, is not forgotten (save through the arduous process of memorizing a new spell), but it can only be safely cast once per day. A magic-user who dares may recast a spell, but the toll may be steep. In game terms, he takes 1d6 damage immediately upon completion of the spell. (Naturally, I couple this with the "no double dipping" rule: a spell can't be memorized twice any more than can a song or a soliloquy.) @Christian I have read the blog and it's very interesting (with a lot of magical specialization :) ) and he indeed intend the cost of spell casting for casting spell at 1st level efficiency (this create other problems... it would be better to rewrite all spells with specific effect/cost)
@OdRook I am with you, I have read a few time the tales of the dying earth and the big guns (Rhialto and the others) could just memorize an handful of spells they they used a lot of bound creatures and magical objects.
I like the idea of casting spell more than once with some risk :)Hmm, the memorization == re-wiring your brain idea is an interesting one, but I'd be inclined to take it the other direction. Allow a MU to take extra spells at the expense of some penalties, perhaps on wisdom (-1 point per level of the spell) to reflect the strain of overburdening your brain. The increasing spell memorization counts for higher levels then represents that their training is allowing their brains to better accomodate more and greater magics.


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Theft Is Deflationary--Especially the Crony-Capitalist/State Kind
Monopoly power in all its forms--in our system, crony capitalism and its partner, the neofeudal state--enables theft on a systemic scale.
If a monopoly forces its customers to pay more for low-quality goods and services because they have no choice, how is that not theft?
If the Mafia raises the price of "protection" on small businesses (another case of monopoly and no other choice), how is that extortion not theft?
When a local government raises junk fees to fund its cronies' excessive (i.e. non-market-rate) salaries and pensions, how is that monopoly power to extort more money from those with no other choice any different from Mafia extortion/theft?
If a pharmaceutical company extends a patent on a costly medication by changing the dosage slightly, how is that not theft via regulatory capture? If a government contractor charges the Pentagon $1,000 for a hammer (all those overhead charges, tsk-tsk--lobbying corrupt politicos costs a lot, you know), how is that not theft of taxpayers' money?
When the Federal Reserve drops the yield on savings to near-zero to funnel all that stolen wealth to its cronies on Wall Street, how is that not theft?
Monopoly power in all its forms--in our system, crony capitalism and its partner, the neofeudal state--enables theft on a systemic scale. When crony capitalism and the state are essentially one system, the propaganda organs of the state and mainstream corporate media combine to persuade the stripmined populace that their theft is not theft, it's "capitalism and democracy at work." This is known as The Big Lie. What we have is systemic theft, predation and exploitation.
Calling things what they really are would upset the apple cart of systemic exploitation.Let's Call Things What They Really Are in 2014 (January 15, 2014)
Correspondent Jeff W. explains that all this systemic theft is inherently deflationary:
All forms of stealing are deflationary. Stealing cuts into the average citizen's disposable income, it reduces how much he can buy. Because there are now fewer dollars chasing more goods, deflation is the inevitable result. Stealing is actually worse than a zero-sum game. Society loses more than the thief takes. In addition to losses from theft, a victim often has to spend more on security measures. Theft also has a chilling effect on capital investment and commerce in general.
Consider how many different kinds of theft the American citizen is exposed to: street crime, sickcare industry ripoffs, legal system ripoffs including huge fines for traffic violations, high taxes, interest earnings on his savings that amount to ZIRP, a corporatist state determined to suppress his wages by any means necessary, unending victimization at the hands of predators enabled and protected by the state. If he owns a small business, he has to deal with a corrupt regulatory state, higher taxes, and an enlarged menagerie of predators. Today there are thieves everywhere.
So one big deflation trend is theft. As theft increases, deflation increases. As society collapses and thieves start roaming freely all over the landscape, a deflationary collapse can be expected—absent a determined and persistent campaign of money printing.
Exhibit A for the case that stealing is deflationary is the Dark Ages.Stealing was rampant in the Dark Ages. How did people react to that? By "going medieval." They wore clothing that made them look poor so as to avoid attracting the attention of thieves. Their dwellings looked poor for the same reason. If they had cash, they would bury it in the ground; no one could be trusted. Unless one was an insider who could get protection from the state, no one's property was safe.
Capital investments were much too risky, and out of the question. What were the price characteristics of the Dark Ages? Wages were low. Real estate valuations low. Prices of manufactured items (such as they were) were low. Only food was expensive. People can cut back on clothing and shelter, but there is a limit to how much they can cut back on food. In the Dark Ages, people really hunkered down and just focused on basic survival.
Exhibit B is Detroit. Detroit for many years has been a high crime area, i.e. it had lots of thieves running around. What are the price characteristics of Detroit? Wages low. Real estate valuations low. There is very little manufacturing being done inside the city limits today because of high property taxes and crime. There is also very little capital investment for the same reasons.
There is a vicious circle at work here. 1) Thieves control the government; 2) Which results in increased stealing; 3) Deflation results from that; 4) Which gives the thieves a reason to print money and give it to themselves; 5) Which enriches the thieves some more; 6) Which gives them more resources they can use to consolidate their control of the government; 7) Back to step 1.
Many people seem confused about how there could be deflation in the paper (or digital) money era. If they would recognize how much stealing is going on, and if they understood the powerful deflationary effect of stealing, then perhaps they would not be so surprised to observe price decreases, particularly in wages and the prices of manufactured products.Thank you, Jeff, for explaining the causal connection between systemic theft and deflation. To all those terrified of deflation (for example, central bankers and their cronies holding trillions of dollars in phantom assets and illusory collateral), the solution is obvious: get rid of systemic theft. But since those terrified of deflation are at the top of the monopoly-power thievery pyramid, that is asking the impossible: for the thieves to relinquish their power to steal.
The Nearly Free University and The Emerging Economy:
The Revolution in Higher Education
Reconnecting higher education, livelihoods and the economyWith the soaring cost of higher education, has the value a college degree been turned upside down? College tuition and fees are up 1000% since 1980. Half of all recent college graduates are jobless or underemployed, revealing a deep disconnect between higher education and the job market.
It is no surprise everyone is asking: Where is the return on investment? Is the assumption that higher education returns greater prosperity no longer true? And if this is the case, how does this impact you, your children and grandchildren?
We must thoroughly understand the twin revolutions now fundamentally changing our world: The true cost of higher education and an economy that seems to re-shape itself minute to minute.
The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy clearly describes the underlying dynamics at work - and, more importantly, lays out a new low-cost model for higher education: how digital technology is enabling a revolution in higher education that dramatically lowers costs while expanding the opportunities for students of all ages.
The Nearly Free University and the Emerging Economy provides clarity and optimism in a period of the greatest change our educational systems and society have seen, and offers everyone the tools needed to prosper in the Emerging Economy.
Read Chapter 1/Table of Contents
print ($20) Kindle ($9.95)
Things are falling apart--that is obvious. But why are they falling apart? The reasons are complex and global. Our economy and society have structural problems that cannot be solved by adding debt to debt. We are becoming poorer, not just from financial over-reach, but from fundamental forces that are not easy to identify. We will cover the five core reasons why things are falling apart:
1. Debt and financialization
2. Crony capitalism
3. Diminishing returns
4. Centralization
5. Technological, financial and demographic changes in our economy
Complex systems weakened by diminishing returns collapse under their own weight and are replaced by systems that are simpler, faster and affordable. If we cling to the old ways, our system will disintegrate. If we want sustainable prosperity rather than collapse, we must embrace a new model that is Decentralized, Adaptive, Transparent and Accountable (DATA).
We are not powerless. Once we accept responsibility, we become powerful.
Read the Introduction/Table of Contents
Kindle: $9.95 print: $24
Thank you, W. Anthony H. ($100), for your outrageously generous contribution to this site-- I am greatly honored by your steadfast support and readership. |


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