Random dohickey
Something in this doesn't seem to want to work with my work internet, but I'm posting it here to see if it shows up with some other connection, later.
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Something in this doesn't seem to want to work with my work internet, but I'm posting it here to see if it shows up with some other connection, later.
Or rather, superscience: how to run Venture Brothers style adventures using InSpectres.
The Ballad of Black Mesa makes me want to go buy Half-life 2.
So a couple weeks ago, Alexander the Hoax (long story) talked me into going to the Forge Midwest gaming convention. That's good.
The scheduling of games for the convention, which usually numbers about fifty people, is REALLY informal. Totally. There's a thread on the Forge forum where people say what they want to play, and what they want to GM, and a list of the time slots, and the con organizer (wisely) just lets everyone find similarly interested folks and sort out what they're playing and who they're playing with, in the thread.
So I post to the thread and list off all those neat games that I have that I haven't had a chance to play yet, and then I list a couple of the games I think I'd be willing to GM -- Sorcerer, Mountain WItch, Mortal Coil, Dogs in the Vineyard, and Shadow of Yesterday.
The next guy who posts says he'd be willing to run Agon (yay!) and would be really interested in a Shadow of Yesterday game.
Okay... I wasn't expecting that, as it was basically an afterthought on my list, but cool. I mean... yeah, it's cool. I've never REALLY had a group fire on all cylinders with that system, yet (largely because we can't seem to SCHEDULE GAME SESSIONS), but I'm sure it'll come together, and hey, that's just one guy? Maybe no one else will be interested in that.
The next guy posts that he'd like to play TSoY.
Then there's a few other posts...
Then another guy says he'd like to play TSoY...
Okay.
So I jump on the thread and say "Hey, this is cool, we've got three people interested in Shadow of Yesterday. Awesome. What time slot? Also, I'll take one, maybe two more interested people -- any takers?"
The very next post says "Doyce, I'd like to play in that TSOY game with you guys."
The post author? Clinton R. Nixon.
The guy that WROTE THE GAME.
...
I'm not panicking. I'm not. I swear.
Maybe a little.
This weekend, Kate's in town and I wanted to have a social kind of gaming thing -- while both she and I game, we really haven't done much gaming together at all -- basically two games I've run had a few too many players and were both kind of chaotic (either as a result of the group size, or intentionally, or both).
So anyway, due to the super-creative nature of the player's we'd be doing this with, and the fact that the my regular group's history involves a fair amount of diceless stuff, I decided on running Mortal Coil, which I've been excited to run, and seeing what happened.
The problem: I haven't actually run MC before.
The solution: test run with two of my 'regular' players (Dave and Margie) to go through the whole 'pitch session', character creation, and a sample conflict to see where the hitches and questions arose.
The result: [AP] From the Casebook of Donne & Donne, Detectives -- lots of fun and, as you can see from my post to the Forge, lots of rules questions.
The whole thing DID prompt me to go back to the Mortal Coil section of RandomWiki though, and reread MortalCoil - Conflict Examples. These were all written by the game's author; I thought they were cool and useful before I'd run the game -- having now run it, I think they're damned near invaluable.
NearbyGamers -- a gamer locator, since FindPlay doesn't exactly... umm... work. Right now.
Minions, being the salt and bone of Spirit of the century, need heavy use and lots and lots of variation. For this I think Minion Cards are good help for hard-pressed Game Masters and the reason for this Thread.
I'm such a visual person. It's totally stuff like this that gets me revved up to run or play in a game. MAN this would be cool! I want to engage in wrestling and fisticuffs with Ape-man Scientists!
((With thanks to Andy Kitkowski for the post title.))
How... interesting.
Wizards of the Coast is offering a limited supply of advanced reading copies of:Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress
A Girl’s Guide to the Dungeons & Dragons Game
By Shelly MazzanobleWith tongue-in-cheek humor and plenty of self-mockery, Shelly Mazzanoble chronicles her unexpected descent into the world of Dungeons and Dragons. Shelly’s a girlie-girl through and through, but when a friend asks her to join his D&D game as an 134-year-old sorceress named Astrid Bellagio, she agrees, never expecting to actually like it. In spite of all the stereotypes—or maybe because of them—she actually finds herself getting game.
Part Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging, part D&D for Dummies, this book lays out how to create a character, make D&D-themed snacks (Magic Missile Meatballs, anyone?) and play the game, all the while taking a light-hearted look at the myths and realities of gamer stereotypes. For teen girls who love reading fantasy, for librarians running gaming clubs, or for those of you who want to figure out how to start one, here’s your stepping stone to a fun, rewarding, and totally geek-chic experience at the library, at school, or at home.
Coming September 2007
ISBN: 978-0-7869-4726-3
Nonfiction—YA to adult
Author Bio:
Shelly Mazzanoble believes her childhood was too functional to become a really good writer, so she has decided to go insane. She likes to think of herself as the Snow White of Seattle, living among loads of personified inanimate objects and imaginary friends, including her teddy bear Pooh and her condo, Betty. When not playing with and feeding her ghost dog tuna sandwiches from Subway, Shelly is busy fending off slander lawsuits from family and editing her collection of short stories about a girl who lives in Seattle with loads of imaginary friends and ghost dog. Shelly loves binge-eating, over-exercising and HGTV.
I'd almost buy the book on the bio alone.
Marvel's Civil War storyline (which directly addresses things like 9/11 and the Patriot Act) makes a pretty bold move. (Huge spoilers if you haven't been keeping up with the story, but plan to read it later.)
I found the article pretty interesting for a lot of reasons: it talks about the way a story for a supers character can develop, why certain things sort of *need* to happen, and it involves one of my personal favorite characters in comics (along with Wolverine and Spidey).
Related to that last post: steampunk magazine - putting the punk back into steampunk
Before the age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.Even if we had to make it all up.
Also Steampunk Rayguns!
World of Warcraft (WoW) Starting Guide - Google Video
Interesting? Eh. Thorough, and education in terms of what you can do with media programs now. Kinda cool.
Also? Yeah, a good intro to WoW.
Eric's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea: steampunk star wars
Awesome. Especially Vader.