The Lazy DM's Workbook

The Lazy DM's Workbook
Author: Michael Shea
Publisher:
Total Pages: 48
Release: 2018-11-09
Genre:
ISBN: 9781731107503

The Lazy DM's Workbook contains a wide range of tools, maps, and reference sheets to help you run your fifth edition fantasy roleplaying game--and is designed to be useful right at the table. This book contains numerous fifth edition rules references, guides, and random generators to help fire up your imagination as you prepare and run your games. The workbook also contains ten lazy lairs: full-color maps and quick descriptions of locations common to most fantasy roleplaying games. When the characters take a game session in a direction you didn't expect, you can use any of these lairs with minimal prep time, running it straight out of the book. The Lazy DM's Workbook is an indispensable reference, designed to be kept at your side as tales of high adventure unfold at your gaming table.

The Lazy Dungeon Master

The Lazy Dungeon Master
Author: Michael Shea
Publisher:
Total Pages: 68
Release: 2019-06-14
Genre:
ISBN: 9781073741113

You love Dungeons and Dragons. As an experienced dungeon master you've run dozens, if not hundreds of games. You put a lot of work into making your games great. What if there's another way to look at how you prepare your game? What if it turned out you could spend less time, less energy, and have a better game as a result?It's time to unleash the Lazy Dungeon Master.Written in the style of Sly Flourish's Dungeon Master Tips and Running Epic Tier D&D Games, The Lazy Dungeon Master shows a new approach to game preparation, one that takes less time and gives your game the freedom to grow at the table. This book will help dungeon master prepare awesome games for any version of D&D.Based on the real-world experiences of hundreds of dungeon masters and dozens of professional game designers, the Lazy Dungeon Master includes interviews with veteran D&D DMs and a complete toolkit to help you improvise an entire game.Whether you play 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, Pathfinder, or the D&D Next playtest; The Lazy Dungeon Master has tips, techniques, and advice to make preparation easier and help you run a flexible and entertaining game.

Game Wizards

Game Wizards
Author: Jon Peterson
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2021-10-12
Genre: Games & Activities
ISBN: 0262542951

The story of the arcane table-top game that became a pop culture phenomenon and the long-running legal battle waged by its cocreators. When Dungeons & Dragons was first released to a small hobby community, it hardly seemed destined for mainstream success--and yet this arcane tabletop role-playing game became an unlikely pop culture phenomenon. In Game Wizards, Jon Peterson chronicles the rise of Dungeons & Dragons from hobbyist pastime to mass market sensation, from the initial collaboration to the later feud of its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. As the game's fiftieth anniversary approaches, Peterson--a noted authority on role-playing games--explains how D&D and its creators navigated their successes, setbacks, and controversies. Peterson describes Gygax and Arneson's first meeting and their work toward the 1974 release of the game; the founding of TSR and its growth as a company; and Arneson's acrimonious departure and subsequent challenges to TSR. He recounts the "Satanic Panic" accusations that D&D was sacrilegious and dangerous, and how they made the game famous. And he chronicles TSR's reckless expansion and near-fatal corporate infighting, which culminated with the company in debt and overextended and the end of Gygax's losing battle to retain control over TSR and D&D. With Game Wizards, Peterson restores historical particulars long obscured by competing narratives spun by the one-time partners. That record amply demonstrates how the turbulent experience of creating something as momentous as Dungeons & Dragons can make people remember things a bit differently from the way they actually happened.

Advanced Guide to Python 3 Programming

Advanced Guide to Python 3 Programming
Author: John Hunt
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 638
Release: 2023-11-02
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3031403363

Advanced Guide to Python 3 Programming 2nd Edition delves deeply into a host of subjects that you need to understand if you are to develop sophisticated real-world programs. Each topic is preceded by an introduction followed by more advanced topics, along with numerous examples, that take you to an advanced level. This second edition has been significantly updated with two new sections on advanced Python language concepts and data analytics and machine learning. The GUI chapters have been rewritten to use the Tkinter UI library and a chapter on performance monitoring and profiling has been added. In total there are 18 new chapters, and all remaining chapters have been updated for the latest version of Python as well as for any of the libraries they use. There are eleven sections within the book covering Python Language Concepts, Computer Graphics (including GUIs), Games, Testing, File Input and Output, Databases Access, Logging, Concurrency and Parallelism, Reactive Programming, Networking and Data Analytics. Each section is self-contained and can either be read on its own or as part of the book as a whole. It is aimed at those who have learnt the basics of the Python 3 language but wish to delve deeper into Python’s eco system of additional libraries and modules.

The Social Media Marketing Book

The Social Media Marketing Book
Author: Dan Zarrella
Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2009-11-13
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 1449383106

Are you looking to take advantage of social media for your business or organization? With easy-to-understand introductions to blogging, forums, opinion and review sites, and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, this book will help you choose the best -- and avoid the worst -- of the social web's unique marketing opportunities. The Social Media Marketing Book guides you through the maze of communities, platforms, and social media tools so you can decide which ones to use, and how to use them most effectively. With an objective approach and clear, straightforward language, Dan Zarrella, aka "The Social Media & Marketing Scientist," shows you how to plan and implement campaigns intelligently, and then measure results and track return on investment. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the social web, this book will take you beyond the jargon to social media marketing mastery. Make sense of this complicated environment with the help of screenshots, graphs, and visual explanations Understand the history and culture of each social media type, including features, functionality, and protocols Get clear-cut explanations of the methods you need to trigger viral marketing successes Choose the technologies and marketing tactics most relevant to your campaign goals Learn how to set specific goals for your campaigns and evaluate them according to key performance indicators Praise for The Social Media Marketing Book: "Let Zarrella take you to social-media marketing school. You'll learn more from reading this book than a month of research on the Internet."--Guy Kawasaki, co-founder of Alltop.com "If I could be any other person for a day, it would be Dan Zarella. Either him or Brad Pitt. But Dan's smarter. This book is why I say that."--Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs "This book demonstrates a beginning to the endless possibilities of the Social Web."-- Brian Solis, publisher of leading marketing blog PR 2.0

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality

Internet of Things From Hype to Reality
Author: Ammar Rayes
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 350
Release: 2016-10-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319448609

This book comprehensively describes an end-to-end Internet of Things (IoT) architecture that is comprised of devices, network, compute, storage, platform, applications along with management and security components. It is organized into five main parts, comprising of a total of 11 chapters. Part I presents a generic IoT reference model to establish a common vocabulary for IoT solutions. This includes a detailed description of the Internet protocol layers and the Things (sensors and actuators) as well as the key business drivers to realize the IoT vision. Part II focuses on the IoT requirements that impact networking protocols and provides a layer-by-layer walkthrough of the protocol stack with emphasis on industry progress and key gaps. Part III introduces the concept of Fog computing and describes the drivers for the technology, its constituent elements, and how it relates and differs from Cloud computing. Part IV discusses the IoT services platform, the cornerstone of the solution followed by the Security functions and requirements. Finally, Part V provides a treatment of the topic of connected ecosystems in IoT along with practical applications. It then surveys the latest IoT standards and discusses the pivotal role of open source in IoT. “Faculty will find well-crafted questions and answers at the end of each chapter, suitable for review and in classroom discussion topics. In addition, the material in the book can be used by engineers and technical leaders looking to gain a deep technical understanding of IoT, as well as by managers and business leaders looking to gain a competitive edge and understand innovation opportunities for the future.” Dr. Jim Spohrer, IBM “This text provides a very compelling study of the IoT space and achieves a very good balance between engineering/technology focus and business context. As such, it is highly-recommended for anyone interested in this rapidly-expanding field and will have broad appeal to a wide cross-section of readers, i.e., including engineering professionals, business analysts, university students, and professors.” Professor Nasir Ghani, University of South Florida

On Downtime and Demesnes

On Downtime and Demesnes
Author: Mike Evans
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2019-12-15
Genre:
ISBN:

Do you sometimes wish you didn't have to put in so much effort into engaging your players in tabletop role-playing games? Wouldn't it be nice if they couldn't wait to play around in your world? If they were pushing you to spend more time in the land you create?On Downtime and Demesnes contains: Systems that motivate playersSimple usable procedures that workCreativity and inspiration for adventureNo longer will your players wonder what their characters should do with all their gold. It includes clear, common-sense rules for everything from starting a cult, making sacrifices to gods, to hiring mercenaries and building vehicles and castles.Going to an arena fight? Take seconds to determine the purse, peruse mechanics to handle the arena crowd, pick some ideas for interesting arenas, and select an opponent like the Necrourge: a master of the dark arts of necrourgy, who raises the bodies of traitors or other criminals after they have been forced to fight in the arena and died. What's it for?The downtime goals give agency to players, and let them build a dynasty. Imagine a group eager to explore your world because they have their own plans! These objective procedures give players tools that fire a desire to dive into your creative world, discover its detailed history, and make their mark on it.It gives your players the tools to make their wildest ideas come to life, without breaking your campaign or your suspension of disbelief, all the while driving them to adventure in your world. On Downtime and Demesnes is filled with tools that work. Build a flying ship, enchant it; or build a wizards tower and raise fortifications in the surrounding lands. All with simple, scalable, rules compatible with the 5th edition of the world's most popular role-playing game!This is a book used in every game you run. Your next campaign, the one after that, the one after that. . . Not one wasted word. Every page is crammed with content and creativity. No filler. Tools that let players build castles and control land, without disassociated mechanics. This is the stronghold book you've been looking for

Programming in Python 3

Programming in Python 3
Author: Mark Summerfield
Publisher: Pearson Education
Total Pages: 631
Release: 2008-12-16
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 0321606590

Python 3 is the best version of the language yet: It is more powerful, convenient, consistent, and expressive than ever before. Now, leading Python programmer Mark Summerfield demonstrates how to write code that takes full advantage of Python 3’s features and idioms. The first book written from a completely “Python 3” viewpoint, Programming in Python 3 brings together all the knowledge you need to write any program, use any standard or third-party Python 3 library, and create new library modules of your own. Summerfield draws on his many years of Python experience to share deep insights into Python 3 development you won’t find anywhere else. He begins by illuminating Python’s “beautiful heart”: the eight key elements of Python you need to write robust, high-performance programs. Building on these core elements, he introduces new topics designed to strengthen your practical expertise—one concept and hands-on example at a time. This book’s coverage includes Developing in Python using procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming paradigms Creating custom packages and modules Writing and reading binary, text, and XML files, including optional compression, random access, and text and XML parsing Leveraging advanced data types, collections, control structures, and functions Spreading program workloads across multiple processes and threads Programming SQL databases and key-value DBM files Utilizing Python’s regular expression mini-language and module Building usable, efficient, GUI-based applications Advanced programming techniques, including generators, function and class decorators, context managers, descriptors, abstract base classes, metaclasses, and more Programming in Python 3 serves as both tutorial and language reference, and it is accompanied by extensive downloadable example code—all of it tested with the final version of Python 3 on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.