I am preparing to run a game of Scion, the new offering from White Wolf. The premise is about as 'up my street' as you could possibly get. The Elder Gods have left this plane, leaving behind their children (the titular Scions) in their wake. The Titans have escaped their Underworld prison and are now trying to invade the Overworld via their children the Titanspawn. All that stands between humanity and the decimation at the hands of these monsters are - The Scions! Magically enhanced beings who twist fate and perform legendary deeds. Sounds rather super doesn't it? Well, it is - it draws from everything that gets me hot under the collar - modern urban fantasy, mythic storytelling, mythology and pantheons in general, pseudo-superheroes and OTT action.
So whats the issue?
Well, and after that above paragraph, it seems silly to say this - it all seems a little ... dry? Basic? Ill-defined? When I look at the character generation, it seems rather one dimensional. You have a demigod. He or she has great power. They are the Scion of a Deity. They have skills and a human life. They are drawn by Fate into the battle. But??
In Scion I have seen where my gaming 'voyage' over these years has taken me. I don't want a game where cookie-cutter PCs come up against cookie-cutter plots with cookie-cutter villains and cookie-cutter monsters. I don't want a game where the players engage with a GM-generated plot to thwart a GM-generated nemesis. It just doesn't seem right anymore.
I want a game where vital and active characters come up against personal and dangerous plots with relevant bad guys and epic monsters. I want the players and the GM to engage with a plot that weaves them all together - forestory and backstory - against a common foe. I want the game to reflect the desires of the players rather than the ego of the GM. Rather than saying 'I will entertain you, this is how, enjoy!' I want to say 'How do we want to be entertained? Cool - right, we can all help make this happen, lets go!'
This is the design brief I have used when I have created Omniverse and MI:666 and I have realised that it is the design features that make games like Burning Empires (moreso than Burning Wheel imo), Spirit of the Century and Primetime Adventures seem so appealing to me.
It's also what makes the initial presentation of Scion look so damned bland. Which leaves me in a dilema - well, actually it doesn't. The dilema would be what to do as I like to play games 'out of the box' on first showing. However, that sort of thing is going to have to go by the wayside now as I am going to have to do some more extensive campaign 'creation' with the players to satisfy my need for a more modern approach to the games we play.
So, Scion - awesome idea, well executed but really, 1998 is calling and they would like their model of roleplay design back please!
Neil
Monday, April 23, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Three Fears
Another gaming session rumbled through tonight and we experienced three 'fears'
The Fear of Evil
We created our D&D characters for CottageCon. These are not your normal characters and it was not your normal character creation. These are level 18 constructed characters of EPIC proportions. My Sorceress has a Charisma of 28 (!). The last hope for a dying world, they are suitably uber. They wield items of ... significant power. So where's the fear? Well, in a move that shocked me as much as it shocked the others, I created an evil character. Not just any evil character either, the daughter of an Infernal Lord, defacto General of his army and Queen of her own empire (which one of the other characters has attempted to destroy!). She wields a 'dark' version of the Staff of the Magi, has intangible armour woven from trapped souls and wears a demonic claw on her left hand that can drain the life of her witless foes. And in my minds eye she looks like the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls!
The strange bedfellows aspect that this brings to the game has filled me with interest in something that I felt might be more like a competitive convention scenario rather than a game of high drama. In the rest of the party we have a Cleric of the Sun God and a full blown Paladin - you know what there's going to be some fireworks at some point in time! Fear? FEAR ME!
The Fear of Success
Pendragon saw us finish off 499 with a great romp. We returned from our smashing of the Saxon army to find that our lands had been raided and Sir Merrin's wife (and some peasants) had been taken captive. Nothing loathe, we saddled up disguised as mercenary knights and travelled deep into the saxon King Cerdic's territory, infiltrated his capital, experienced anti-Briton prejudice, rescued the slaves, stole two boats, crippled the others and escaped. It was truly like an episode of Robin Hood and a smashing change of pace! We quickly moved into 500 and discovered that Bloody King Idris has moved to border us and is attacking Dorset - our ally. We gathered an army and marched to reinforce him. We gathered easily over 300 men and knights which was a bit of a shock. However, we have invested substantial monies into Salisbury and it has some pretty advanced defences. Anyway, we found ourselves inside a siege for once but our old campaigning ways worked well and for once we repelled King Idris' army. Ha! Back to Sarum it dawned on me how far we have come. We really have evolved into 'proper knights' rather than just jumped up footmen. With that success comes the responsibility of fulfilling our pledges and oaths and riding into battle again and again. Can we continue our winning streak?
Fear of ... Time!
Two inevitable things happened in Pendragon. The first was that finally, after so many rolls, one of our wives - the beautiful wife of Sir Merrin who we rescued from the Saxons - died in childbirth. None of us have lost a wife before so it was a strange moment, made even more potent by the knowledge that Merrin has pledged to marry the (evil, misunderstood, demonic - delete as applicable) Rhiannon, making him the defacto father of Aeryn the Youngers illegitimate child. Oh thats just going to go down SO well!
The second thing was ..... aging rolls! It became apparent, as Sir Guillame was RAVAGED by the savage nature of old age, that we have met our final foe. We can defeat massed armies, we can battle with giants, trolls, hellhounds and all manner of unearthly foes. But in the end, age will kill us if the battle field does not. We have nothing to fear except time. Inevitable time.
Neil
The Fear of Evil
We created our D&D characters for CottageCon. These are not your normal characters and it was not your normal character creation. These are level 18 constructed characters of EPIC proportions. My Sorceress has a Charisma of 28 (!). The last hope for a dying world, they are suitably uber. They wield items of ... significant power. So where's the fear? Well, in a move that shocked me as much as it shocked the others, I created an evil character. Not just any evil character either, the daughter of an Infernal Lord, defacto General of his army and Queen of her own empire (which one of the other characters has attempted to destroy!). She wields a 'dark' version of the Staff of the Magi, has intangible armour woven from trapped souls and wears a demonic claw on her left hand that can drain the life of her witless foes. And in my minds eye she looks like the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls!
The strange bedfellows aspect that this brings to the game has filled me with interest in something that I felt might be more like a competitive convention scenario rather than a game of high drama. In the rest of the party we have a Cleric of the Sun God and a full blown Paladin - you know what there's going to be some fireworks at some point in time! Fear? FEAR ME!
The Fear of Success
Pendragon saw us finish off 499 with a great romp. We returned from our smashing of the Saxon army to find that our lands had been raided and Sir Merrin's wife (and some peasants) had been taken captive. Nothing loathe, we saddled up disguised as mercenary knights and travelled deep into the saxon King Cerdic's territory, infiltrated his capital, experienced anti-Briton prejudice, rescued the slaves, stole two boats, crippled the others and escaped. It was truly like an episode of Robin Hood and a smashing change of pace! We quickly moved into 500 and discovered that Bloody King Idris has moved to border us and is attacking Dorset - our ally. We gathered an army and marched to reinforce him. We gathered easily over 300 men and knights which was a bit of a shock. However, we have invested substantial monies into Salisbury and it has some pretty advanced defences. Anyway, we found ourselves inside a siege for once but our old campaigning ways worked well and for once we repelled King Idris' army. Ha! Back to Sarum it dawned on me how far we have come. We really have evolved into 'proper knights' rather than just jumped up footmen. With that success comes the responsibility of fulfilling our pledges and oaths and riding into battle again and again. Can we continue our winning streak?
Fear of ... Time!
Two inevitable things happened in Pendragon. The first was that finally, after so many rolls, one of our wives - the beautiful wife of Sir Merrin who we rescued from the Saxons - died in childbirth. None of us have lost a wife before so it was a strange moment, made even more potent by the knowledge that Merrin has pledged to marry the (evil, misunderstood, demonic - delete as applicable) Rhiannon, making him the defacto father of Aeryn the Youngers illegitimate child. Oh thats just going to go down SO well!
The second thing was ..... aging rolls! It became apparent, as Sir Guillame was RAVAGED by the savage nature of old age, that we have met our final foe. We can defeat massed armies, we can battle with giants, trolls, hellhounds and all manner of unearthly foes. But in the end, age will kill us if the battle field does not. We have nothing to fear except time. Inevitable time.
Neil
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Wiki-phobia
I was browsing through some stuff on rpg.net recently and I came across this (which I have parphrased)
"But of course he got the information from Wikipedia, which naturally discounts it's validity"
I've seen this a few times now - the casual discounting of anything sourced from Wikipedia as being fatally flawed and almost certainly wrong. I've never really thought too much about it, but recently it has really gotten under my skin.
Our knowledge is the product of the inputs we receive from a variety of sources. We are assured that things happen, places and people exist etc. not by having experienced them ourselves but trusting in the words of others. That could be the words of our friends, the media or printed libraries.
Of course, we don't always believe the context of what we are told. We are nowadays veterans of a war against spin, bias and vested interests. Even as children we are filled with the dictum 'history is written by the victors' and then told to question it, as it might not be exactly what happened.
Of course, we cannot go to far in this pursuit of the truth. There are some areas that we hold such a powerful collective conscious belief in the absolute objective truth of the matter that their validity is unquestionable. And yes, I'm looking at holocaust revisionists here!
As I understand, Wikipedia is like a moderated collective work, yes? So if there is an inaccuracy in the presented facts, you can challenge it, assuming you know for absolute certain that they are wrong and you are right? So whats the problem? I have to listen to so-called experts talking utter utter bollocks about a load of subjects every morning on Radio 4 but that doesn't mean that I discount everything that the BBC presents as ill-informed misinformation! (Although if someone can retroactively edit the recent England cricket scores with new, better versions I would be most grateful)
If we discount Wikipedia as an invalid form of information, then we have to discount all of the information provided on the internet and indeed, everything in books too! Why? Because they are written by one person - without the rigour of the panel of thousands of know-it-all critics either! Totally useless in our objective world of knowledge.
Wikiphobia, I think, is just a sympton of a greater malaise and thats an inability to divine the trurth of a situation from the frenzied hyperbole of the twenty first century media driven society. It's an easy target for a society that is maybe coming around to the realisation that many of us walk around with the wool voluntarily pulled over our eyes for most of our lives. A society that is happy to live being force fed one point of view, without analysis or doubt, because it makes life easier. Force fed so that we can be farmed for the fois gras of acceptance and cooperation.
I have waited for someone, in response to the horrific killings at Virginia Tech (although don't get me started about how those killings command so many column inches and yet the same number of deaths, to the multiple of 10s and 100s in Africa and the Middle East are passing soundbites) to ask for 'pix pls or it didn't happen'. You know it will come sometime...
Sorry for that little bit of politics. Back to the gaming!
Neil
"But of course he got the information from Wikipedia, which naturally discounts it's validity"
I've seen this a few times now - the casual discounting of anything sourced from Wikipedia as being fatally flawed and almost certainly wrong. I've never really thought too much about it, but recently it has really gotten under my skin.
Our knowledge is the product of the inputs we receive from a variety of sources. We are assured that things happen, places and people exist etc. not by having experienced them ourselves but trusting in the words of others. That could be the words of our friends, the media or printed libraries.
Of course, we don't always believe the context of what we are told. We are nowadays veterans of a war against spin, bias and vested interests. Even as children we are filled with the dictum 'history is written by the victors' and then told to question it, as it might not be exactly what happened.
Of course, we cannot go to far in this pursuit of the truth. There are some areas that we hold such a powerful collective conscious belief in the absolute objective truth of the matter that their validity is unquestionable. And yes, I'm looking at holocaust revisionists here!
As I understand, Wikipedia is like a moderated collective work, yes? So if there is an inaccuracy in the presented facts, you can challenge it, assuming you know for absolute certain that they are wrong and you are right? So whats the problem? I have to listen to so-called experts talking utter utter bollocks about a load of subjects every morning on Radio 4 but that doesn't mean that I discount everything that the BBC presents as ill-informed misinformation! (Although if someone can retroactively edit the recent England cricket scores with new, better versions I would be most grateful)
If we discount Wikipedia as an invalid form of information, then we have to discount all of the information provided on the internet and indeed, everything in books too! Why? Because they are written by one person - without the rigour of the panel of thousands of know-it-all critics either! Totally useless in our objective world of knowledge.
Wikiphobia, I think, is just a sympton of a greater malaise and thats an inability to divine the trurth of a situation from the frenzied hyperbole of the twenty first century media driven society. It's an easy target for a society that is maybe coming around to the realisation that many of us walk around with the wool voluntarily pulled over our eyes for most of our lives. A society that is happy to live being force fed one point of view, without analysis or doubt, because it makes life easier. Force fed so that we can be farmed for the fois gras of acceptance and cooperation.
I have waited for someone, in response to the horrific killings at Virginia Tech (although don't get me started about how those killings command so many column inches and yet the same number of deaths, to the multiple of 10s and 100s in Africa and the Middle East are passing soundbites) to ask for 'pix pls or it didn't happen'. You know it will come sometime...
Sorry for that little bit of politics. Back to the gaming!
Neil
Monday, April 16, 2007
Finish it!
For those that care, I used to work in corporate training with the HE sector and one of the models that was constantly flung around was Belbin's theory of key roles in teams. I've done the various tests numerous times and the same answer always comes. Happily, for someone who now works in marketing, I score really highly as a Shaper ( dynamic team-member who loves challenges and thrives on pressure. This member possesses the drive and courage required to overcome obstacles) and as a Plant (A creative, imaginative, unorthodox team-member who solves difficult problems). However, I think if I could score any lower in one category, the trainer would probably suggest I was trying to flunk the test! That category?
Completer/Finisher
I'll have, over the years, readily accepted that my ability to fulfil the role as an 'ideas' man, or to deal with complicated problems in a conceptual nature outstrips my ability to carry things through to their absolute conclusion. At work, it's something I have to really concentrate on and develop those finishing skills and the diligence to apply them.
To the same extent, I have had to work hard in my gaming to develop some finishing skills too. Believe it or not, before I met my current group, I had NEVER taken a campaign to a finite conclusion. This was a combination of running games that simply ran out of steam (as open ended games tend to do) or just losing interest altogether. Crescent Sea (our initial 3e adventure) was the first campaign I have ran with an eye to a definite conclusion, although even that for the first two-thirds of the campaign was pretty much open ended. Slaying Days Seasons 1 & 2 offered something new in that I could say very early on exactly how many episodes each season would have and this allowed for the inclusion of TV tropes such as 'sweeps week' two-parters mid-season.
Pulsars and Privateers sits in my gullet as a campaign that I never saw through to a conclusion. Whilst the campaign saw the end of it's first 'movement' when the crew of the Khanjar defeated One-Eyed Elijah and got their own moonbase. Behind the scenes, hinted at through the episodes, there was something happening in hyperspace and eventually the aliens that lived there would invade and cause the chaos that would make the Khanjar famous. Tales that never happened as work took its toll on the campaign. Its very hard to leave something like that and it annoys me.
Omniverse is currently at a crossroads. I've shelved it for a month or so. One reason is that I wanted to get my head around some of the concepts and judge whether I had honestly just recreated Fate. Another was that I wanted to get the work finished on Duty and Honour in preperation for CottageCon. And if I am honest, another was because after the short formal playtest that we did, I sort of mentally relegated the game to partially done.
Thats bullshit really and deep down, I have known it for a while.
I challenged myself today, in one of my Metro thinking sessions to consider Omniverse as an unfinished work. To think of myself going to GenCon with it unfinished. I was horrified. Thats not something that I am prepared to do. Then I wondered what I really wanted to do with it. Did I really want to present a generic system, with all of the generalities that it brings.
And in the end, I decided I didn't. I need to do something more focused. The generic system that I love can exist within another game (and another and another) but it needs some structure. It needs to be a Crescent Sea or a Buffy and no some adolescent campaign that drags on and on without any purpose.
The best idea I have ever had for a game setting has been MI:666 - it compels me and it enthuses me. So Omniverse will become MI:666 and it will be finished. And then... well, Pulsars and Privateers is unfinished business.
Neil
Completer/Finisher
I'll have, over the years, readily accepted that my ability to fulfil the role as an 'ideas' man, or to deal with complicated problems in a conceptual nature outstrips my ability to carry things through to their absolute conclusion. At work, it's something I have to really concentrate on and develop those finishing skills and the diligence to apply them.
To the same extent, I have had to work hard in my gaming to develop some finishing skills too. Believe it or not, before I met my current group, I had NEVER taken a campaign to a finite conclusion. This was a combination of running games that simply ran out of steam (as open ended games tend to do) or just losing interest altogether. Crescent Sea (our initial 3e adventure) was the first campaign I have ran with an eye to a definite conclusion, although even that for the first two-thirds of the campaign was pretty much open ended. Slaying Days Seasons 1 & 2 offered something new in that I could say very early on exactly how many episodes each season would have and this allowed for the inclusion of TV tropes such as 'sweeps week' two-parters mid-season.
Pulsars and Privateers sits in my gullet as a campaign that I never saw through to a conclusion. Whilst the campaign saw the end of it's first 'movement' when the crew of the Khanjar defeated One-Eyed Elijah and got their own moonbase. Behind the scenes, hinted at through the episodes, there was something happening in hyperspace and eventually the aliens that lived there would invade and cause the chaos that would make the Khanjar famous. Tales that never happened as work took its toll on the campaign. Its very hard to leave something like that and it annoys me.
Omniverse is currently at a crossroads. I've shelved it for a month or so. One reason is that I wanted to get my head around some of the concepts and judge whether I had honestly just recreated Fate. Another was that I wanted to get the work finished on Duty and Honour in preperation for CottageCon. And if I am honest, another was because after the short formal playtest that we did, I sort of mentally relegated the game to partially done.
Thats bullshit really and deep down, I have known it for a while.
I challenged myself today, in one of my Metro thinking sessions to consider Omniverse as an unfinished work. To think of myself going to GenCon with it unfinished. I was horrified. Thats not something that I am prepared to do. Then I wondered what I really wanted to do with it. Did I really want to present a generic system, with all of the generalities that it brings.
And in the end, I decided I didn't. I need to do something more focused. The generic system that I love can exist within another game (and another and another) but it needs some structure. It needs to be a Crescent Sea or a Buffy and no some adolescent campaign that drags on and on without any purpose.
The best idea I have ever had for a game setting has been MI:666 - it compels me and it enthuses me. So Omniverse will become MI:666 and it will be finished. And then... well, Pulsars and Privateers is unfinished business.
Neil
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Indie? Pah!
I was chatting to my friend from school at the weekend and he commented how, even back then, I have never really been part of any 'group'. At school I was neither a trendy townie nor one of the introvert theatre group nor a sporty type or a (shudder) Venutre Scout. I sort of existed, by myself, shuttling between them all. I've always hated the concept of tribalisation and in my adult life it's been something that has annoyed me about all manner of things .... indie.
Oh how I hate the term. In every incarnation I have encountered it, it - and it's attendent antithesis - has created up the same elitist, isolationist, tribal divisions.
In the late 80s it was 'Indie Music' - the logic went like this: all chart music is crap and therefore not proper music. Therefore the only proper music was stuff that was not in the charts. The so-called 'indie music'. The more popular this music became, the less 'indie' it was until eventually the band would disappear or /shock/ they would chart - therefore instantly moving from 'indie' to 'commerical sellouts'. Oh the fun I had watching people at Uni trying to out-obscure each other. Nowadays it's like something from a surreal sketch show but it was very real then. And the looking down the nose at anyone who liked yesterdays sweetheart group or, God help them, the more serious crime of .... bandwagon jumping! Oh yes folks, worse than being a trendy chart zombie was being an indie kid who didn't know about the obscure band and then started to like them as they were getting noticed! Find your own niche group to obsess over... this one is mine. I mean, honestly, what was going on there?
After Indie Music came 'Indie Comics'. Once again, the same riff applied. If it was made by Marvel or DC, it was pretty much dead in the water, derivative, mass produced rubbish churned out for the braindead masses. What you need to be reading are 'indie comics'! Obscure, badly drawn pieces of tatt which come out less regularly than a decent Boyzone single mustering a storyline that you can barely follow. Oh but they are so good, oh but they are written by writer such-and-such and he's great and ... GAH! Thankfully, I had my mate Stephen to guide me towards 'decent' indie stuff (although I suspect he still couldn't fathom my X-Men habit) but from other fans I got the same old litany. What made it worse was that the indie snobbery was coming from the comic shop owners themselves. I distinctly remember being virutally laughed out of Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham once because of my rather mainstream comic selections.
Of course, nothing generates quite the indie tribalism as 'Indie Wrestling'. Yes folks, none of the shine and showbiz of the WWE for the Indie Wrestling fanatic! If it isn't done in grainy film, shown in an old bingo hall or sports centre and features two or more men you have never heard of before then it simply must be bad. Now, I will admit that the difference between the punch-kick-finisher style of the WWE and the more technical/high risk style I have seen at many indie feds makes the two things almost different products, but essentially they have the same basis, require the same suspension of disbelief and aim to entertain within the same medium.
Indie Music, Indie Comics and Indie Wrestling - three things where the ability for people to create false divisions has plagued me. I simply cannot understand the reasoning behind the split? Is it because these people are seeking individualism in the arms of the obscure? Well, that would have accounted for the music at the time, but the others? Is it because of a deep seated hatred of the monolithic structures behind the big players - the EMI's, Marvels and WWEs of this world? Maybe it's because there is a degree of fairness that has been breached with regard to these properties. They are seen as equally as valid, equally as good as the more mainstream offering but the latter has far more promotion and exposure than the former and therefore is seen as superior by the un-exposed masses? That could well be it but I don't think I have ever seen the tribalism portrayed with that degree of analysis before. Snobbishness powered through a sense of social justice and anti-capitalistic zeal. Hmmmm....unlikely!
I love my (formerly) 80s (formerly) indie music and I still listen to it now. I'm also going to see Girls Aloud next month with my daughter and quite looking forward to it. I picked up my first ever Dark Horse comic last month - the company that was once the epitome of indie comics is now publishing the Season Eight comic of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I bought it alongside my Justice League and Avengers comics. I still mark out like a little girl when I watch the WWE and yet find it possible to catch Ring of Honour sometimes on the Wrestling Channel and enjoy it. Just like at school, never in one group or another. Just floating.
Which brings me to the phenomenon of 'indie roleplaying games'. Naturally my nerves are jangled by the continued use of that phrase. Coming from a city with one games shop which is very well stocked by still rather mainstream, these things come slowly into my world and I have come slowly into theirs. What I see are games made by people who clearly love their hobby, have some interesting innovative ideas and the know-how to self-publish and promote them. Hey, thats great and indeed it has inspired me to do similar things. However, what I also see are the same smoldering embers of internal division and tribalisation. Those that 'get' indie or story games and those that are happy to stay with 'traditional' games. Theres even an air of intellectual snobbery that runs through some of the conversations.
What I find comical about these things is that they seem to be the failings of all hobbies, large or small. I regularly hear football fans talking about Division Two football as 'proper football' as if they Champions League matches we have seen over the last couple of weeks were somehow all the more fake because of the lights and big-name players and lack of half-cooked pies on terraces at half-time. It also seems the smaller the hobby the more ludicrous the nature of the tribalisation. Take reading comics, for example? Hardly the biggest hobby in the world is it? A good selling comic might clear 70k copies WORLDWIDE. A comic on the brink of doom from Marvel/DC might get 20k copies. An out-of-this-world indie comic might clear 10k. Those aren't massive numbers. For RPGS, I guess you can knock a zero off those numbers!
I think thats my point as a whole. There is no one-true-musical-taste, no one-perfect-comic, no one-true-wrestling-style, no one-best-football-team and no one-godlike-roleplaying-game. They don't exist. What does exist is a wide variety of music that makes people happy, comics that allow a wide variety of people to thrill, numerous federations that scratch the wrestling itch for many and football experiences that match what the watcher wants. And a large and bountiful array of roleplaying games that we can enjoy - whether they are the product of a division of Hasbro or the maniacal brainchild of some teenagers computer in Wisconsin. If they entertain, theres really no problem.
So I say 'pah!' to 'indie' and tribalisation and 'hurrah' to fun and inclusiveness!
Neil
Oh how I hate the term. In every incarnation I have encountered it, it - and it's attendent antithesis - has created up the same elitist, isolationist, tribal divisions.
In the late 80s it was 'Indie Music' - the logic went like this: all chart music is crap and therefore not proper music. Therefore the only proper music was stuff that was not in the charts. The so-called 'indie music'. The more popular this music became, the less 'indie' it was until eventually the band would disappear or /shock/ they would chart - therefore instantly moving from 'indie' to 'commerical sellouts'. Oh the fun I had watching people at Uni trying to out-obscure each other. Nowadays it's like something from a surreal sketch show but it was very real then. And the looking down the nose at anyone who liked yesterdays sweetheart group or, God help them, the more serious crime of .... bandwagon jumping! Oh yes folks, worse than being a trendy chart zombie was being an indie kid who didn't know about the obscure band and then started to like them as they were getting noticed! Find your own niche group to obsess over... this one is mine. I mean, honestly, what was going on there?
After Indie Music came 'Indie Comics'. Once again, the same riff applied. If it was made by Marvel or DC, it was pretty much dead in the water, derivative, mass produced rubbish churned out for the braindead masses. What you need to be reading are 'indie comics'! Obscure, badly drawn pieces of tatt which come out less regularly than a decent Boyzone single mustering a storyline that you can barely follow. Oh but they are so good, oh but they are written by writer such-and-such and he's great and ... GAH! Thankfully, I had my mate Stephen to guide me towards 'decent' indie stuff (although I suspect he still couldn't fathom my X-Men habit) but from other fans I got the same old litany. What made it worse was that the indie snobbery was coming from the comic shop owners themselves. I distinctly remember being virutally laughed out of Nostalgia and Comics in Birmingham once because of my rather mainstream comic selections.
Of course, nothing generates quite the indie tribalism as 'Indie Wrestling'. Yes folks, none of the shine and showbiz of the WWE for the Indie Wrestling fanatic! If it isn't done in grainy film, shown in an old bingo hall or sports centre and features two or more men you have never heard of before then it simply must be bad. Now, I will admit that the difference between the punch-kick-finisher style of the WWE and the more technical/high risk style I have seen at many indie feds makes the two things almost different products, but essentially they have the same basis, require the same suspension of disbelief and aim to entertain within the same medium.
Indie Music, Indie Comics and Indie Wrestling - three things where the ability for people to create false divisions has plagued me. I simply cannot understand the reasoning behind the split? Is it because these people are seeking individualism in the arms of the obscure? Well, that would have accounted for the music at the time, but the others? Is it because of a deep seated hatred of the monolithic structures behind the big players - the EMI's, Marvels and WWEs of this world? Maybe it's because there is a degree of fairness that has been breached with regard to these properties. They are seen as equally as valid, equally as good as the more mainstream offering but the latter has far more promotion and exposure than the former and therefore is seen as superior by the un-exposed masses? That could well be it but I don't think I have ever seen the tribalism portrayed with that degree of analysis before. Snobbishness powered through a sense of social justice and anti-capitalistic zeal. Hmmmm....unlikely!
I love my (formerly) 80s (formerly) indie music and I still listen to it now. I'm also going to see Girls Aloud next month with my daughter and quite looking forward to it. I picked up my first ever Dark Horse comic last month - the company that was once the epitome of indie comics is now publishing the Season Eight comic of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I bought it alongside my Justice League and Avengers comics. I still mark out like a little girl when I watch the WWE and yet find it possible to catch Ring of Honour sometimes on the Wrestling Channel and enjoy it. Just like at school, never in one group or another. Just floating.
Which brings me to the phenomenon of 'indie roleplaying games'. Naturally my nerves are jangled by the continued use of that phrase. Coming from a city with one games shop which is very well stocked by still rather mainstream, these things come slowly into my world and I have come slowly into theirs. What I see are games made by people who clearly love their hobby, have some interesting innovative ideas and the know-how to self-publish and promote them. Hey, thats great and indeed it has inspired me to do similar things. However, what I also see are the same smoldering embers of internal division and tribalisation. Those that 'get' indie or story games and those that are happy to stay with 'traditional' games. Theres even an air of intellectual snobbery that runs through some of the conversations.
What I find comical about these things is that they seem to be the failings of all hobbies, large or small. I regularly hear football fans talking about Division Two football as 'proper football' as if they Champions League matches we have seen over the last couple of weeks were somehow all the more fake because of the lights and big-name players and lack of half-cooked pies on terraces at half-time. It also seems the smaller the hobby the more ludicrous the nature of the tribalisation. Take reading comics, for example? Hardly the biggest hobby in the world is it? A good selling comic might clear 70k copies WORLDWIDE. A comic on the brink of doom from Marvel/DC might get 20k copies. An out-of-this-world indie comic might clear 10k. Those aren't massive numbers. For RPGS, I guess you can knock a zero off those numbers!
I think thats my point as a whole. There is no one-true-musical-taste, no one-perfect-comic, no one-true-wrestling-style, no one-best-football-team and no one-godlike-roleplaying-game. They don't exist. What does exist is a wide variety of music that makes people happy, comics that allow a wide variety of people to thrill, numerous federations that scratch the wrestling itch for many and football experiences that match what the watcher wants. And a large and bountiful array of roleplaying games that we can enjoy - whether they are the product of a division of Hasbro or the maniacal brainchild of some teenagers computer in Wisconsin. If they entertain, theres really no problem.
So I say 'pah!' to 'indie' and tribalisation and 'hurrah' to fun and inclusiveness!
Neil
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
A Game of Two Sessions
This Sunday we played what was effectively the first of three 'double sessions' in the run up to CottageCon. This Sunday we teamed up our normal Pendragon game with character generation for Spirit of the Century.
SotC looks like a great game and the character generation was definitely an event. I'm a fervent advocate of group character design and that character design walking hand-in-hand with the flavour of the campaign. Not only does it build deeper, richer characters but it also welds the issues of the characters to the campaign setting and the adventure. It totally bypasses the old 'Patron meets you at an Inn (and associated variations)' stereotype and plunges fully flegded characters into their own action. SotC does this magnificently, especially with the 'guest novel' section.
Of course, muggins here had to make it a little more complicated by creating a character that is essentially a support character rather than a square jawed hero type. He (for he has no name yet, although it will no doubt be something alliterative) is a butler-par-excellence, a member of the League of Gentlemen's Gentlemen. Unflappable, immensely resourceful, contacts around the world, impeccably English with a thick streak of working class sensibility. Like The Rescuers, the LoGsG are dispatched to ensure that some irrational explorer isn't gobbled up by zombie pygmies in a creased suit during his sojourn to the depths of the Amazon.
The game threw up a definite African theme, with the main villain appearing to be the nefarious Zo Khath Ra! I'm thoroughly looking forward to serving up cucumber sandwiches and delivering stiff right hooks in defiance of the bounder.
One thing I find saddening about SotC however, and I have seen this of a number of so-called indie games, is that they do seem to have low repeat play value. I think we virtually covered every pulp base we could think of with our characters and whilst it would take many sessions to drag every thread out of that, if we were to run another game, I wonder how much variation we would see. I don't know why I feel that way - as opposed to say D&D - but its a possibility.
Then after the obligatory pizza break, we moved onto Pendragon and the climax of my feud with the Black Bear Clan. For those who haven't been keeping track, my knight Sir Brion, has been making quite the reputation for himself killing saxons since Day One of the campaign. As a result the Black Bear Clan declared a blood feud on him. Now, in the early days, this was simply an excuse for me to kill yet more saxons in exciting and bloody ways, but later they started playing things a little more canny. First, they attacked me directly in battle and *shock* went for the horse! And then they sent a raiding party to attack my homestead and killed two of my horde of children. Now, Brion is renowned for his Love (Family) so he went a bit mental, was shook out of it by Sir Aeryn the Elder and then progressed to enact a grand plan of revenge that included being blessed by Morrigan, travelling back to Ireland and invoking family law to raise his clan and enlisting the aid of his father-in-law, the King of the Forest Sauvage.
So, it came to pass that around 300 knights, bowmen, spearmen, mercenaries, swordsmen, hobgoblins, spriggans and elf-hounds met 260 Black Bear clan, Boar clan, trolls and turncoat BASTARDS from Huntingdon.
Now, we have a saying in our group - dramatically appropriate dice - and this session they were at home and having a party! Prior to the battle, Sir Aeryn the Younger (he who wants to be me) tried to lead the lifting of a siege and managed to fail around 75% of his battle rolls. The young pretender won the day, but his losses were grave and all of the enemy knights escaped intact. He still has a lot to learn about the art of war.
The old master however, warlord of the Countess' armies, lead his men to a total victory, with the mercenaries (and Aeryn the Elder) seeing off the men of Huntingdon, the main body of spear and sword (with Sir Merrin) decimating the Boar clan and myself, Aeryn, Guillame and my Irish horde laying waste to the Black Bear. It was a bloody affair - for them - with our side only suffering 9 casualties! The corn from that field will grow red with their Saxon blood for a long time.
The downside? I sometimes wish there was more room for roleplaying and showboating in the Pendragon battles. They are excellently executed representations of dark ages battle - random, visceral affairs - but in the end, my confrontation with the Black Bear Chieftain was simply a two round battle. He scratched me, I criticalled and gutted him. Maybe the denouement will come next session. Almost certainly I think that it is my responsibility to make more of it.
Next session we move from the sublime to the ridiculous, and the generation of 18th level D&D characters. I shudder to think....
Neil
SotC looks like a great game and the character generation was definitely an event. I'm a fervent advocate of group character design and that character design walking hand-in-hand with the flavour of the campaign. Not only does it build deeper, richer characters but it also welds the issues of the characters to the campaign setting and the adventure. It totally bypasses the old 'Patron meets you at an Inn (and associated variations)' stereotype and plunges fully flegded characters into their own action. SotC does this magnificently, especially with the 'guest novel' section.
Of course, muggins here had to make it a little more complicated by creating a character that is essentially a support character rather than a square jawed hero type. He (for he has no name yet, although it will no doubt be something alliterative) is a butler-par-excellence, a member of the League of Gentlemen's Gentlemen. Unflappable, immensely resourceful, contacts around the world, impeccably English with a thick streak of working class sensibility. Like The Rescuers, the LoGsG are dispatched to ensure that some irrational explorer isn't gobbled up by zombie pygmies in a creased suit during his sojourn to the depths of the Amazon.
The game threw up a definite African theme, with the main villain appearing to be the nefarious Zo Khath Ra! I'm thoroughly looking forward to serving up cucumber sandwiches and delivering stiff right hooks in defiance of the bounder.
One thing I find saddening about SotC however, and I have seen this of a number of so-called indie games, is that they do seem to have low repeat play value. I think we virtually covered every pulp base we could think of with our characters and whilst it would take many sessions to drag every thread out of that, if we were to run another game, I wonder how much variation we would see. I don't know why I feel that way - as opposed to say D&D - but its a possibility.
Then after the obligatory pizza break, we moved onto Pendragon and the climax of my feud with the Black Bear Clan. For those who haven't been keeping track, my knight Sir Brion, has been making quite the reputation for himself killing saxons since Day One of the campaign. As a result the Black Bear Clan declared a blood feud on him. Now, in the early days, this was simply an excuse for me to kill yet more saxons in exciting and bloody ways, but later they started playing things a little more canny. First, they attacked me directly in battle and *shock* went for the horse! And then they sent a raiding party to attack my homestead and killed two of my horde of children. Now, Brion is renowned for his Love (Family) so he went a bit mental, was shook out of it by Sir Aeryn the Elder and then progressed to enact a grand plan of revenge that included being blessed by Morrigan, travelling back to Ireland and invoking family law to raise his clan and enlisting the aid of his father-in-law, the King of the Forest Sauvage.
So, it came to pass that around 300 knights, bowmen, spearmen, mercenaries, swordsmen, hobgoblins, spriggans and elf-hounds met 260 Black Bear clan, Boar clan, trolls and turncoat BASTARDS from Huntingdon.
Now, we have a saying in our group - dramatically appropriate dice - and this session they were at home and having a party! Prior to the battle, Sir Aeryn the Younger (he who wants to be me) tried to lead the lifting of a siege and managed to fail around 75% of his battle rolls. The young pretender won the day, but his losses were grave and all of the enemy knights escaped intact. He still has a lot to learn about the art of war.
The old master however, warlord of the Countess' armies, lead his men to a total victory, with the mercenaries (and Aeryn the Elder) seeing off the men of Huntingdon, the main body of spear and sword (with Sir Merrin) decimating the Boar clan and myself, Aeryn, Guillame and my Irish horde laying waste to the Black Bear. It was a bloody affair - for them - with our side only suffering 9 casualties! The corn from that field will grow red with their Saxon blood for a long time.
The downside? I sometimes wish there was more room for roleplaying and showboating in the Pendragon battles. They are excellently executed representations of dark ages battle - random, visceral affairs - but in the end, my confrontation with the Black Bear Chieftain was simply a two round battle. He scratched me, I criticalled and gutted him. Maybe the denouement will come next session. Almost certainly I think that it is my responsibility to make more of it.
Next session we move from the sublime to the ridiculous, and the generation of 18th level D&D characters. I shudder to think....
Neil
Saturday, April 07, 2007
CottageCon is On!
And after more than a little wrangling with the lovely people at (Ho)seasons, it's great to confirm that CottageCon is on! Now some people don't like me calling it CottageCon because it makes it sound like some sort of sleazy gay outdoor sex gathering. And if you listen to the people at Hoseasons, it might well be!
After all five men sharing a cottage, and two of them sleeping in the same bed? There must be something going on! I had to endure quite a grilling from the nice lady from Hoseasons about who we were, what we did as work, why we were going to that place, what we were intending to do. If I hadn't predicted it, it would have been quite disconcerting. I can understand the possible reasons why as well, but it would have been nice to have had it explained to me, as a courtesy.
So anyway, we have a nice 5-man cottage just outside Robin Hoods Bay nr Scarborough. It looks absolutely delightful and just what we were looking for. We also have an itinerary of games lined up that makes the mouth water.
On Friday, I will be running the first - and maybe last - session of Duty and Honour. This is my adaptation of Pendragon to emulate the Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell. I worked on the conversion document for a couple of nights and it has come out rather well so far. Its still a little rough around the edges and has absolutely no real gameplay direction within it, but it does allow you to make good Sharpe-style characters. As this is the first session I expect that it will start relatively late and probably finish late too. I'm hoping to keep it pretty light and have a fair bit of swashbuckling action involved.
On Saturday morning Ian is joining us and Andrew will be running a very high level Dungeons & Dragons one shot! It's Sword and Sorcery meets World War Z as we jump in at the climax of a battle against the creeping dead and their evil dark Lord. This is an intriguing prospect as it will be paramount for the players to REALLY bring the characters to the table and almost retcon in a whole swathe of stuff whilst we are tackling some of the big bad monsters that you rarely see coming out of the Monster Manual. Oh at first glance this should be a load of fun but I think it has a lot of potential to stretch our gaming if we go beyond the stats and spells technique of D&D.
On Saturday afternoon we will be playing the remarkably hyped Spirit of the Century ran by Ian. This is 1930s Pulp ran using a system that is very different from our usual fare (but far too close to my Omniverse for my liking!!). Without putting too much pressure on Ian, I think this is the most important session of the weekend. Not only does it see his return to the GMs chair for the first time in ages, but it is with a game that I believe he can undoubtedly shine with and in an atmosphere that has to be made for what is undoubtedly a weekend of experimental gaming. I think if SotC succeeds, we could see these characters appearing again at some point in time and thats always good, and maybe it brings us a little closer to playing something like Burning Wheel etc.
Saturday night is set aside for a long, possibly drunken, session of Diplomacy. Now I will admit here and now that I am utterly shite at these games. There is a rather shocking irony there because my workmate laughs at my ability to conjure work related 'inexactitudes' to clients when needed, but with my friends I couldn't even lie about the time of day. The last time we played I was totally and utterly stitched up and I thoroughly expect the same to happen this time too. Still, we shall see....
When we arise again on Sunday, Ian returns and we settle down for a nice relaxed game of Pendragon. Well, I say nice and relaxed but things are getting very interesting in the world of Pendragon at the moment and I think that by then we could be knee deep in all manner of saxon mess. The campaign is moving on now, the characters are getting older and more powerful and the time of Arthur is slowly creeping nearer. The intervening years are painful though and some of the decisions are pretty tough. I'm sure Nigel will have something cooked up for us to make us sweat just that little bit more.
Thats whats officially happening, but I suspect there might be more as well. More boardgames maybe, definitely a lot of gaming conversation, maybe the odd DVD, some sightseeing (theres a tall ship at the bay apparently). Theres going to be some good food and good beer too. It just sounds like a really great weekend. Many years in the making, but it's happening on May 18th!
Neil
After all five men sharing a cottage, and two of them sleeping in the same bed? There must be something going on! I had to endure quite a grilling from the nice lady from Hoseasons about who we were, what we did as work, why we were going to that place, what we were intending to do. If I hadn't predicted it, it would have been quite disconcerting. I can understand the possible reasons why as well, but it would have been nice to have had it explained to me, as a courtesy.
So anyway, we have a nice 5-man cottage just outside Robin Hoods Bay nr Scarborough. It looks absolutely delightful and just what we were looking for. We also have an itinerary of games lined up that makes the mouth water.
On Friday, I will be running the first - and maybe last - session of Duty and Honour. This is my adaptation of Pendragon to emulate the Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell. I worked on the conversion document for a couple of nights and it has come out rather well so far. Its still a little rough around the edges and has absolutely no real gameplay direction within it, but it does allow you to make good Sharpe-style characters. As this is the first session I expect that it will start relatively late and probably finish late too. I'm hoping to keep it pretty light and have a fair bit of swashbuckling action involved.
On Saturday morning Ian is joining us and Andrew will be running a very high level Dungeons & Dragons one shot! It's Sword and Sorcery meets World War Z as we jump in at the climax of a battle against the creeping dead and their evil dark Lord. This is an intriguing prospect as it will be paramount for the players to REALLY bring the characters to the table and almost retcon in a whole swathe of stuff whilst we are tackling some of the big bad monsters that you rarely see coming out of the Monster Manual. Oh at first glance this should be a load of fun but I think it has a lot of potential to stretch our gaming if we go beyond the stats and spells technique of D&D.
On Saturday afternoon we will be playing the remarkably hyped Spirit of the Century ran by Ian. This is 1930s Pulp ran using a system that is very different from our usual fare (but far too close to my Omniverse for my liking!!
Saturday night is set aside for a long, possibly drunken, session of Diplomacy. Now I will admit here and now that I am utterly shite at these games. There is a rather shocking irony there because my workmate laughs at my ability to conjure work related 'inexactitudes' to clients when needed, but with my friends I couldn't even lie about the time of day. The last time we played I was totally and utterly stitched up and I thoroughly expect the same to happen this time too. Still, we shall see....
When we arise again on Sunday, Ian returns and we settle down for a nice relaxed game of Pendragon. Well, I say nice and relaxed but things are getting very interesting in the world of Pendragon at the moment and I think that by then we could be knee deep in all manner of saxon mess. The campaign is moving on now, the characters are getting older and more powerful and the time of Arthur is slowly creeping nearer. The intervening years are painful though and some of the decisions are pretty tough. I'm sure Nigel will have something cooked up for us to make us sweat just that little bit more.
Thats whats officially happening, but I suspect there might be more as well. More boardgames maybe, definitely a lot of gaming conversation, maybe the odd DVD, some sightseeing (theres a tall ship at the bay apparently). Theres going to be some good food and good beer too. It just sounds like a really great weekend. Many years in the making, but it's happening on May 18th!
Neil
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Years in the making; 'CottageCon 07' is nearly on!
Ask any group of mature gamers what their three big problems are and I bet these three will pop up more often than not:
1. The radical reduction in time to prepare for games - you simply cannot dedicate the same amount of time to campaign creation that you could when you were 17.
2. The headache of getting a group of people together in one place, at one time, semi-regularly.
3. Not being able to have those mammoth gaming sessions that were so prevalent when we were young. No all-nighters when you have parents evenings and split shifts to worry about.
One thing I love about my gaming group is that we have worked, over the years, to overcome these problems. The first - planning - has been mitigated by using the internet as a means for coordinating planning and adopting, to a degree, a shared burden of creativity and a penchant for shared world building. Through messageboards, emails and blogs (and admittedly some time over a pint in the pub) we put in a fair bit of collective effort for our gaming and that helps. The second - coordination - has again, come around over the years by massaging our playing style to allow a player to occassionally be missing and to embrace some flexibility in dates.
The last one - the massive session - has been the elusive one. For our group, three hours is a normal session and sometimes we manage to squeeze out an extra hour of fun for something special. The return of the mammoth session is simple a pipe dream and has been for years.
But now, fair readers, we have a solution. We may not have as much time as we used to have as kids, but we have far more money - and money can buy you time if you are creative. So, this May, as long as things go to plan, we will be going on a little holiday. A gaming holiday. A weekend away from everything else with the specific aim to game our little socks off. We've got a provisional date (Weekend of May 18th) and we have a number of possible venues (from a large caravan to a yorkshire cottage to a log cabin near Kielder). It's all coming together nicely.
I have to say, I'm thrilled at the prospect. A number of us will have a chance to flex our GMing muscles which means that some of those long lost ideas, or games of a more fringe nature might see the light of day. Hopefully we can coincide something impressive for Pendragon in the weekend as well and give it the room that it requires. Boardgames will see the light of day as well which should be fun too.
Throw in a few choice DVDs, some good wine and spirits and (because it wouldn't be us if we didn't have it) some really good homemade food and it almost has a mini-con feel to it. Almost. Maybe not a minicon - a microcon!
We've talked about it on and off for years but it looks like it will happen. CottageCon. Who'd have thought?
Neil
1. The radical reduction in time to prepare for games - you simply cannot dedicate the same amount of time to campaign creation that you could when you were 17.
2. The headache of getting a group of people together in one place, at one time, semi-regularly.
3. Not being able to have those mammoth gaming sessions that were so prevalent when we were young. No all-nighters when you have parents evenings and split shifts to worry about.
One thing I love about my gaming group is that we have worked, over the years, to overcome these problems. The first - planning - has been mitigated by using the internet as a means for coordinating planning and adopting, to a degree, a shared burden of creativity and a penchant for shared world building. Through messageboards, emails and blogs (and admittedly some time over a pint in the pub) we put in a fair bit of collective effort for our gaming and that helps. The second - coordination - has again, come around over the years by massaging our playing style to allow a player to occassionally be missing and to embrace some flexibility in dates.
The last one - the massive session - has been the elusive one. For our group, three hours is a normal session and sometimes we manage to squeeze out an extra hour of fun for something special. The return of the mammoth session is simple a pipe dream and has been for years.
But now, fair readers, we have a solution. We may not have as much time as we used to have as kids, but we have far more money - and money can buy you time if you are creative. So, this May, as long as things go to plan, we will be going on a little holiday. A gaming holiday. A weekend away from everything else with the specific aim to game our little socks off. We've got a provisional date (Weekend of May 18th) and we have a number of possible venues (from a large caravan to a yorkshire cottage to a log cabin near Kielder). It's all coming together nicely.
I have to say, I'm thrilled at the prospect. A number of us will have a chance to flex our GMing muscles which means that some of those long lost ideas, or games of a more fringe nature might see the light of day. Hopefully we can coincide something impressive for Pendragon in the weekend as well and give it the room that it requires. Boardgames will see the light of day as well which should be fun too.
Throw in a few choice DVDs, some good wine and spirits and (because it wouldn't be us if we didn't have it) some really good homemade food and it almost has a mini-con feel to it. Almost. Maybe not a minicon - a microcon!
We've talked about it on and off for years but it looks like it will happen. CottageCon. Who'd have thought?
Neil
Monday, March 26, 2007
Review: 300
OK, how on Earth do you pick the bones out of this one? Well, lets preface it by saying that the night before I saw this, I finally, after many years, got to watch the Shawshank Redemption. This was a film that I had studiously avoided as something that is renowned as being so absolutely wonderful was bound to be crap. It wasn't - it was a mighty fine film which locked me to the screen for it's full length.
So I come to 300 and I have to say that on approaching the film I was more than a little trepedatious. I have, in the past, been quite outspoken about people who deride something just because it is popular or indeed who feel the need to pick minute holes in something like they are plucking the threads from the Kings New Clothes. 300 is made to be one of those films that will be derided and plucked. Essentially a suicide war flick it suffers from most of the audience knowing what will happen at the end and the trailer, rather than showing all of the good bits, being a rather neat condensed version of the film, like a 60 second Shakespeare. Add onto this the growing tide of 9/11-linkage bullshit that is rumbling towards the film and it is heading for a fall.
What I got was one of the most well realised visual spectacles I have seen on the big screen. Someone, somewhere, has really hammered home that there is a method to make comic adaptations look like comics and that it works. Sin City did it, Spiderman 2 did it, Superman Returns and Batman Begins did it and now 300 is all about it. The side-on representation of many of the scenes renders them in virtual 2-d, not wholly unlike the traditional greek art we see on cliched urns etc. It works really well.
The story itself is simple - and in some ways too simple - with the God King coming to crush the plucky Greeks and Leonidas going to standing in his way, against all odds. There are some side stories - the Captain and his son, the Hunchback, the reluctant Survivor, the pitiful Arcadians and the machinations of the Senate against the Kings (well fit) wife. Essentially it is, however, a case of 'next wave of soldiers/monsters please!'. At one point I had to physically restrain myself from shouting in my best Sean Bean voice 'They've got a Cave Troll!'
Looking at the criticism that the film gets, I wondering whether I'm simply being a little dim? Homophobic? In what way? Because they omitted the rampant man love in favour of some rather graphic woman love? Racist? Sorry critics but the Greeks are greek and the Persians were just about everyone else - you can't multicultural history to make it fit your holier-than-thou leftist sensibilities. Facist? Maybe...if you want to reclassify history to say that all warrior cultures who discarded the disabled were inherrently evil, then yes. However, you maybe missed out all of the other bits about fighting to defend liberty and freedom etc. as you were flagelating yourself with your well worn copy of Das Kapital?
There are some parts of the film that simply don't work - the witty 'winking at the 21st century audience' one-liners act to jolt you from your seat like a slap to any immersion that might have happened. You also need to be in the absolute correct frame of mind to let yourself drift into accepting the more fantastical elements of Xerxes entourage - but reminding yourself that this is the story of the battle as told by the Survivor as a rallying cry to his troops gives you the mental space to allow for some gilding of the storytelling lily.
There is, however, a great deal to love about this film. From a gaming point of view it adds another film to the growing lexicon of mass combat reference. Now in Pendragon when I reference a 'shield wall' everyone will know exactly what I mean! Some of the set pieces and little details within the combat were excellent. Got to love fight scenes where the shield kills as many people as the spear! I found the character of Leonidas likeable although I felt there was so much more to be done with him (and it's highly unlikely there will be a sequal...hehehe). Personally I loved the scenes back in Sparta because it undercut the classic view of Sparta being a warrior culture and illustrated that, when it counted, they were just like any other classical greek 'democracy'.
And finally, the film had what I absolutely require of a good picture - denouement. That was the payoff that mays the sacrifice of the 300 more than just the arrogant conceit of a ego-blown king. Thermopylae is one of the great 'battles against the odds' in human history, like Rourkes Drift and the Battle of Britain (and probably some non-British ones as well...) and the film paints it as such. I've had a quick scoot around Wikipedia (normal disclaimers about that as a source of accurate knowledge apply) and the film gets a great deal of the historical detail dead right.
So whats my final verdict?
As I was watching the film, I was thinking to myself - 'I should be getting more excited than this?'. I suspect that my expectations may have been a little too high for something which was a pretty simple proposition. However, in the cold light of day, I find myself endeared to what I saw more as a cinematic event rather than a rollocking good film.
300, it's good, but it's not the Shawshank Redemption! 7/10
So I come to 300 and I have to say that on approaching the film I was more than a little trepedatious. I have, in the past, been quite outspoken about people who deride something just because it is popular or indeed who feel the need to pick minute holes in something like they are plucking the threads from the Kings New Clothes. 300 is made to be one of those films that will be derided and plucked. Essentially a suicide war flick it suffers from most of the audience knowing what will happen at the end and the trailer, rather than showing all of the good bits, being a rather neat condensed version of the film, like a 60 second Shakespeare. Add onto this the growing tide of 9/11-linkage bullshit that is rumbling towards the film and it is heading for a fall.
What I got was one of the most well realised visual spectacles I have seen on the big screen. Someone, somewhere, has really hammered home that there is a method to make comic adaptations look like comics and that it works. Sin City did it, Spiderman 2 did it, Superman Returns and Batman Begins did it and now 300 is all about it. The side-on representation of many of the scenes renders them in virtual 2-d, not wholly unlike the traditional greek art we see on cliched urns etc. It works really well.
The story itself is simple - and in some ways too simple - with the God King coming to crush the plucky Greeks and Leonidas going to standing in his way, against all odds. There are some side stories - the Captain and his son, the Hunchback, the reluctant Survivor, the pitiful Arcadians and the machinations of the Senate against the Kings (well fit) wife. Essentially it is, however, a case of 'next wave of soldiers/monsters please!'. At one point I had to physically restrain myself from shouting in my best Sean Bean voice 'They've got a Cave Troll!'
Looking at the criticism that the film gets, I wondering whether I'm simply being a little dim? Homophobic? In what way? Because they omitted the rampant man love in favour of some rather graphic woman love? Racist? Sorry critics but the Greeks are greek and the Persians were just about everyone else - you can't multicultural history to make it fit your holier-than-thou leftist sensibilities. Facist? Maybe...if you want to reclassify history to say that all warrior cultures who discarded the disabled were inherrently evil, then yes. However, you maybe missed out all of the other bits about fighting to defend liberty and freedom etc. as you were flagelating yourself with your well worn copy of Das Kapital?
There are some parts of the film that simply don't work - the witty 'winking at the 21st century audience' one-liners act to jolt you from your seat like a slap to any immersion that might have happened. You also need to be in the absolute correct frame of mind to let yourself drift into accepting the more fantastical elements of Xerxes entourage - but reminding yourself that this is the story of the battle as told by the Survivor as a rallying cry to his troops gives you the mental space to allow for some gilding of the storytelling lily.
There is, however, a great deal to love about this film. From a gaming point of view it adds another film to the growing lexicon of mass combat reference. Now in Pendragon when I reference a 'shield wall' everyone will know exactly what I mean! Some of the set pieces and little details within the combat were excellent. Got to love fight scenes where the shield kills as many people as the spear! I found the character of Leonidas likeable although I felt there was so much more to be done with him (and it's highly unlikely there will be a sequal...hehehe). Personally I loved the scenes back in Sparta because it undercut the classic view of Sparta being a warrior culture and illustrated that, when it counted, they were just like any other classical greek 'democracy'.
And finally, the film had what I absolutely require of a good picture - denouement. That was the payoff that mays the sacrifice of the 300 more than just the arrogant conceit of a ego-blown king. Thermopylae is one of the great 'battles against the odds' in human history, like Rourkes Drift and the Battle of Britain (and probably some non-British ones as well...) and the film paints it as such. I've had a quick scoot around Wikipedia (normal disclaimers about that as a source of accurate knowledge apply) and the film gets a great deal of the historical detail dead right.
So whats my final verdict?
As I was watching the film, I was thinking to myself - 'I should be getting more excited than this?'. I suspect that my expectations may have been a little too high for something which was a pretty simple proposition. However, in the cold light of day, I find myself endeared to what I saw more as a cinematic event rather than a rollocking good film.
300, it's good, but it's not the Shawshank Redemption! 7/10
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
A Tingling on the Palette
I had all but given up on Game Chef. Something about the ingredients and the way that the contest works just didn't sit right with me. I couldn't fire anything that was 'good enough' - every idea that I came up with was derivate of something else, or I would rather run using another system. I was generating ideas for games rather than games themselves.
It was this morning, on the toilet at work (prime thinking territory btw) that I had the smallest spark of inspiration. It ran something like this:
I was trying to work out how some of these more high concept indie games could exist alongside simple games like A Faery's Tale. One of the puzzles in the world of indie games for me has always been that the games themselves are not usually designed for extended campaign play, which in my eyes is one of the best bits of RPGing. Whilst thinking about this, it suddenly hit me that what I was trying to write was a 'proper' RPG rather than one of these head-up-the-arse indie thinking ones. EUREKA!!
Newly aligned, I could now see where my game could go. It could be something that was played over one sitting. It could have very simple mechanics. I could really have one central situation. It wasn't something that needed to be complex.
So I have my idea - using Sacred, Rose and Threads. It's a game of monastic suicide and hidden passions, guilt and betrayal. And it is played in one session.
Now I just need to write it.
Ha!
Game on!
Neil
It was this morning, on the toilet at work (prime thinking territory btw) that I had the smallest spark of inspiration. It ran something like this:
I was trying to work out how some of these more high concept indie games could exist alongside simple games like A Faery's Tale. One of the puzzles in the world of indie games for me has always been that the games themselves are not usually designed for extended campaign play, which in my eyes is one of the best bits of RPGing. Whilst thinking about this, it suddenly hit me that what I was trying to write was a 'proper' RPG rather than one of these head-up-the-arse indie thinking ones. EUREKA!!
Newly aligned, I could now see where my game could go. It could be something that was played over one sitting. It could have very simple mechanics. I could really have one central situation. It wasn't something that needed to be complex.
So I have my idea - using Sacred, Rose and Threads. It's a game of monastic suicide and hidden passions, guilt and betrayal. And it is played in one session.
Now I just need to write it.
Ha!
Game on!
Neil
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Hell's Kitchen Opens
Game Chef has begun and well, I'm a little disappointed.
The ingredients are as follows
Group A: MEMORY, DRUG, PALACE, CURRENCY
Group B: SACRED, ROSE, THREAD, INCONSISTENCY
You select THREE from EITHER Group A or Group B.
Additionally there are no other set themes or restrictions.
You see, it's the last bit thats disappointing. In an open competition how can having an open competition be a parameter?
ANYWAY, that slight gripe aside, I now have until April 1st to realise a fully playable RPG based on this little lot. I'm leaning towards Grp A rather than Grp B but I really haven't given it that much deep pondering yet.
More later..
Neil
The ingredients are as follows
Group A: MEMORY, DRUG, PALACE, CURRENCY
Group B: SACRED, ROSE, THREAD, INCONSISTENCY
You select THREE from EITHER Group A or Group B.
Additionally there are no other set themes or restrictions.
You see, it's the last bit thats disappointing. In an open competition how can having an open competition be a parameter?
ANYWAY, that slight gripe aside, I now have until April 1st to realise a fully playable RPG based on this little lot. I'm leaning towards Grp A rather than Grp B but I really haven't given it that much deep pondering yet.
More later..
Neil
Monday, March 12, 2007
Cooking Up A Storm
I think I have finally got in over my head.
Browsing some of the gaming fora, I came across mention of something called Game Chef. Vaguely, in that reptilian part of my brain that remembers crap like this, I recall it being some sort of game design competition - a bit like 24 Hour RPG. I investigated a little, looked at the format and then in a fit of confidence and upward mobility, slapped by name on the 'tag in' list on the site.
I am now going to be part of Game Chef 2007!
So whats the deal. Well, on Friday the 'ingredients' will be announced. I have no idea what these could be, but it looks like it is 'choose one from list A, one from list B and two from list C' style affair. I then have until April 1st to design a game based on the ingredients. It has to be written up and everything. The games are then peer scrutinised and some will pass on to a finals and for the winner, fame and glory awaits.
In all honesty, I don't expect to get past the first stage. I highly suspect that there are a lot of people who know people within the set-up but I'm looking forward to being proved wrong. It will however be a very interesting little challenge and I'll keep everyone up-to-date on my progress.
Neil
Browsing some of the gaming fora, I came across mention of something called Game Chef. Vaguely, in that reptilian part of my brain that remembers crap like this, I recall it being some sort of game design competition - a bit like 24 Hour RPG. I investigated a little, looked at the format and then in a fit of confidence and upward mobility, slapped by name on the 'tag in' list on the site.
I am now going to be part of Game Chef 2007!
So whats the deal. Well, on Friday the 'ingredients' will be announced. I have no idea what these could be, but it looks like it is 'choose one from list A, one from list B and two from list C' style affair. I then have until April 1st to design a game based on the ingredients. It has to be written up and everything. The games are then peer scrutinised and some will pass on to a finals and for the winner, fame and glory awaits.
In all honesty, I don't expect to get past the first stage. I highly suspect that there are a lot of people who know people within the set-up but I'm looking forward to being proved wrong. It will however be a very interesting little challenge and I'll keep everyone up-to-date on my progress.
Neil
Monday, March 05, 2007
Brraaaaaiiiinnns!!!
As a young man, I was a bit different.
No, really! See, I wasn't one of those kids that simply had to see the allegedly 'illegal' copy of Evil Dead II that Paul had. Nor was I the sort of kid who used to try to get one of the older kids to get a copy of Bad Taste from the video shop. Gruesome horror was never really my thing. Indeed 'horror' - in it's current teens-in-peril style is about the bottom of my cinematic radar.
However, I have began to develop a rather curious interest in zombies and the classic zombie flicks. I'll be very specific here - what fascinates me about them is not the zombies, but rather the portrayal of the degeneration of humanity when faced with the living dead. So in the remake of Dawn of the Dead comes on, I'm there to see the man refuse to accept that his pregnant girlfriend is a zombie. To me that denial and inability to handle the terrible facts before you is true horror because it is something that can have resonance in real life. You can easily put yourself in that situation and wonder how you would react. I simply cannot do that when 'generic skinny blonde#3' decides she just HAS to go into the cellar without a torch at the dead of night....
So, when Ian recommended 'World War Z' on fandomlife.net it was naturally going to be high on my reading list. It is, apparently, high on a number of other peoples reading lists too because getting my hands on a copy of the bloody thing has been a nightmare. The wait, however, has been more than worth it.
The premise of the book is that it is an oral history of a world wide conflict between humanity and zombies, written as a series of interviews with the survivors. It is an amazingly gripping read for a fictional non-fiction book. I've read about half of it and some of it has chilled me to the bone. One of the passages that had particular resonance was the flight of the refugees from the west coast of the US and the subsequent traffic gridlock. It told of people literally trapped in their cars, only able to sit and watch as the zombies ate their way up the traffic jam. Horrible - especially as I was in a traffic jam at the time!!!
The book has been rammed with those moments when you can, almost involuntarily, put yourself into the place of the people and wonder - what would I do? how would I react? would I be one of the people that would be saved? would I be zombie fodder? The answers are NEVER pleasant.
This I consider to be true horror and this book is truly horrific. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Neil
No, really! See, I wasn't one of those kids that simply had to see the allegedly 'illegal' copy of Evil Dead II that Paul had. Nor was I the sort of kid who used to try to get one of the older kids to get a copy of Bad Taste from the video shop. Gruesome horror was never really my thing. Indeed 'horror' - in it's current teens-in-peril style is about the bottom of my cinematic radar.
However, I have began to develop a rather curious interest in zombies and the classic zombie flicks. I'll be very specific here - what fascinates me about them is not the zombies, but rather the portrayal of the degeneration of humanity when faced with the living dead. So in the remake of Dawn of the Dead comes on, I'm there to see the man refuse to accept that his pregnant girlfriend is a zombie. To me that denial and inability to handle the terrible facts before you is true horror because it is something that can have resonance in real life. You can easily put yourself in that situation and wonder how you would react. I simply cannot do that when 'generic skinny blonde#3' decides she just HAS to go into the cellar without a torch at the dead of night....
So, when Ian recommended 'World War Z' on fandomlife.net it was naturally going to be high on my reading list. It is, apparently, high on a number of other peoples reading lists too because getting my hands on a copy of the bloody thing has been a nightmare. The wait, however, has been more than worth it.
The premise of the book is that it is an oral history of a world wide conflict between humanity and zombies, written as a series of interviews with the survivors. It is an amazingly gripping read for a fictional non-fiction book. I've read about half of it and some of it has chilled me to the bone. One of the passages that had particular resonance was the flight of the refugees from the west coast of the US and the subsequent traffic gridlock. It told of people literally trapped in their cars, only able to sit and watch as the zombies ate their way up the traffic jam. Horrible - especially as I was in a traffic jam at the time!!!
The book has been rammed with those moments when you can, almost involuntarily, put yourself into the place of the people and wonder - what would I do? how would I react? would I be one of the people that would be saved? would I be zombie fodder? The answers are NEVER pleasant.
This I consider to be true horror and this book is truly horrific. I recommend it wholeheartedly.
Neil
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
All Good Things (Part Two)...
...do indeed come to an end.
However, this time it isn't hobby related. Discovery Kids is no more. Now for those of you without a horde of your own, this is pretty dull news, however for me it is a disaster.
DK is the science-for-kids branch of the Discovery Channel and in our house it was the kids favourite channel. The programming - a mixture of UK and US kids science, history dressed as mystery and a few cartoons (including the awesome Kenny The Shark) - really fired my girls and their interest in science and history. They absorbed the content every morning, loving every minute of it.
The downside was that the channel only had a very small set of programs to choose from. Thus we had probably seen every episode of every series maybe a dozen times. The kids were seemingly immune to this monotony, but us adults were grinding our teeth. Indeed, we were cheering when we heard that the channel was going 'online'
Until tonight, when it closed it's doors for good. It was like the kids had to sit and watch a friend leave. They were in tears. Christine was nearly in tears. Even I had a lump in my throat at the thought.
So goodbye to Crash Test Danny, Mystery Hunters, Timeblazers, The Big Bang, Science Please, Scientrific, Gross, Star Munchies and of course Kenny the Shark. If only you hadn't been so bloody repetitive!!
Neil
However, this time it isn't hobby related. Discovery Kids is no more. Now for those of you without a horde of your own, this is pretty dull news, however for me it is a disaster.
DK is the science-for-kids branch of the Discovery Channel and in our house it was the kids favourite channel. The programming - a mixture of UK and US kids science, history dressed as mystery and a few cartoons (including the awesome Kenny The Shark) - really fired my girls and their interest in science and history. They absorbed the content every morning, loving every minute of it.
The downside was that the channel only had a very small set of programs to choose from. Thus we had probably seen every episode of every series maybe a dozen times. The kids were seemingly immune to this monotony, but us adults were grinding our teeth. Indeed, we were cheering when we heard that the channel was going 'online'
Until tonight, when it closed it's doors for good. It was like the kids had to sit and watch a friend leave. They were in tears. Christine was nearly in tears. Even I had a lump in my throat at the thought.
So goodbye to Crash Test Danny, Mystery Hunters, Timeblazers, The Big Bang, Science Please, Scientrific, Gross, Star Munchies and of course Kenny the Shark. If only you hadn't been so bloody repetitive!!
Neil
All Good Things...
...do indeed come to an end, and it would appear that my time with World of Warcraft is hurtling in that direction. Life (well, work mainly, which I refuse to identify as life) is making it impossible for me to consider the time and energy needed to commit to endgame raiding in The Burning Crusade. My time is too precious to grind reputation and spend hours at a keyboard in pursuit of 'teh phat lootz'. I have better things to do, it would appear.
I would have quite happily toddled along with the game, if I had been able to stay attached to my current guild, 'If In Doubt, AFK Out'. However, Iain, the guildmaster, has just announced that the minimum requirements for membership is the ability to commit one night a week to raiding. One night? That can't be hard, can it? Well, at the moment, with me crawling in from work at 7.00pm after logging 9 hour days without a break, yes, yes it is. There was a possibility that there would be some sort of 'friends' status extended, but it appears that was just a rumour. It's a serious business, endgame raiding, and you don't need people clogging up your guild list with their part-time avatars.
I could seek another guild. I could return to the Dungeoneers - I'm sure Matt/Grimvok would have me if I paid him with enough red wine. I could seek membership of some other random faction of freaks and misfits. I could try to start my own guild. OK, that last one was a joke. However, in the end, I don't think it would be a good idea. I'm very jaded with the entire guild experience, especially the 'guilds within a guild' nonsense and the absolutely dire levels of communication that these things seem to engender in everyone. It really isn't worth the hassle.
So, I have to decide what to do with Gorthaal, Gortessa and Kylea - oh and the pre-pubescent Gorthadin of course. Will they become dormant? Will they go to the great ebay auction in the sky? Will they be passed onto a friend? Will they just tootle around Azeroth wondering whats happening?
Who knows...
Neil
I would have quite happily toddled along with the game, if I had been able to stay attached to my current guild, 'If In Doubt, AFK Out'. However, Iain, the guildmaster, has just announced that the minimum requirements for membership is the ability to commit one night a week to raiding. One night? That can't be hard, can it? Well, at the moment, with me crawling in from work at 7.00pm after logging 9 hour days without a break, yes, yes it is. There was a possibility that there would be some sort of 'friends' status extended, but it appears that was just a rumour. It's a serious business, endgame raiding, and you don't need people clogging up your guild list with their part-time avatars.
I could seek another guild. I could return to the Dungeoneers - I'm sure Matt/Grimvok would have me if I paid him with enough red wine. I could seek membership of some other random faction of freaks and misfits. I could try to start my own guild. OK, that last one was a joke. However, in the end, I don't think it would be a good idea. I'm very jaded with the entire guild experience, especially the 'guilds within a guild' nonsense and the absolutely dire levels of communication that these things seem to engender in everyone. It really isn't worth the hassle.
So, I have to decide what to do with Gorthaal, Gortessa and Kylea - oh and the pre-pubescent Gorthadin of course. Will they become dormant? Will they go to the great ebay auction in the sky? Will they be passed onto a friend? Will they just tootle around Azeroth wondering whats happening?
Who knows...
Neil
Friday, February 23, 2007
Mid Life Crisis of Finally Discovered Self Confidence
Today is a good day. Let me explain...
A while back, I was stood outside my kids school watching the mothers going about the same dull morning routine and I wondered - is this it? The likelihood of humanity existing is so randomly minute that it is hard to believe that it is not for some possible greater purpose - and I find it hard to believe that this greater purpose is discussing Jade Goodie or the number of bonus points you have at Tesco. It then struck me that we allow the mundane nature of life and the pressures of modern living really crush our ability to strive to be better than we are - we are, essentially, trained to be risk averse.
This anti-risk nature permeates everything that we do - including things that simple shouldn't be risks at all. It also makes us underestimate what we are and what we can achieve. What struck me after that was that with a degree in marketing, 20 years gaming experience, really quite decent design skills, web design and management skills and a cohort of some of the most educated, versatile and friendly gamers at my disposal there is no reason on this Earth why I couldn't live the dream and write a roleplaying game. So I have and it is going rather well.
However, the mundanity of life has slipped in again. When people have asked me - 'Are you going to sell this?' my answers have always been very negative. They have always been indirect, evasive and generally no. After all, I couldn't, could I?
Well I had a long chat with a couple of associates last night who work in the student media industry and we were talking about my current quest for new employment. Frankly, they were bemused that I couldn't find a new position and went on to tell me, in no uncertain (and very flattering) terms about my position within the market and reputation and such. Apparently, I deliver. Apparently my ideas are ahead of the curve. Apparently I am quite good at my job.
Which got me thinking.... sometimes the situations that we are in can specifically be a downer on our own potential as much as the world that we live in. I've been seconded to run our Print Shop recently and it has really dumbed down my self-belief by doing very menial work. Looking beyond that 9-5 grind and remembering who you are and what you are capable of is so important.
And the point of this meaningless voyage around my mid-30s career crisis? Well, I'm going to go for it. Yes, I am going to develop Omniverse and maybe some other ideas with an eye to releasing them into the wider market. Yes I am going to do it 'properly'. Yes I am going to bring my full broadside of skills, resources and experiences on it.
Why? Because I bloody well can and the only thing that seperates me from the people that have done it in the past is the belief that it is possible.
wish me luck...
Neil
A while back, I was stood outside my kids school watching the mothers going about the same dull morning routine and I wondered - is this it? The likelihood of humanity existing is so randomly minute that it is hard to believe that it is not for some possible greater purpose - and I find it hard to believe that this greater purpose is discussing Jade Goodie or the number of bonus points you have at Tesco. It then struck me that we allow the mundane nature of life and the pressures of modern living really crush our ability to strive to be better than we are - we are, essentially, trained to be risk averse.
This anti-risk nature permeates everything that we do - including things that simple shouldn't be risks at all. It also makes us underestimate what we are and what we can achieve. What struck me after that was that with a degree in marketing, 20 years gaming experience, really quite decent design skills, web design and management skills and a cohort of some of the most educated, versatile and friendly gamers at my disposal there is no reason on this Earth why I couldn't live the dream and write a roleplaying game. So I have and it is going rather well.
However, the mundanity of life has slipped in again. When people have asked me - 'Are you going to sell this?' my answers have always been very negative. They have always been indirect, evasive and generally no. After all, I couldn't, could I?
Well I had a long chat with a couple of associates last night who work in the student media industry and we were talking about my current quest for new employment. Frankly, they were bemused that I couldn't find a new position and went on to tell me, in no uncertain (and very flattering) terms about my position within the market and reputation and such. Apparently, I deliver. Apparently my ideas are ahead of the curve. Apparently I am quite good at my job.
Which got me thinking.... sometimes the situations that we are in can specifically be a downer on our own potential as much as the world that we live in. I've been seconded to run our Print Shop recently and it has really dumbed down my self-belief by doing very menial work. Looking beyond that 9-5 grind and remembering who you are and what you are capable of is so important.
And the point of this meaningless voyage around my mid-30s career crisis? Well, I'm going to go for it. Yes, I am going to develop Omniverse and maybe some other ideas with an eye to releasing them into the wider market. Yes I am going to do it 'properly'. Yes I am going to bring my full broadside of skills, resources and experiences on it.
Why? Because I bloody well can and the only thing that seperates me from the people that have done it in the past is the belief that it is possible.
wish me luck...
Neil
Monday, February 19, 2007
Dice!
Last night during Omniverse playtest, I realised that I needed to get some new dice... or rather I needed to supplement my horrendously depleted dice collection. Part of me is thrilled at the prospect, part of me is horrified that my old faithfuls have been lost. Well, most of them. My Yahtzee d6s (the best rolling dice in all of Christendom) are still around, as is my 'lucky' d20. However, many of the less used dice seem to have found their way into the hoover, the cat or the diet of a small child*
So, as I have readers now I'll throw a question out to them - what are your criteria for quality dice?
Only on a roleplaying blog....
Neil
* Note to social services... I don't feed my kids dice. That might count as nutrition..../grin
So, as I have readers now I'll throw a question out to them - what are your criteria for quality dice?
Only on a roleplaying blog....
Neil
* Note to social services... I don't feed my kids dice. That might count as nutrition..../grin
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Forging a New (Virtual) Reality
Things have been pretty frantic over the last few days and it has been pretty damned good. Lets start off with World of Warcraft. I had a potter for a few hours on Saturday morning but other than that I haven't touched it for about a week now. And guess what? I've hardly missed it. OK, thats a little shy of the truth - I'm not missing the game, nor am I missing the people, but I have got those odd feelings of compulsion and a little guilt regarding the guild. However the actual gameplay is just not needed. Thats very strange, especially considering the amount I have played the game. I don't know how long my WoW holiday will last, but at the moment it's going fine.
So, if I am not playing WoW, what the hell am I doing with my time?
Roleplaying has taken to the ascendency in a major way as of late. A couple of weeks ago we played a session of Pendragon that, I believe, most people around the table would rather forget about. I haven't mentioned it specifically in 'The Bottom of the Glass' because so much was mentioned about it elsewhere. I would rather dwell upon the way that, I believe, it acted as a little wake-up call for many of the people around the table.
Maybe we had become a little complacent? Maybe we were a little too full of our own cleverness? Maybe we just forgot that we were there to ROLEPLAY? I have no idea. However our last session was nothing short of magical. Nigel excelled himself in the GMs chair by taking things a little slower, slipping in some tried and tested GMing tools and making the game focussed wholly on the characters. Around the table the banter and near constant WoW side references stopped dead. We played. We played in-character, we expanded the story, we energised the setting. It was just brilliant. Moreover, we also established 'Steak and Cinema Sunday' - a Sunday once-a-month where we have something to eat and then see a suitable gamer-esque movie. Our first one will be '300'.
Subsequent to that session we have been abuzz with relationship mappings, ideas for storylines and other hints and help. Really, it is 'Ask not what your GM can do for you, but what you can do for your GM' at the moment.
Omniverse continues apace and we had our first real face-to-face playtest session. It was amazing. I cannot really describe the buzz of seeing people you respect taking your little game very seriously indeed. Questions were asked, debates were had and you know what - they 'got it'! That was the best bit, they seemed to understand and buy into the ideas I had put down. Oh, I know it was only character generation but it made me feel magnificent.
A smorgasbord of gaming and related pursuits seems to be my fate at the moment. And that, readers of my sometimes rather pessimistic blog, is a VERY GOOD THING INDEED!!
Neil
So, if I am not playing WoW, what the hell am I doing with my time?
Roleplaying has taken to the ascendency in a major way as of late. A couple of weeks ago we played a session of Pendragon that, I believe, most people around the table would rather forget about. I haven't mentioned it specifically in 'The Bottom of the Glass' because so much was mentioned about it elsewhere. I would rather dwell upon the way that, I believe, it acted as a little wake-up call for many of the people around the table.
Maybe we had become a little complacent? Maybe we were a little too full of our own cleverness? Maybe we just forgot that we were there to ROLEPLAY? I have no idea. However our last session was nothing short of magical. Nigel excelled himself in the GMs chair by taking things a little slower, slipping in some tried and tested GMing tools and making the game focussed wholly on the characters. Around the table the banter and near constant WoW side references stopped dead. We played. We played in-character, we expanded the story, we energised the setting. It was just brilliant. Moreover, we also established 'Steak and Cinema Sunday' - a Sunday once-a-month where we have something to eat and then see a suitable gamer-esque movie. Our first one will be '300'.
Subsequent to that session we have been abuzz with relationship mappings, ideas for storylines and other hints and help. Really, it is 'Ask not what your GM can do for you, but what you can do for your GM' at the moment.
Omniverse continues apace and we had our first real face-to-face playtest session. It was amazing. I cannot really describe the buzz of seeing people you respect taking your little game very seriously indeed. Questions were asked, debates were had and you know what - they 'got it'! That was the best bit, they seemed to understand and buy into the ideas I had put down. Oh, I know it was only character generation but it made me feel magnificent.
A smorgasbord of gaming and related pursuits seems to be my fate at the moment. And that, readers of my sometimes rather pessimistic blog, is a VERY GOOD THING INDEED!!
Neil
Thursday, February 08, 2007
DING!
Last night, amidst the wonderful vista that is Netherstorm in Outland, Gorth finally 'dinged' 70. It was late, so I received a light smattering of 'grats' and then settled into the knowledge that my month long journey of discovery had come to an end ... and the new endgame was looming before me.
However, the question that was preying on my mind was not where to start with this new challenge, but whether I want take part in it at all!?
As I have been questing my little head off, I have been watching in the background as my guildmates take part in a neverending series of instance runs and reputation grinds to get 'keys' - and these keys allow access to other instances which are harder and then more keys and more instances. You get the idea?
I have had no desire to instance during The Burning Crusade at all. The ridiculous dichotomy of the druid has hit home hard. I have levelled as a pure feral form and I am death on four paws. Its fantastic. However, when I have to shift over the healing I really am a stand-in medic at best. To become an effective group healer again, I would have to return to Restoration spec and that makes all of the wonderful fun I have had disappear. I'll readily accept that I am a far better healer than I am a tank or a dps player but still... returning to the tree and losing my wonderful damage potential makes me sad.
The schedule is another thing that I simple cannot find myself getting enthused about. The idea that I would put whole evenings aside to run dungeon-after-dungeon to get eventually incremental increases in the equipment my avatar wears seems .... well, ridiculous! I've been there and done that. I've dedicated countless evenings to the pursual of items like the Staff of Dominance or the Cauterising Band. Even then, the acquisition of the items was always less important than the fun and frolics that was being had with the people I was playing with.
Sadly, my increasing feeling is that 'AFK' is not really a fun and frolics guild. The people in it are great folk, and really good players but therein lies the problem. There's a certain degree of focus, a certain tenacity and a certain level of expectation within the guild that increasingly doesn't seem to match the way I feel about playing the game. I certainly don't want to be holding a spot in a guild with such high endgame aspirations if I cannot dedicate myself to matching those aspirations. Thats not fair on the people in the guild or those that wish to join it.
In the end however, it also comes down to time and how I spend it. I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment, namely work-related nonsense. I need to look closely at how I use that time and how I make it work for me. Is spending four evenings challenging to get one upgraded piece of equipment in a computer game really what I want or need at the moment?
hmmmm....
Neil
However, the question that was preying on my mind was not where to start with this new challenge, but whether I want take part in it at all!?
As I have been questing my little head off, I have been watching in the background as my guildmates take part in a neverending series of instance runs and reputation grinds to get 'keys' - and these keys allow access to other instances which are harder and then more keys and more instances. You get the idea?
I have had no desire to instance during The Burning Crusade at all. The ridiculous dichotomy of the druid has hit home hard. I have levelled as a pure feral form and I am death on four paws. Its fantastic. However, when I have to shift over the healing I really am a stand-in medic at best. To become an effective group healer again, I would have to return to Restoration spec and that makes all of the wonderful fun I have had disappear. I'll readily accept that I am a far better healer than I am a tank or a dps player but still... returning to the tree and losing my wonderful damage potential makes me sad.
The schedule is another thing that I simple cannot find myself getting enthused about. The idea that I would put whole evenings aside to run dungeon-after-dungeon to get eventually incremental increases in the equipment my avatar wears seems .... well, ridiculous! I've been there and done that. I've dedicated countless evenings to the pursual of items like the Staff of Dominance or the Cauterising Band. Even then, the acquisition of the items was always less important than the fun and frolics that was being had with the people I was playing with.
Sadly, my increasing feeling is that 'AFK' is not really a fun and frolics guild. The people in it are great folk, and really good players but therein lies the problem. There's a certain degree of focus, a certain tenacity and a certain level of expectation within the guild that increasingly doesn't seem to match the way I feel about playing the game. I certainly don't want to be holding a spot in a guild with such high endgame aspirations if I cannot dedicate myself to matching those aspirations. Thats not fair on the people in the guild or those that wish to join it.
In the end however, it also comes down to time and how I spend it. I have a lot of things on my mind at the moment, namely work-related nonsense. I need to look closely at how I use that time and how I make it work for me. Is spending four evenings challenging to get one upgraded piece of equipment in a computer game really what I want or need at the moment?
hmmmm....
Neil
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
How do the Swedes do it?
Survive that is?
Yes, it's that time of year again when the dread words are echoed by the Met Office.
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
Now you would expect such grave tones to be taken for howling gales tearing trees from their roots, torrential rain causing flash floods or surging tides washing away low lying villages near the coast.
Nope, it's a light dusting of snow. In North Shields this morning there was - I'll be generous - a centimetre of snow. You know the sort that kind of clings to the middle of a paving stone so that it might constitute 'lying' is you blurred your eyes. Not enough to make a decent snowball. It now constitutes the total and utter breakdown of civilisation as we know it. Metro services are put on restricted timetables, peoples abilities to drive on perfectly clear roads stop dead and children are mummified in their cold weather clothes like it was a dry-run for 'The Day After Tomorrow'. The newspapers don't help with one of them claiming that the entire country would close down if there was 6 inches of snow.
How do the Swedes do it? Indeed, throw in the Russians and Norwegians and Canadians and even the good people of New York? In fact anywhere that has a reasonably snowy winter? Surely they must just hibernate for the winter, never venturing from their boltholes in case some meteorlogical catastrophe should befall them?
Well no, they just get on with it don't they. I remember a friend from Prince Edward Isle in Canada saying that until the snow drifts were six feet deep it didn't constitute a proper winter. We would simply all die if that happened here. What we have now is not 'severe weather' - it is something slightly different from the normal grey, moist, overcast tripe that we have for 95% of our year.
Personally I blame Micheal Fish. Ever since he assured the populace with:
"Earlier on today apparently a lady rang the BBC and said she heard that there was a hurricane on the way. Well don't worry if you're watching, there isn't."
Ever since then the Met Office have been so shit scared that someone, somewhere might be possibly offended or inconvenienced by them underestimating the 'severity' of the weather, that EVERY change in weather is labelled as a possible nightmare writ large upon the Earth.
A guildmate on WoW asked me last week whether the Brits held the Scandanavian races with any contempt based on how the Vikings raped and pillaged them. I answered no, but I'm going to revise that to yes. Why? Because you damned well didn't teach us how to deal with SNOW!!!!
Bah!
Neil
Yes, it's that time of year again when the dread words are echoed by the Met Office.
SEVERE WEATHER WARNING
Now you would expect such grave tones to be taken for howling gales tearing trees from their roots, torrential rain causing flash floods or surging tides washing away low lying villages near the coast.
Nope, it's a light dusting of snow. In North Shields this morning there was - I'll be generous - a centimetre of snow. You know the sort that kind of clings to the middle of a paving stone so that it might constitute 'lying' is you blurred your eyes. Not enough to make a decent snowball. It now constitutes the total and utter breakdown of civilisation as we know it. Metro services are put on restricted timetables, peoples abilities to drive on perfectly clear roads stop dead and children are mummified in their cold weather clothes like it was a dry-run for 'The Day After Tomorrow'. The newspapers don't help with one of them claiming that the entire country would close down if there was 6 inches of snow.
How do the Swedes do it? Indeed, throw in the Russians and Norwegians and Canadians and even the good people of New York? In fact anywhere that has a reasonably snowy winter? Surely they must just hibernate for the winter, never venturing from their boltholes in case some meteorlogical catastrophe should befall them?
Well no, they just get on with it don't they. I remember a friend from Prince Edward Isle in Canada saying that until the snow drifts were six feet deep it didn't constitute a proper winter. We would simply all die if that happened here. What we have now is not 'severe weather' - it is something slightly different from the normal grey, moist, overcast tripe that we have for 95% of our year.
Personally I blame Micheal Fish. Ever since he assured the populace with:
"Earlier on today apparently a lady rang the BBC and said she heard that there was a hurricane on the way. Well don't worry if you're watching, there isn't."
Ever since then the Met Office have been so shit scared that someone, somewhere might be possibly offended or inconvenienced by them underestimating the 'severity' of the weather, that EVERY change in weather is labelled as a possible nightmare writ large upon the Earth.
A guildmate on WoW asked me last week whether the Brits held the Scandanavian races with any contempt based on how the Vikings raped and pillaged them. I answered no, but I'm going to revise that to yes. Why? Because you damned well didn't teach us how to deal with SNOW!!!!
Bah!
Neil
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