An Un-Civil Review: Civil War

I have finally got around to reading the tpb of Civil War, Marvel's recent blockbuster event. It's something that I have put off for a while because I really haven't been enjoying Marvel's product at the moment and this, alongside the debacle of Avengers:Disassembled, were the cornerstones of that lack of enjoyment. Still, it's unfair to judge something without having sampled so I read on.

To it's credit there are some rather good bits in the story. Any full page panel of Hercules, Mjolnir and Thor, loads of violence and the line 'Thou Art No THOR!' is going to get me slightly damp in the panty regions. Some of the language was good too - I particularly liked the two word interchange between Spidey and Reed Richards 'Amazing','Spectacular'. Not only was it a nice nod to the names of the Spiderman comics, but it was also a pleasantly acceptable rip from the end of Infinite Crisis#7 when Superman states (and I paraphrase) 'Its not about what you wear, it's about what you do, it's about Action'. I enjoy clever wordplay like that. It makes me smile. The art was also exceptional, with some excellent renditions of characters and good action sequences. I'll be looking out for McNiven's stuff in the future. And some of the characters came across REALLY well - especially Sue Storm, Spiderman and strangely, Tony Stark. Yes, I can accept that Iron Man is that much of an asshole. He always has been.

However, thats where the good bits pale into insignificance for me. And that little bit at the end is probably the most pivotal bit - for me - because I think that Civil War (and it's otherworldly cousin, Infinite Crisis) mark a sea change in modern comic books. I think certainly for Marvel it is a story that has opened a Pandoras Box, one that will be almost impossible to close.

In modern British politics, it is often said that the three main parties have very little to differentiate them for one another and the two main parties are so similar that if they changed government no-one would notice. I think for many years, editorially, this could have been said for Marvel and DC as well. Sure they did things differently on an operational level, but really they were following the same comics paradigm. Superheroes in superworlds with supervillains. It's almost as if Dan Didio and Joe Quesada sat down and decided that the status quo had to change. They flipped a coin. Didio took his company back towards it's Silver Age roots whilst Quesada jumped the rails completely, had Sentry punch out the Fourth Wall and planted the Marvel Universe firmly in the real world.

Thats the concept of Civil War - in light of an ill-timed attempt to capture some villains by a neophyte superteam hundreds of children were killed by an exploding villain. This tragedy triggers a reaction by the US Government to register superheroes and have them paid, trained and accountable to the taxpayer as federal employees. Some people agree. Some disagree. They fight. Shit happens and then in the face of members of the emergency services physically intervening, Captain America (the face of the resistance) stands down and the 'free' superheroes 'lose'. End of.

In some ways this is a fantastic read because it faces you with inescapable logic based on the workings of our modern society today. In a world where a young man wearing a hooded sweatshirt can instill fear and dread simply by his presence on a street, what chance harmony if that same young man could throw cars around? You would want that destructive potential trained, controlled and registered. You would want some say as to where that potential existed in your community. You would want to control it. We see this in our media and on our streets every single day nowadays and it is mirrored amazingly in the comic. There is one character, the mother of one of the children, who appears in the comic and makes these blanket emotional statements that you simply cannot argue against... but you have to. Something deep inside you tells you that there is something wrong here but you cannot put your finger on it. And then when 'Black Goliath' is killed whilst resisting arrest, she says that it was his fault because he was breaking the law and the finger begins to be put on it. Its that 'any means necessary' attitude. Thats what grates slightly. Thats what makes you sit, ill at ease.

And then the Pandora's box is opened up. The King no longer has his new clothes. Suspension of disbelief has occured because Millar has placed a veneer of real world morality upon a superhero scenario. You can't stop with registration. What happens next? If you can mirror issues such as teenage killings, gangs, gun control etc (all of which are analogised in Civil War) then really you need to be looking at issues such as immigration, world hunger, real natural disasters, military dictatorships, global warming - and I am sure we have seen some of this already before in Kingdom Come, Squadron Supreme and Rising Stars.

The problem is, all of them are either alternative reality or out of continuity stories. This is the mainstream Marvel Universe. This is arguably the biggest comics company in the world. It has to follow through with it. It cannot now ignore what it has done. Real world issues now effect the Marvel Universe and 90% of it's heroes are federal agents. Telepaths working homicide duty? Weather controllers averting tropical storms around New Orleans? Reed Richards and Hank Pym putting their minds to cures for cancer and the common cold? If YOU were the Head of SHIELD, what would YOU put them to work upon?

Its a sobering thought

And therein lies the problem, for me. The concept is very strong but almost too strong. There is no way that I can see that Marvel can legitimately retrace their steps now. There is clear blue comic shop between DC and Marvel. DC is printing (amazingly violent) traditional comics and Marvel would appear to have moved it's focus into the world of the pseudo-real. For me, thats not what comics are for. I have always been a big fan of keeping real world and comics world seperate. Answers to real world issues are too easy with superpowered solutions. It makes a mockery of our trials.

And indeed, nothing could be more apparent as a stamping of this than what happened to the moral centres of the two companies in these stories. In Infinite Crisis, the world is going to pot - it's dark, it's scary and really it's very bad. And then Superman comes to the rescue. Not just any Superman. THE Superman. As if to remind everyone of the moral code and fictional conventions that underpin the DCU. And in the reprecussions of Civil War what happens?

Captain America is killed. Shot on the steps of the Court House.

And who is the new popular moral centre of the MU? Iron Man, the instigator of the Civil War.

No greater statement could be said.


I'll revise my statements however. Civil War is not a bad story as a trade paperback. Any comic that can make anyone think this much about the implications and the themes of the story has to be pretty well written.

I will therefore retarget my ire at the editors. What a bag of shite. Guys, look. Its dead easy. When you have one of these big crossovers in one TPB, and you insist on writing the story so that the reader has to read some of the crossovers to get the bigger picture, please, for the love of god, do some extra exposition pages?

Why is Cable here? Why does he suddenly become a pussy half way through the book?
Thor? Clone? When? Where? How? PLEASE EXPLAIN?!

And my favourite...

Decades ago one of the more potent characters in the MU, Captain Marvel, died of cancer. He has, in the most part, remained dead. In this story, he returned in a one-shot special called 'The Return'. NONE OF THIS WAS MENTIONED IN THE TPB. We just got a shot of Captain Marvel, as part of a larger group of superheroes. WHAT THE FUCK?!

Choppy, shoddy, horrible HORRIBLE editing with no eye to creating a fully flowing story made this painful to read in places and it fails as a tradepaperback.

So there you have it - Civil War - quite possibly one of the most important stories ever told in the Marvel Universe IF they can maintain their stance on the very important issues they have raised.

Neil

Front Rank Fire!

Well, finally, I have managed to put together something that seems like a pseudo-playable document for Duty and Honour. OK, so the first thing that you read is a list of all of the bits and bobs that are MISSING from the game but thats a good thing. Why? Because it means that I managed to get my shit together enough to be able to see the wheat from the chaff, the proverbial wood for the trees - I now have my target and I am ready to rumble towards it.

You can download the file from http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/duty&honourV2.pdf if the urge grabs you. If you have any feedback, that would be awesome.

Neil

GenCon 2007: Highs and Lows

Well, one week after returning from GenCon I think I have managed to assimilate everything that has gone on enough to post about it lucidly. It was an absolute experience - and yes, I mean that in every way that it can be read. Some parts of it were pure, unadulterated awesome whilst other parts of it were confusing, frustrating and downright painful. So lets take the low road and the high road there and back from GenCon, shall we?

High Road: There's something quite empowering about a road trip, allowing a nice slow build of excitement towards the main event. Apart from a twin/double room mix-up, the arrangements for the journey went perfectly. All of the flights were relatively on time, all of the rooms were decent and not once did we get the 'I'm sorry sir, there's no-one booked under that name' look.

Low Road: Manchester Airport is a dive and their 'food village' is a joke. American Airlines is a very nice airline but in the end their seats are not made for people the width of Andrew and I, not the height of Pete. Eight hours of uncomfortable squirming and in-seat taichi each way made me want to lose weight more than ever. Add to that the ridiculously tight transfer time across O'Hare airport (you would think that two and a half hours would be long enough, wouldn't you?) and it wasn't as easy as we would have liked it to be. Still, a little drama never hurt anyone!

High Road: America is always an amazing place, but it is moreso when the currency has been pummelled into nothingness. £1=$2 makes a massive difference to the purchasing power we had over there. Nothing was too expensive. NOTHING. Want a top of the menu steak dinner? Thats £9. Want an extra round of drinks? Thats £1.50. Want to try that game? Thats just £10 so why not. Even the generic con tickets were only £0.75. Everything was a bargain. Oh, and the weather broke just as we arrived, taking the temperatures down from the humid high 30s to the dry mid 20s. Still hot enough to be pleasant, but not so hot as to be offensive.

Low Road: I shake my head at a country of excess. As many of you are aware, I am not a small person and I quite like my food. However, when I cannot finish a STARTER because it is too substantial, you know that there is something very very wrong. The portion sizes were just ridiculous and we were assure by the waitress that they were not sharing starters and that average mid-west yanks did indeed order a starter, main and dessert. I mean honestly! That explained some of the people we saw at the con. Anywhere when I can be considered average sized has to be a little over-consumed!

High Road: It was great to see all of my CCG buddies again - the Raw Deal players and the RD alumni that have graduated onto other games. I've waxed lyrical in other blog posts about the bittersweet nature of these meetings, but by now I have realised that I think I will be back again and I will see these people again. There was nothing quite like entering the RD room and being greeted so warmly by players despite my long hiatus from the game. I got to eat with Antigoth and Matt Hatcher and Jason Griffey. I got to chat to Zev again and I got to attend an MLX again. It was good times indeed.

Low Road: I'll say it here, publically - Raw Deal is in a whole world of pain at the moment. Seeing the Comic Images 'booth' and the presentation of the World Qualifiers in comparison to the presentations by companies like Sabretooth Games and UDE really underlined that there is something lacking. There was just no big game feeling to the events, no real investment in the games future and no ... heart. It was heart rending really, as the people that were playing were obviously still loving playing the game. I would say that something has to change, but I think it might be too late to turnaround such a dire situation.

High Road: Oh the Exhibitors Hall! It's more than I could ever imagine and then some. Want to see CCGs? New ones? Old ones? Yup. Want to play MMOs? Try the new WoW expansion? Play the amazing Pirates of the Burning Sea? See Age of Conan? Warhammer? Yup, thats all there. Want to try new RPGs? Oh my GOD! So many games. So many fookin games! And so cheap. The only way I can describe it is a shop twice the size of something like Memorabilia at the NEC with loads of demos and boardgames and nachos vendors and ... oh it was brilliant!! I could have happily stayed there for the entire convention. And indeed, I nearly did.

Low Road: Too much, too quickly - and my feet gave up. Despite wearing my very most comfortable shoes, I got a horrid big blister on the bottom of my foot, which became nicely infected. I was wondering why I could only manage to do one or two things and then need to sit down and rest. Not just rest because I was tired - really REST, because I was going to collapse otherwise. Well, I had a nice shivers attack on Sunday night and fevered until Monday morning. In the end I was diagnosed with a soft tissue infection of my toe that was crawling nicely towards my ankle. Nice. Needless to say that if I hadn't been laid low with this malady, I would have managed to do a load more stuff.

High Road: So what did I manage to do? Well, we had a demo of Cold City by the creator Malcolm Craig which really sold us on the game. Andrew and I also had a very nice man from BWHQ show is the ins and outs of Burning Wheel combat - unveiling the simplicity behind a very complicated looking system. I talked with a number of people that I have talked to online - indeed, the best thing I did was write 'You may know me online as Vodkashok' on my badge. I also got interviewed by the Sons of Kryos for their podcast, which was a load of fun. I played some Primetime Adventures which was great.

Low Road: I never really got to grips with Games on Demand, which is actually 'Games when Available'. I never managed to get myself to the Embassy for the evening games sessions. I never really played much at all. I did go out drinking one night which was a total mistake as my illness and a hangover nearly killed me. In the end, this GenCon felt like a scouting mission for a larger, more focused mission in the future. Now I know some of the tricks of the trade - like getting your badge on Wednesday, preordering Generics, getting EVEN MORE COMFORTABLE SHOES and most of all, getting a hotel nearer the venue - I reckon I can get a lot more out of it.

High Road: What else happened? Well, I was there, in the room, when 4th Edition was announced for Dungeons and Dragons. That was kind of cool. I had a very good chat with some of the indie games guys about the ins and outs of self-publishing which was one of my desires for the con anyway. And I had a really really good time. That was the main reason for going - to have fun. And despite my bodies great attempts to make things otherwise, I did. And I will again.

Oh.. and what did I purchase?

A Faery's Tale Deluxe - signed by the writer for the girls
10 Faery's Tale specific dice
GURPS Age of Napoleon - Duty and Honour research material
Giants - an Ashcan of a game of giants and their communities
Burning Wheel: Jihad - Its Dune. Even the BW guys admit it's Dune
Burning Wheel: The Blossoms Are Falling - BW does Bushido
Full Light, Full Steam - oh, it's brilliant. Just brilliant! Better than that!
Cold City Companion - more cold war goodness

Neil

The Matrix Revelation

I had a bit of a revelation as I was watching The Matrix with the kids at the weekend and it had to do with emulation, system and narration in roleplaying games. With full knowledge of what was coming, I sat ready to watch 'the lobby scene' and then I started thinking - how would you do the lobby scene in a game?

My initial thought was about the mechanics that would be needed to create the same effect in a game - the guns, the avoidance, the acrobatics etc. No, thats not going to work is it, because the very nature of most mechanics heavy systems would decimate any immediacy of the action. Then I turned to some mook rule system, but that too just seemed too clunky and indeed maybe a little out-0f-genre for the movie where anyone can be a danger. This naturally took to the other extreme and the idea of narration and the dread conflict resolution. But even then when I thought about it I could not see how the system would recreate that scene.

And then the revelation came. Of course the sytsem wouldn't be able to emulate or recreate that scene. Lets face it - how many times have you played through anything as good as that in a game? How many times has any given system delivered that impact and 'WoW!' factor? Never. I would wager.

Thats because it isn't the system that 'delivers the Awesome' - its the players.

And sometimes thats a thing I think we forget. The players are going to add that X-Factor to a game that will make it or break it. As a designer, we cannot build that into the game as everyone's Lobby Scene will be different - all we can do is make sure that the mechanics we do have don't get in the way of that marvellous invention. As Games Masters we have to recognise when a player is about the throw back his trenchcoat and blow seven colours of shit out of the game with a large Awesome cannon and we have to let them run with it. As players, we have to simply not accept the mundane in the games that we play. We have to push the envelope if we are going to deliver memorable moments.

To quote the film in question:

Trinity: Neo... nobody has ever done this before.
Neo: I know. That's why it's going to work

Neil

Sharpe Bricks?

Inspired by this thread whilst pottering around Tynemouth Market this morning, I spotted something amazing. When I got home, I flew onto the web and after a little search-fu, I found the rest. Oh My God!

You can get Napoleonic Lego Minifigs! You can get them in English red, French Blue and some Spanish looking ones too. Standard redcoats and 'command' figures. I have no idea what I can do with them, but I must be able to do SOMETHING.

Oh and you can also get some really REALLY cool 'Spirit of the Century' style ones too.

Blast from the Past!

Little trip down memory lane for the Gaming Guys. Found this hiding on some ftp space I was clearing out.

Neil

T E E N T I T A N S Teen Titans, let's GO!!

I rarely post on here about my fanfiction - the 'other' hobby - but at the moment I am about to engage with a new series, one that I have been waiting for ages to write. Teen Titans.

If you are asking 'who' I will explain - they are the DC universe's young heroes, starting off as the sidekicks group and growing into a sort of Justice League Junior. So you get hardcore DC continuity superheroing and some great teenage interactions.

I've been a fan of the Titans comic book for years, but it has never been a fanfic title I have wanted to handle until recently. Whilst I am a bit of a team title addict and most of my more popular fanfic titles have been either teams or ensemble titles there is a certain something about the DC mainstream titles that has been off-putting. Justice League is generally unavailable or like gold dust, I'm too close to JSA to be able to do a decent job, Legion is too complicated - Titans seems like the perfect fit. In addition to that, I love my teen comedy and teen sports films. Yeah, I know, they are trash but what the hell. There's something strangely famillar about them that reaches out to me. I think it's because I never really 'did' being a teenager that I find it so fascinating.

The trick, I think, will be to make my Titans wholly different from my other title, Green Lantern. GL is very mainstream to the sites continuity and I do a lot of things in order to forward the sites metaplot with that title. Indeed, sometimes that means that the characters lose a little intimacy as they are hurtling around the Universe. So I want to get Titans down and dirty a little. Something more character driven than plot driven.

Of course, I now have the best bit to come - choosing *my* Titans roster. Thats going to be interesting!

Neil

GenCon Countdown has Commenced

In two weeks time I will be packing for GenCon.

Lets just understand that sentence for what it truely means. 25 years after I started roleplaying I will finally be making my way to the biggest gaming convention in the world. Thats pretty damned cool. Moreover I will be in the position to not scrimp and save money when I am there, making it a true 'holiday of a lifetime'. I am very very excited.

I would be wrong if I didn't say there was a certain degree of pathos attached to the entire affair as well. The finances for this venture have come from a large slice of inheritance that has come my way since last year, which is sad. However I am sure that all of the family members involved wouldn't begrudge me my dream holiday on the back of it. I also resolved late last year, after I parted company finally with Comic Images, that I would never again see a number of my friends that I had made during my sojourns to Wrestlemania. Indeed, the realisation of internet acquaintance into real-life associate had an unexpected effect on me - I can understand how people can get hooked on their online sweethearts so much that they marry. So it is a good thing that I will be seeing so many of them again, but a bad thing that I might never again. Again.

Thats all chicken feed to the fact that I am going however. The travel arrangements are almost sorted (barring one stop-over hotel and some car parking) although I need to put together a little information pack for my companions so that we all have copies of the travel information. I haven't bothered signing up for anything as I'm pretty sure I will be able to find more than enough stuff to do in the ad hoc games department. I have suitable clothes, a good bag, a great mobile phone that can double as a note taker, a travel plug, a good inflight book, some allergy tablets and other assorted approved medicines. Things are looking pretty sorted.

Well, sort of. Of course there had to be one fly in the ointment. I have just had MI:666 returned to me after it's strange journey into the armed forces. Which means that I don't have my primary game ready to take with me. I have been working furiously on Duty and Honour and that is in far better shape, but as yet not really felt the full force of playtesting. I think they will have to wait - or at least travel over in a very unfinished form. Unless I can magic some extra time over the next two weeks.

My shopping list of games grows daily as well - Dictionary of Mu, Full Light Full Steam, Faerys Tale Deluxe, The Blossoms Are Falling, Zorcerer of Zo, Committee for the Investigation of Thingy and probably some others too. *sob*

And with that... SQUEEEEEE!

Neil

Hot, Damned Hot. No Really. Hotter Than That!

Well, I'm back from my first overseas family holiday in twelve years and all I can say is ... phew! Scorchio! Cyprus has been ridiculously hot this year. 'Hotter than living memory' sort of hot. 35-38 degrees C with virtually no wind, 60% plus relative humidity and not one single drop of precipitation. This is too much for a average Gow to handle. Hot is not good for me. I don't do hot. I'm not made for hot. It becomes a strange affair when fruit juice and bottled water becomes more important than beer. It is even stranger when the status of the ice cubes in the apartment is a matter of familial import. Indeed, the best buy of the weekend was the air conditioning in the room. £30 well spent. It was so hot you had to close the patio doors to keep the room cool rather than the other way around. Well strange.

On the positive side, it has to have been one of the most relaxing weeks I have ever had. I have never slept so much, never relaxed so much, never been able to put the stresses and pressures of life behind me so much. Which is ironic really as I knew that the results of my job regrading were lying in an envelope at home for me and I had the potential to have a couple of resignations sat on my desk when I got back. But there was NOTHING I could do out there, so fooey!

There are some inevitable ironies on these holidays. The first is that you travel a couple of 1000 miles to a different country and your kids make friends with two kids who live in Tynemouth. Like about a mile from where we live. You have to giggle.

The holiday did underpin a number of my views on this sort of package holiday in a tourist trap. I've resigned myself that I am still an old leftie at heart and my views on the role of the British abroad are pretty harsh. I hate the average british tourist and their stereotypical attitudes of cultural imperialism. I abhore the concept of going to the other side of the world, living (apparently) in a different culture for any length of time and then seeking out a 'Queen Vic' pub, a 'proper' fried breakfast and only every speaking in, and to, English. Cyprus makes this all too easy in that the UK used to administer it so everything is in English, they drive on the left side of the road, their beer comes in pints, their currency is the pound ... you get the idea! It seemed hard to find something honestly hellenic in the bloody place. Especially as the tourist area (Kato Paphos) is so detached from the old town.

Paphos itself is a strange place. It is not Ayia Napa! Nor is it a quiet docile village. It is the place where families go when their kids are in their middle teens, for that one last painful family holiday before they unleash their hormone-addled spawn on the flesh pits of the Med. Loads of teenage boys and girls wandering around with little thunderclouds above their heads DESPERATE to get pissed and shag each other, but totally unable to because their chubby little chava parents are adamant that they should sit with them at the pool bar and drink slushes. Comedy. On the other hand it is also the perfect place for the young couple away on their first holiday together. Last year they met, slurred at each other, rutted basely on the beach, vomited in unison and pledged their undying love over a split E. Now they return to Cyprus, holding hands, walking down the beach, eating in tavernas and radiating BOREDBOREDBORED around them. Again comedy.

Time share touts are another joy of Med holidays that I find almost a sport. We arrived at 06.00 and after a small sleep ventured out for food and water at around midday. We were blindsided by a couple on a scooter who asked whether we were English. Thinking, in our fuddled state 'hey, maybe these are nice people?' we said yes and they 'explained' that they were working for the Cypriot Tourist Board promoting return visits to the island as they were predicting a downturn when it enters the Euro. We were given little scratch cards and amazingly, I won the star prize! (who'd have thought it!) At this point my SCUM senses were flashing as the prizes were 'Camcorder' or '£300' or 'DREAM holiday' - I've been here before, when I was much younger and much more niaive, making a trip to Wooler to be given a bag of shite. However, to claim my star prize, I HAD to go NOW to the next resort and if I didn't I wouldn't get it. Oh there were other things flashing around but it was so blatantly obvious they were time share. I challenged them on it, and asked for ID (which they had left in their hotel...) and then they claimed that the Co-Op is a time share front. Really? Honestly? BWAHAHAHA. At this point I started playing with them when they suggested that they should come and take us to the tourist centre the next morning (hey, that deadline suddenly moved). Sure yes, come and get us. We'll be at the Water Park, but you can wait, fuckwit.

We ran into this scooter riding couple half a dozen times in the week. Each time I was nastier and nastier with them, but they had to maintain their friendly facade. Eventually on the last day, my fun having been had, I told them to fuck off. So much fun with so stupid a couple of tards.

The trip to the Water Park was loads of fun ... for the kids. I do not do risky, dangerous things. Normal laws of physics tend to break down when faced with my weight and general compressed mass. 'Kamakaze Death Slides' just fill me with dread. I did try to 'Lazy River' ride which resulted in some comedy moments as I tried to mount the inflatable tyre (nearly drowning Christine in the process) and then floated around the park. I was in the sun for around 10 minutes. I look like I have been blasted by a Death Star! I hate sunburn with a passion. Really, nothing annoys me more. It's avoidable and therefore embarassing. Grrrrrr. We also went to the Paphos Bird and Animal Park. Now I'm a sucker for a good zoo (and yes, I know how evil they are, but sometimes I have to balance that with the experience they give) and this was a good zoo. Until we got to the Parrot Show. I'm not the greatest fans of circuses and these ridiculous charades come just below them. Oh yes, how wonderful it is to see these animals do their nice 'learned by rote' routines, no doubt done through a nice session of Pavlov's Dogs-esque training. See the parrot count, bike, drive a car, put shapes into places and even feckin' rollerskate. The kids loved it. I hated it. It was embarrassing. I ended up taking sneaky stealthy pictures of the people behind me on my mobile phone. And played Solitaire.

Information deficit is something that I find very hard to handle on holidays. Without my multiple news channels and internet access, I find myself almost inert in my natural environment. I find it fascinating the information 'webs' that we have built around ourselves and our reliance on them. Apparently it has been quite wet here in the UK whilst I have been away. England managed to draw a test match against the odds when they should have won and Lewis Hamilton crashed? And other things may have happened. The flipside of this is that without TV and PC I had to go all old school and do the holiday reading, which this year was mainly a 1000 page non-fiction text on the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War. Yes, that interesting! Actually it was and it gave me the brain-space to finally get the last two parts of my Duty and Honour game sorted in my head. Some frantic scribbling later and it now feels like a 'complete' game as I have cracked the 'what the characters do' side of the equation. Hurrah.

So here I am, back again and fully recharged and ready for two weeks of frantic work hell (oh, and having a new kitchen fitted) and then off to GenCon. Woot!!!!!

Neil

Nerd North East No More

Due to technical difficulties with the speed of updates of RSS and the absolute information hunger of the users, my little experiment in creating a blog based portal for our gaming groups has been deleted. Damn new technology for not working as it says on the tin!

A Dollop of Neil Crack

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the latest cinematic load of crack for me to get all historically excited under my ruffled collar.



Hmmm... period drama goodness!

Neil

Communications and Communities

Sometimes you have moments of epiphany - moments that really make you think 'why didn't I think that before?'

This week, I have been attending a conference on 'new media' and 'web 2.0' specifically targetted at the student market. It was a very good experience, with excellent speakers, good delegates, loads of new ideas and no small amount of new lucrative business for my workplace. However, one of the best things that I received was the chance to sit for 48 hours and simply concentrate on 'building web communities'.

Web communities have been a significant part of my life for some years now. They have allowed me to communicate with hundreds of people from around the world, build online friendships that have blossomed into real life friendships and they have been the underpinning feature of my gaming life. One feature of these communities I have seen, however, is a distinct unwillingness to embrace change, especially when it comes to tried and tested methods of communication. I think thats a shame because there are some tools out there that really can enhance community interactions.

Just a few examples - the first being, well, blogging. The more I explore the features available on various blogging platforms the more I become convinced that they can easily replace the old concept of the personal or small group webpage. I have recently been working on a very simple website for my wifes Embroiderers' Guild. This is the first site I have designed for some years and I was bemused by the inappropriate nature of the design brief. The website is a static resource for a very limited amount of information, a short calendar and a photo depository. Oh and some links. Thats cool but ... well, why limit yourself. You can do all of the above with a blog and a flickr.com or slides.com account. Of course what you also get is the ability to have comments and thus create a little interactivity and also many authors. This is all done with minimal IT knowledge, which is crucial for these endeavours or they simply become the purview of the Alpha Geek of the group.

Or alternatively, they could well just all join Facebook and set up their own Facebook group. They have the ability to create events (and generate attendence lists), share photos, create albums, have polls, have their own members pages and dozens of other things with relatively little effort. The same slideshow software can be used here to show the images that they hold so dear and they have a forum and discussion board as well. It's very useful and yet totally outside of that design brief.

And in both of these instances they can easily access RSS feeds - Really Simple Syndication - bring information from other websites onto theirs and creating a dynamic content that will give more reasons for their members to interact with their community pages and therefore generate more content. Content has always been the key to websites but contextualised content is now more important than ever. A website where the boss can pass information down is OK, a site where all of the supposedly equal members can talk and debate and share creates the community that they seek.

In the back of my head, I am applying this theory to the various facets of my gaming community and wondering whether there is a simple way that we can amalgamate our current forum, old pub forum, four blogs and at least three websites that we look at often (via RSS). That would seem to be a way that we could work smarter but is it wholly necessary - well, I guess thats something for the Comments?

Would it be better to have a 'one-stop' gaming group(s) solution whilst maintaining our own blogs etc?

Neil

AP: A Faery's Tale: Part 4 (b)

After a brief resume of the previous adventure, the girls settled down for the climax of their tussle with the Goblin King.

Queen Leanan was furious at the audacity of the Goblin King and summoned a full sitting of her high council to debate the response of Brightwood. All day Knights, Ladies, Animal Lords and Wizards arrived from the four corners of her forest and met in a ancient wooded ampitheatre outside of the village. Leanan explained that by actually trying to cause mortal harm to the Knight of Swallows, the Goblin King had broken the most ancient law of the Great Forest. A law that was older that the tallest tree and the deepest root. They had two choices - they could fight back to protect their forest or they could submit to this afront to them and carry on as normal. If they did the latter they would abandon the baby Princess to the Goblin King but they would not themselves break the law. If they attacked, they could rescue the Princess but they would break the Most Ancient Law and they would stand to lose their immortality.

Debate raged across the chamber, with the amassed Knights claiming that might would make right and the Ladies of Flowers claiming that they cannot just leave the baby alone but they also cannot risk their immortality. There was a heated debate going on between Jennifree and Sarah as well - Sarah, predictably, following a more martial solution to the problem, whilst Jennifree was trying to conjure something a little more cerebral! Finally she suggested to the Queen and the Captain of the Guard that they could turn the Goblin King's trick against him. If he had caused a distraction to allow his men to kidnap the Princess, maybe the faeries of Brightwood could themselves cause a distraction and snaffle the Princess back!

It was decided that this was the best plan and the inhabitants of Brightwood began their preperations. Meanwhile, the Queen met with Jennifree and Sarah and some of her most trusted advisors; The Captain of the Guard, the bravest Mouse in Brightwood Sir Squeek and Midgens, her royal magician (another portly and eccentric gnome). A plan was concocted (by the girls!) that they would travel to the borders of Darkwood with the Guard and then proceed alone. As Sarah could turn into a mouse herself, they would use a map (provided by Sir Squeek) of the small places in the Goblin Kings black tower and use that to find the baby. When they did they would place a silver wristband on it and say the magic word ('Leanan') to bring them all home safely. After gathering some provisions (including buttercup butter, acorn soup and blackberries) and a sturdy axe and shield for Sarah, they set off to save the Princess.

They travelled quickly through Brightwood, passing the Raven Rock and the house of the Old Hag and into Darkwood. They moved quickly, knowing that they were being followed by Rat-Things, spying on them from the shadows. Eventually they came to a crossroads being guarded by a two-headed night ogre!! The ogre (called Bigg'un and Little'un) challenged them as they approached, and was ready to bash them. Sarah decided she would distract the ogre by ducking through it's legs whilst Jennifree found her pipes and lulled it to sleep. The lulling worked, but not until Sarah had received a good thumping from a well placed club and was sent spinning across the forest - and nearly relieved of all of her essence! Moving passed the slumbering ogre they pressed on, eventually realising that there was nowhere safe to bed down for the night in the black oppression of Darkwood.

As they moved on, their path lit by faerie light, they realised - from the smell and the sounds of slurping gloop, that they were surrounded by Smelly Things (the elite spies of the Goblin King). Realising that they could not fight their way out, they decided to barter for their freedom. They tried to offer the leader of the Smelly Things food, but as it was all fresh, he wasn't interested. He asked what else they had to offer and eventually they got his interest with their map - him being a collector of secrets. They gave up their map and he let them go - but now their secret entrance was lost and they would have to pass through the Goblin Kings Riddle Gate.

At the Riddle Gate, the giant toothed maw in the door asked them the following riddle:

I am the sound of an animal and the skin of a plant - what am I?

Eventually, after some deliberation, they came close with 'baa' and the door winced at how close they were which twigged them on and they finally answered 'bark!'. The door laughed and swang open to reveal... the chief of the Smelly Things, Goblins, Ogres, Trolls and the Goblin King himself. Waiting for them!

(Meanwhile in the forest, the faeries of Brightwood began their distracting attack, dropping sticky blueberries on things, tying shoelaces together, making flowers grow from noses and purposefully tidying ogre dens!)

The faeries were captured and imprisoned in the Goblin Kings dungeons. Originally I said that they were behind a locked door but Emma decided that she needed some more Essence so she added the complication that it wasn't a door - it was a massive boulder, so massive that even she couldn't move it. Fair enough. She then (obviously having caught on to how the game works!) prompted Lara to spend on of her remaining Essence to have Granite (the troll champion) and Rocknose (his little son) appear in the prison room. OK... She then used her BOON over Granite to have HIM roll back the stone and set them free!!! Sneaky little bugger!

Rocknose was excited to see the faeries but Granite knew that he was going to get into trouble so he let them go but gave them a minutes head start - they ran!!!

As they made their way hurriedly through the castle, they noticed that everyone was streaming towards the central chamber. Sarah turned into a mouse and scooted in to see what was happening. In the chamber she saw hundreds of bad faeries gathered around a pool of bubbling sulphurous mud and on a dias in the middle of the mud stood the Goblin King and the baby Princess. Something was up! Sarah decided to make her run at the Princess whilst Jennifree somehow held off Granite.

However, things are not that easy - the Knight of Wolves smelled the faeries and a massive 'club the mouse' session started. The mouse, however, has Body 5 and Agile and was easily able to avoid the blows.

Meanwhile Jennifree confronted Granite and rather than fight him, used her Boon over him to get him to help Sarah!! Sarah turned into a Frog so that she could jump across the mud, but failed her roll horribly and sploshed into the icky mess, only to be scooped out by Granite and dumped on the dais. The Goblin King turned on her and tried to stab her with his wicked curved dagger but she dodged, snapped the bracelet onto the Princess and shouted LEANAN (scaring our cat rigid as a result!) and teleporting all three of them back to Brightwood.

Queen Leanan was ecstatic and after the Court brownies had check the child she transported everyone to the human lands and presented the Princess back to the King and Queen. They were overcome with joy and Leanan presented the two faeries who had so bravely rescued the baby - and announced them as the Princess' faery godmothers! They each gave the baby one of their Gifts to share - Jennifree gave the baby the Gift of Musical and Sarah gave her the Gift of Agile. And thus ended the first story arc of their game

As an ended, I explained that the Goblin King was furious but embarassed and that he would keep himself to himself for the time being. The next set of adventures would not involve the Goblin King. They hadn't discovered where Flynn was yet, and he wasn't with the Goblin King so where was he? That was something to discover. They were also allowed to either have 1 point added to a stat, 1 extra Gift or 1 charm. Sarah chose to increase her mind from 2 to 3 so that she was cleverer. Jennifree added the Clever charm to her already impressive array of cerebral talents.

They resolved that they would like the next set of adventures to have something to do with Silverwood and also to have something to do with their families, which have never been detailed yet. Emma wants to change her characters name so we discussed how this could be the outcome of the family storyline and she seemed happy with that.

So, has the roleplaying experiment worked? Absolutely - they are still loving it, still getting very into the characters and the adventures and still seem energised afterwards. If anything the person who needs to get more into it is me, as sometimes it just seems like one thing too many to be doing. However, once I get down to doing it, it's brilliant. We'll be on a short hiatus for now and then back again, maybe before GenCon. Oh, and I have orders - have to buy some faery's tale dice for them both! *rolls eyes*

Neil

Geek Life's So Good!

I have to say, when I cast my mind around my current state of sublime geekdom, it's pretty damned excellent at the moment.

On the roleplaying front, I have never had it so good. I'm playing in THREE - thats right, count them, THREE - ongoing games. The Great Pendragon campaign is on a short summer hiatus but we are very much going to hammering it when September comes. The next episode of Thrilling Tales (Spirits of the Century) is coming tomorrow and it should be a rollercoaster ride of mayhem in the Hollow World. I'm also playing in a very different game of modded Primetime Adventures which we have named BAYUHC (Ben's As Yet Unnamed Horror Campaign) which is truly excellent. Above and beyond that, I've touched a load of other gaming communities through forums and podcasts, murmurings of CottageCon II have began targetting the autumn period maybe. And of course, I have my ongoing A Faery's Tale campaign with the kids.

And I'm off to GenCon (!)

My fanfic world is tripping along amazingly as well. I'm still writing for DCInfinity and the group is going from strength to strength. Moreover, the tight nature of the writers really really helps with the impetus to create. Everyone throws around ideas and shares thoughts about storylines and it just energises what we do. DCI has a very different schtick to many of the fanfic groups I have been involved with. Mirroring the real DCU, we have an issue that comes out every week which carries a real metaplot that runs across the titles. It's the most mature shared universe group I have seen, a real pleasure to work with.

Of course, not everything is perfect. I have had a MAJOR snafu with MI:666 by essentially having my master document kidnapped by the army (!!) and facing one of my real mental barriers - rewriting things that I have already done. Because of this it looks like I will be putting my energies into Duty and Honour for the GenCon playtest games - but hey, I set myself a goal of taking a game to GenCon, it just might not be the one that I thought it would be!

You'll notice no electronic media in the mix here? Well, I tried City of Villains alongside some friends but in the end it never really bit with me. There were some significant improvements over the detritus that was City of Heroes, but in the end it simply doesn't seem to have that thrust, depth and direction that WoW had. So thats a no go. Speaking of WoW I'm seriously feeling the twitch now. It's a trying time as I'm pretty sure reactivation of my account would be swiftly followed by castration. Still, I have a load of other things to keep my mind settled.

Geek life is well good at the moment. Lets keep it that way.

Neil

AP: A Faery's Tale, Part Four (a)

Shadows over Brightwood

Jennifree and Sarah are attending the celebrations in Brightwood Village to commemorate the birth of the new princess in the land of the humans. The entire village is drinking, eating, singing, dancing and playing to welcome the baby into the world. Jennifree is playing her pipes and singing a tune for her friends whilst Sarah is continuing to amaze people with her dancing.

During a break in the festivities Sarah finds the sobbing Humphrey (her rabbit friend) who has broken a tooth on a rock (which he thought was a carrot) that he found when he was digging out his new burrow. The two faeries go to move the rock and discover a jagged piece of blue and gold metal as the offending object. Realising that this was not something usual, they take it to Queen Leanan's palace to have it examined.

At the Palace, Professor Tinker - a balding eccentric gnome academic - identifies it as a shard of elf armour from a time before the Wood existed. It must have been buried under Sarahs house for hundreds of years. He recommends that the faeries take their find to Flynn the Blacksmith on his floating island where he can forge it into something for them. They agree and prepare to travel off to the blacksmiths. Incidentally as they leave the palace, they find the Cook in a great deal of distress as all of the palace's milk has curdled, suddenly. Sarah says it must be the hot weather whilst Jennifree blames the metal and says that it must be cursed.

The pair pick up some nut soup to take on their journey and then travel by moonbeam out to Flynns island. When they arrive they discover that his forge is deserted, the fire having been allowed to go out and that there are signs of a struggle, with Smelly Thing residue around the Smithy. They agree that Flynn must have been kidnapped by the Goblin King. There was then a flash at the area where the moonbeams arrive and upon investigating, they discover a wounded sprite has arrived by moonbeam. The knight, who they identify as the Knight of Swallows, one of Queen Leanan's errant guardians in the woods, has a poisoned tip of a thorn dagger in his chest (not unlike the Thorn Sword that the Knight of Spiders used in the last adventure). Jennifree deftly removes the tip and uses her faerie dust to stabalise the knight, who tells them of being attacked by a huge horde of goblins, being overpowered and being stabbed and poisoned. He only just managed to stagger to a moonbeam station to come to his friend, Flynn, but now he has gone too.... He sleeps.

The two faeries make him comfortable whilst they wait for the return moonbeam and then rush him back to the Palace where he can be tended. He grants them a boon for saving his life. Brightwood itself is in turmoil as strange things are continuing to happen in the forest. Despite it being the first few weeks of summer, the wind is blowing chilled as winter and already brown leaves are falling off the trees. Flights of angry dragonflies have been seen heading north into the lands of Darkwood whilst the animals that live on the border with the Goblin Kings lands have began to migrate south, telling of goblin incursions along the border and all manner of strangeness occuring. Wolves can be heard howling from the north - wolves in Brightwood? After some investigation, the faeries are told by the locals that this weirdness is either a plot by the Goblin King, a curse that has been brought down upon the Wood or a portent of a dark and evil future for the new Princess. None of which are particularly good!

Leanan asks Sarah and Jennifree to travel deep into the south of Brightwood to some of the oldest parts of the forest and see out the ancient settlement of Oakenbark. There they will find The Old Man of the Woods, an ancient tree spirit who will surely know what these happenings mean. After evacuating Knakfree and his family into the safety of Sarah's house, they set off and travel deep into the wood, far beyond anywhere they have gone before. The weather breaks and torrential rain begins to fall, making the going even more precarious. Eventually they arrive at a deep ravine, filled with a MASSIVE old fallen oak tree, long dead and hollowed, which forms the home for many faeries in the settlement of Oakenbark. After discussing their mission with some of the dwellers, they are shown to the roots of the old giant oak and find the tiny, wizzened figure of The Old Man of the Woods. His beard is made of old leaves and creepers and his finger and toes are like roots. He listens to their tale and then thinks hard until he shouts out this prediction.

"Beware the Goblin King! Beware the King fo Darkwood. He has two faces and two hands. One here and one elsewhere!!"

And then he falls silent.

Travelling back with this strange portent, the faeries stumble across the Knight of Wolves and his pack, scouting out the approaches to Brightwood. The wolves smell the faeries and are released to pursue them. Jennfiree flies up to avoid them but relishing the chase, Sarah speeds off through the undergrowth and eventually loses them.

Arriving back at Brightwood they find a horrific sight. Dragonfly riding goblins duck and dive over the village, skirmishing with sprites riding swallows and bumblebees. Worms are writhing out of the ground chewing on the houses and being shooed away by the animals and faeries. Packs of wolves patrol the forests around the village, menacing it. It seems like a full blown invasion!! On the hill overlooking Brightwood, three knights - the Knights of Spiders, Wolves and Worms stand and watch, commanding their minions. But where are the spiders?

BEHIND YOU!

Jennifree is bitten by a spider and nearly succumbs to the poison. Sarah loses her temper a little and picks up the spider, hurling it into the others that are closing in. Gathering her friend into her arms she uses all but her one last essence to power her Travel Magic and get them into the Palace amidst the battle. When they arrive, Leanan takes them to her scrying pool and the reason for the attack becomes apparent.

An image of the Goblin King appears, all spindly, gnarled and dripping puss. He laughs at the puny faeries and as he does so his forces withdraw back into the woods. It was a ruse, a feint - a distraction. No faeries were hurt. No damage was done. The image pans back and the Goblin King runs a spindly claw down the cheek of ..... the baby Princess! He has kidnapped her and taken her to his dark kingdom. His distraction has worked and now he can turn her to his side! Bwahahahahahahahaa!

To be continued.





And then the whinging started. Oh the kids might like a TBC at the end of an episode of Dr Who but they simply where not satisfied that they would have to wait for a week to rescue the baby from the Goblin King. There were words and very nearly a fully blown tantrum! I had to explain that this was what happened sometimes in a roleplaying game and that it meant that you could do something longer by splitting it up. When I had assured them that they WOULD be playing again next week and that it WOULD be about rescuing the baby, they allowed me to leave the table.

I was pleasantly surprised that they could handle what was in effect a very dark episode of the game - almost Empire Strikes Back levels of darkness. The idea that Darkwood could actually attack, military style, Brightwood is something that I don't want to ever do again (as I think it would spoil the feeling of the game and turn it a little too generic fantasy) and there will be reprecussions for the GK for the act. He obviously thought the resulting kidnapping was worth it. The geography and the supporting cast grows and the requests for a map of some sort have grown louder. Time to exercise my artistic muscles in another direction I think!

Next week - Assault on the Goblin Kings Castle (if the plans that were being made this morning are anything to go by!!)

Let the Lore War Commence!

One of the longest running jokes in our gaming group has been our horror at the thought of playing in a game where one or two of the players were very very knowledgable about the games very specific genre. Players debating the finer points of the propulsion system of that particular federation spaceship, the lineage of that particular random elf in the woods or which date in what year a certain piece of armour was available in feudal Japan. We've all been in games when this has happened in the past and it's a bit of a nightmare. And admittedly, we've come close in the recent past as a number of us are very amateur Arthurian scholars. However whatever we have got up to was nothing to the comedy of the Lore War!

Lord of the Rings RPG character generation mixed with Mastermind (Specialised Subject: Tolkien) was quite possibly the funniest thing I have seen around the gaming table (excepting 'Lettuce and Carrots'). Two men locked in mental combat over the age of hobbits, the languages of elves and all manner of other excitement. It was quite impressive actually, as Tolkien is someone whose writings I have enjoyed but never really memorised. It was not the nightmare we have talked about before - it was simply a side show to the chargen and a nice distraction.

However it did raise to the fore some of the issues that I have been facing in my own games. Whilst MI:666 is a wholly fictional game, the subject of the piece - devils - have quite a lot of literature written about them. Take your favourite biblical bad guy and see how many different interpretations you find online! Now try to get them all in order to make up the devils for a game! I'm trying to be a little senstive to the subject matter (well, as much as I can be in what someone called the worlds first Protestant rpg! ) but I simply have to make sure that everyone knows that this is a fictional piece and that nothing here is actually supposed to represent Christian dogma.

Duty and Honour, a game set in the same setting as Sharpe, the Napoleonic Penninsular War, suffers even more from this problem. History buffs could have a great time with a game like this, but in the end even the source material plays fast and loose with historical detail! What am I to do? You have to get some of the facts right, so that it reeks of the realism that makes the source material so much fun, however the limit of the pursual of those facts has to be measured. Mixing a degree of fun and freedom within the game with a backdrop that makes the game sing is crucial, but it's not easy. Its another balancing act that needs a decent disclaimer I reckon.

Getting that balance will, hopefully, avoid an outbreak of Lore War ... but then again, if it was as pleasurable to sit through as ours was, it might be a shame..?

Neil

It's the Last Day of Term

It's rare that I speak in more than passing comment about work on this blog, but I was moved yesterday by a series of incidents that underpinned either just how old I am or how much the world has changed.

It's the last day of term today and the students all go home - well, to be more accurate, the scant few that are still here go home. Last night was the Graduation Ball and it was really rather good. Well, up until the point where Liberty X had their flight indefinitely delayed and thus had to call off their last ever gig. Arriving at work today we all logged onto our computers and dreaded the catcalling and bitching on Facebook from the oh-so-indignent masses.

Lets just look at that paragraph again and some of the phenomena within it? First off, students leave university now just about the day that they finish their exams. They don't want to hang about and soak in those last few days of university life. They are -desperate- to get back to the bosom of their family or into the world of graduate employment or tromping off around the world. There seems to be very little sentimentality attached to the higher education nowadays. Whilst the Grad Ball was a great laugh, it just didn't seem to have the emotional resonance that I associate with the event.

Now that could have been to do with the fact that the headline act didn't turn up, but in the end from the views of the students I canvassed, it wasn't that much of a problem. There were some however, who were being very drunk and very 'I've studied law you know!!' . I find this aspect of it all so very amazing. There is a positive thinking culture to do with recruitment that generates a certain type of graduate - the one who thinks that what you learn at Uni equips you for everything in the world and that they can solve any crisis, because they have a degree. And boy do they let you know it!! Silly thing is that once you do get some post-Uni time on the clock you quickly learn that the world simply doesn't work like your lecturer says and there are a load of restrictions and complications and interpersonal things that you have to deal with on every level. Indeed, for Mr Lawyer Child, I think he should speak with some of my lawyer friends (waves at Andrew) and ask them about how free and easy they can be with their legal 'advice'. I believe they would be stunned.

However, I believe that the real source of the lack of emotional resonance is the proliferation of social networking applications like Facebook. I'm sure those of you that have been to Uni will be familiar with the question, upon meeting one of your old friends 'Are you still in touch with ...?' Well, despite being the loveliest person I know, I'm actually only in formal contact (ie. beyond Christmas cards) with ONE person from Uni! Thats quite sad but in the reality of things, you simply could not constantly phone and visit all of your friends around the country. Facebook (and MySpace and all of the other things like this) offer the opportunity to maintain relationships online long after the physical immediacy has faded. I was dragged onto Facebook so that I could evaluate it as a promotional tool for work, but in so doing I have managed to accumulate 33 'friends' from across the world, including a guy I used to live with at Uni, some folk that I met in the USA and some business contacts of old. And, of course, a slew of students.

Students that, in normal circumstances, I would never see or hear from again as of .... 5 hours time. Thats a thing of the past though. Through these applications you can instantly communicate with all of your friends, from a PC. You can maintain more than a passing 'relationship' with them FAR easier than back in the day. It's fascinating! The upshot naturally being the distinct lack of tears on Grad Ball night! Rather than going your seperate ways never to meet again, the kids will be tagging uploaded photos of drunken excess and starting a 'Lets Sue the Union Cos of Liberty X' groups.

Thats progress folks....

Neil

Is MI:666 going off the rails?

Thats the question that I have been asking myself as I have been diligently expanding and combining my omniverse ruleset and my MI:666 setting. The process has been quite simple. Slip the two pieces together so that they run smoothly. Edit in any new terms or rules clarifications. Change all of the examples to MI:666 referenced material rather than generic action cinema. Et voila! Le Roleplaying Game!

However, when I look at it, it seems so ... lifeless? There's something wrong somewhere in the core of it and I cannot put my finger on it. It could be that familiarity has bred contempt but I'm not sure thats the thing. It shouldn't be that the genre is something that I am turned-off by, because it certainly isn't. It might have been that I was doing it without any real end-product in sight, but thats clearing bollocks as I have a two session playtest and then a game at GenCon lined up. So thats clearly not right!

I was listening to a Fear The Boot podcast this morning and I heard something that I thought might have been it. One of the presenters said that Call of Cthulhu was 'the last game on the market that wasn't following the hero fantasy model'.

One of the things that I have beefed up in this rewrite of MI:666 is the role of the devils as tempters and manipulators, and thus the role of the PCs four 'triggers' - Love, Hate, Desire, Fear. So if you succeed in accomplishing one of these triggers instead of getting back 1 Flux you get back your Destiny of Flux (Ok, this is really making sense to about a half dozen people!)

I have also added in a Secrets mechanic which I think is pretty cool. Each player has a sealed envelope that they are given at the beginning of the game and in that envelope is a really important campaign secret. In the game of infernal cat and mouse, devils are willing to betray their secrets if they can corrupt the players. So on the envelope is a list of actions that the players must fulfil before they can open it - betrayal, lying, destruction, greed, avarice, death, murder, whatever. If they want the secret, they push themselves further towards the grasp of the devils.

I'm wondering whether the initial concept of 'omniverse' - an emulation of blockbuster cinema with explosive character development - is suited to this darker, more moody setting? I think it is, but it just needs that extra something to make it gel together. It will come.

On the flipside, and to be fair this might well play into the indecision as well, I have about 101 ideas for Duty and Honour! After the playtest there were a load of things that needed tweaking but nothing very mechanical - it was more about bringing more awesomeness to some of the character traits and talents and generally applying that first playtest shine to the game.

I've been on a bit of a Sharpe-fest of late and I can see now exactly what needs to be done to make the game a true emulation of the source material. Party construction is key - 1 Officer, 1 Sergeant, everyone else Privates or Chosen Men. A little guidance about creating adventures and about the format of such and some rules for running the odd larger skirmish and it's pretty much a ruleset that I could run a campaign around. Tomorrow.

Well, lots of work to be done over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully by the end of it I will have come out with something more than passable!

Neil

Radio 4 Destroyed My Mind

It's been a while since I have posted anything and thats mostly because I have had very little to post about. Pendragon is going on hiatus, we've got a couple of new games taking it's place and the return of SotC. My two games are chugging along nicely and our PTA prologue was highly enjoyable. So, in essence, all is well.

And then I listened to Radio 4 this morning and wondered whether a radio programme can actually have pre-menstrual tension? My friend and fellow rp'er Andrew is adamant that I should not be allowed to listen to any news medium as I am prone to exploding in some quite vulgar vitriotic diatribe at the crass nature of the reporting. He's right. However my wife has become quite addicted to the dulcet tones of R4 in the morning so I have to listen to the Today Show and be happy with it.

Which is hard because, well, for the show that most people would suggest is the pinnacle of intellectual news broadcasting from the BBC - one of the flagship programmes of the adult spoken word channel indeed - it is about the most purile, right-wing, reactionary, shallow and down-right annoying programmes I find myself experiencing. (Don't get me wrong here, it's still one million miles away from the absolute shite thrown out by ITV or the 'Metro news with moving pictures' that is 5 News but still...)

This morning's two knuckle-whiteners were on the topic of sport - specifically England's test series victory over the West Indies and the visit of the Olympic oversight committee today to London.

So, lets see what we have to say about the cricket? Thrilling match which gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. England have now would 11 series at home on the trot making it very much 'Fortress England'. Micheal Vaughan is now the most successful English captain ever. Steve Harmison is one of only 11 English players to take 200 first class wickets. Kevin Pieterson sits just behind Bradman as the fastest player to 2500 runs in test history and Monty Panesar was the first English spinner to have a 10-fer for decades. So it was a good match then right?

Oh no... not on Radio Four! See, before the match Micheal Vaughan made some disparaging comment about the once-great-but-now-addled 'Freddie' Flintoff and then suggested that it might not have been meant that way and then said it was. Of couse, him and Flintoff being the best of mates have patched up their differences. THATS NOT THE POINT!!! You see, in the eyes of R4 he LIED and you simply cannot do that. No indiscretion is allowed. At all. Ever. They stopped short of suggesting that Vaughan should RESIGN over the matter, but they were far more interested in the fact that he LIED about his comment (ie. changed his mind) rather than the fact that the team had just rewritten the record books. And then you have Panesar, who has become an absolute cult hero amongst England fans because of his enthusiasm and boyish charisma on the field - the fact that he is probably the best left arm spinner in the world at the moment helps as well! Have you seen the guy dance around like a fitting chicken when he takes a wicket. It's awesome. However, he was told to chill out a little bit by the umpires for his over-enthusiastic appealling and not turning once to face the umpire when appealing - which is apparently a no-no. So that had to be brought up again. Just a wall of negative, glass-half-empty, downbeat reporting of what should have been a happy day for English cricket.

And then the bloody Olympics. You would think that, as a nation that has been trying for as long as I can remember to host major sporting events, we would be happy to have the Olympics. Euro 96 was an awesome summer spectacle. The Manchester Commonwealth games, whilst not so obvious, was great too. Wembley is open and looking good so the Olympics - good, right?

Not at all! Every single thing that could possibly be criticised about it has been. I could write a book about the ludicrously small-minded comments that have been made so far, but I'll just comment on two - the damned bloody logo and consultants.

The logo is a logo and will be everywhere by June 2012 and nowhere October 2012. As far as emphemera go, it's right up there with William and Kate 'Wedding' memorabilia and Big Brother 7 t-shirts. It's also a piece of design artwork and that, ladies and gents, means that some people will like it and some people will not. Now, you don't have to be a genius to work out who doesn't like it? Thats right - anyone who has a vested interested in selling newspapers or spiking ratings/visits. Oh and it cost £400,000 to do and you know what? A teenager with photoshop can make something better.

Oh can they? Can they really? And have they done all of the post-production for that image? Have they made the animated TV and web graphics? The newspaper versions? The billboard ones? Have they worked out how their image will be put onto mascots? Have they checked that their images isn't insulting to one of the 120-odd participating cultures? Sure, the designers dropped a bollock when they forgot that flashing images can trigger photo-epilepsy but thats an easy one to solve. Once again we see the common British failing - whilst we have become a nation built on service industries we are a manufacturing and heavy industry culture at heart. Those that work and sweat with their hands, within our cultural instinct, should be paid more than those that simply work with their brain. The miner works 'harder' than the designer. The shipbuilder is more 'worthy' than the accountant. The farmer is more 'valuable' than the marketeer. And as soon as relatively large amounts of money are mentioned... well, our national knee-jerkery just goes into overdrive.

What we fail to mention on R4, as they question some minister or other on whether the government is going to bow to 'public' (ie. their) opinion and scrap the logo (thus wasting that £400,000) is that a painting by some dead bloke will sell for £20m or whatever and then be put away in a private gallery for no-one to see. Thats OK, thats art and private money. This is 'modern design' and public money. Whole different kettle of fish.

Which brings us onto consultants. Now I have a little sympathy here as I am aware of the qualifications required to be called a consultant (none) and the salaries paid (vast). However, for Radio 4 to complain about there being too many consultants involved in the Olympics planning is farcical. Why? Follow the logic.

The Olympics uses public money, which needs to be accounted for as naturally this vastly visible project, the biggest construction project in Europe, is going to have lost of places where cash can be siphoned off. Corruption! Deceit! Fraud! It's the bread and butter of R4 so it has to be stopped. Now, you cannot have politicians deal with it because as we all know, all politicians are incapable of telling the truth or doing anything competent like wiping their own arse. So they have to appoint independent auditors to check that the money isn't being snaffled. Cool. But if the auditors are being appointed by the Government (this being public money) then they are not independent and therefore they themselves have to appoint auditors to audit the auditors to ensure that their independence is true. No, this isn't a Danny Kaye sketch, but you can probably add another layer of auditing on top of that just to make absolutely SURE that everything is above board.

But auditors cost money! Public money that in radio land doesn't get counted in pounds and pennies, but rather in hospital wards and transplant operations. (You know the score - one football match costs around three hospital wards and a dozen transplant ops). So you have to get rid of some auditors because the money that is being spent on them is deemed too much. So you begin to strip back the layers of control, checks and balances to save money.

Guess what? THE PUBLIC MONEY IS NO LONGER SECURE!! Where are the checks and balances? Where are the assurances of independence?! Eeek! The sky is falling in and workmen are leaving site each day with their pockets overflowing with golden dubloons doled out by Gordo Brown and the idiots at the Treasury! Quickly, RE-EMPLOY the auditors!! And thus the madness continues.

Lack of insight into the end product of their arguments makes R4 boil my blood. They skim these topics seeking to get a rise on their insane messageboards from the moderately angry right wing masses of middle England who are too posh to read the Daily Mail but just as indignant. They think that they are championing common sense and giving the people a right to reply when in fact all they are doing is undermining good works that are done by reinforcing fallacy and short-termism.

Bah and indeed humbug!

Neil

When did the GM become Evil Incarnate?

Interesting thread on rpg.net at the moment, critiquing the attitude of Luke Crane in The Burning Wheel as 'anti-GM'. This is based on the premise within that game that the players can, and indeed, are encouraged, to have more power at the table than in so-called 'traditional' rpgs. The roleplaying game adage that 'The GM is God' is, apparently, fundamentally challenged and there are a number of people who don't like this. And naturally a number of people that are.

At the heart of it, however, I believe lies a very basic question - who's game is it? Traditionally, the answer would look something like this.

The GM creates and controls the world, the NPCs and the adventures.
The players create the player characters and control their actions.
They control all aspects of the character, the GM controls all aspects of the world.

Fundamentally though, that places a massive onus on the GM to be very much on his game throughout every session, and that simply isn't going to happen. I have, in the past, seen this of games where the GM is literally tasked with entertaining his friends, almost despite their best efforts to thwart him. It's not pretty. I've also seen times when the GMs performance has been critiqued down to the last nuance of his speech, but the players? Their behaviour is almost sacrosanct. Normally, someone will now say, 'ah, but he chose to take up the GM position. It comes with the territory.' Really, thats bollocks and you know it. These are your friends, your buddies. These are the people you choose to hang out with and spend quality time. This is not a cabaret bureau or some indentured service that people have volunteered for. There has to be some redress of the balance, surely? However, that simply isn't so. Scan your eyes across any roleplaying forum and see how many threads there are on GMing, improving as a GM, how to be a good GM, world building, adventure design and all the trappings of the GM centric game. Vast mountains of them. Why? Because thats the way it has always been and for many there is no reason to question that.

And yes, there are 'indie' games which take a different direction. Sometimes they share the burden of creation from the GM. Sometimes they allow the player to be the one that adds the spark of creativity to the game. Sometimes they shake up the narration. Sometimes they ditch for the formalised GM role altogether.

However I don't think this is the solution.In my opinion, the problem seems to be that people are looking towards a game to solve this problem when in reality it is based in respect and responsibility. You don't need a rules system to engage these principles of human nature. You need to have some emotional conscience that looks at the lonely GM and says 'can I help?' or 'Is there something I can do to enhance this game?'. These things aren't the purview of traditional or indie games, they are something any player can do if they want to. It doesn't have to be whatever the current hot technique thats just popped out of a 'Forge' game - it can be something as simple as bringing along a special soundtrack CD or drawing some sketches of the PCs or taking the time to detail your characters family tree (if appropriate).

The thing is, whilst some games have these things built into their mechanics, the games that don't do not have rules which specifically prohibit them. No Wizards of the Coast ninjas are going to leap from the shadows and eviscerate everyone at your Eberron table if you allow the players to create backgrounds with taggable keywords that give the GM some flags about your desires for the character. (And remember, there is a fundamental contradiction in the premise that a game which is the story of the players character has virtually no direction from that player and all the direction from the person at the table who has no character). I'm sure that Kevin Siembieda isn't going to unleash the Palladium lawyers if you allow the players to dictate some of the NPCs their Coalition Shocktroopers answer to as they crush the world under their jackboot.

There's nothing exclusively indie about being a considerate player and there's nothing engulfing about 'traditional' games that wouldn't allow an under pressure GM to spread the joy a little bit. Do what you need to do to have the fun you want to have, as an individual and as a group. As a GM, look at the players and say 'Is the way I am running this game truly reflecting the fun that my friends, the players, want?'. As a player, look at the GM and say 'Am I supporting my friend in his undertaking to run this game?'

Thats the message I take from the way Luke Crane approaches Burning Wheel. This is what he needs, as a GM and as a player, to have fun. More power to him.

Neil

ps. A bit of podcast serendipity on this topic from Sons of Kryos #42 if anyone is interested.