I just had a very exciting, nerve-wracking and mind-bending experience. Duty and Honour just had its first proper external playtest. And not just any playtest either. This one was in New-fucking-Zealand with GM being Malcolm (Cold City, astate) Craig. I mean, honestly, this is getting feedback from a bona fide games publisher. I was TERRIFIED.
And you know, it wasn't THAT bad. Sure some thing just didn't work for them and a lot of that had to do with my writing and a need to be more specific. There were some things that they tried that I didn't foresee in the game (what if there is no officer? what if they all play new recruits? etc.) and they wanted some sections expanded as well. There were some things that I simply hadn't included and some stuff that was definitely in the realms of 'Auther not Included'
However in the end they liked it - they liked the essence of book, the way that it made characters and stories and all that stuff. The innards of the book got a big thumbs up. It just needs sharpening (no pun intended), polishing and better organisation and writing.
Sometimes life presents you with glass half full, glass half empty moments. This could easily have been a half-empty moment but no, it's a half full. And thats a good thing.
Neil
Monday, November 26, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
A Throw of the Dice
Well, I did something today that I have been promising myself I was going to do for months but have never really gotten around to - I wrote to Bernard Cornwell. I asked, very politely, if I could reference Sharpe in Duty & Honour. Not as a licenced product but just out of courtesy. There are numerous books on the shelf that do this - a lot of them source material that I cite in the game - and none of them are obviously licenced. We shall see what comes back. Even if it is an 'absolutely not - no way' then at least the question is answered.
Neil
Neil
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
New Members of the D&H Family
And after no small amount of swearing, ranting, screaming and general bad temper I have FINALLY got my hands on all of the little Imperial Lego minifigs that I want. I have nine Bluecoats to represent the French, four Redcoats to represent the English and I have even got a little cannon, gunpowder and an ammo chest. I'll dream of getting some horses. Their shit is less expensive.
When Andrew and I tested out some of the skirmish rules on Sunday night, the Legos were really quite useful for positioning people on our imaginary little map. No neccessary but as a tactile fetish they were perfect.
So ... HURRAH!
Neil
When Andrew and I tested out some of the skirmish rules on Sunday night, the Legos were really quite useful for positioning people on our imaginary little map. No neccessary but as a tactile fetish they were perfect.
So ... HURRAH!
Neil
Friday, November 09, 2007
One for the clever sods
Consider the new high price of petrol in the UK?
Consider the new high exchange with the dollar?
Consider the traditionally lower price of petrol in the US?
What relative price/exchange rate and volume would we have to see for it to become cheaper to buy petrol in the US and ship it over to the UK, than buy it on a Shell forecourt?*
Neil
* Yes, I know we wouldn't be ABLE to do it - its hypothetical!
Consider the new high exchange with the dollar?
Consider the traditionally lower price of petrol in the US?
What relative price/exchange rate and volume would we have to see for it to become cheaper to buy petrol in the US and ship it over to the UK, than buy it on a Shell forecourt?*
Neil
* Yes, I know we wouldn't be ABLE to do it - its hypothetical!
Monday, November 05, 2007
A Tale of Four Groups
There was a time when I struggled to get a roleplaying game together. Months - even years - went by without the pleasure of sitting around a table, chucking dice and enjoying the thrill of a good game. The barren years were ... well, barren. More frustrating were the barren weeks - those infuriating weeks when our group couldn't sustain a game past one week or even get it from the messageboard to the table. It wasn't good.
Now however the state of gaming nirvana has reached a new and palpably stable level. I'm now part of FOUR - yes, read that - FOUR gaming groups. Actually thats a slight misrepresentation of the facts. I am part of one pretty large group of gamers who have formed four groups that I am involved in. So, without further ado...
GROUP ONE - Sundays, Matt's House. Currently playing Pendragon with a side order of Spirit of the Century. Easily the longest group, stretching back around six years. We've played D&D, Buffy, Shadowrun, WFRP, Exalted and no doubt some more before we landed at the Great Pendragon campaign. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew, Matt, Ian and Nigel
GROUP TWO - Thursdays, Dave's House. Currently about to play Cold City. The smaller, experimentalist group. We've played a simplification of Primetime Adventures (yes, I did say simplification - its possible) as 'Ben's As Yet Unnamed Horror Campaign' or BAYUHC and we have playtested Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' system. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew and Ben.
GROUP THREE - Sundays (the 'other' Sundays), Neil's House. Recently convened to playtest Duty and Honour for me. Exciting. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew, Ben and Nigel.
THE BOARDGAME GROUP - Saturdays (once a month), rotating venue. This is essentially the overarching collective group that we belong to. Everyone is welcome. Its a night to eat loads of snack food, drink a little and play some silly boardgames like Munchkin and Zombietown. So far the following have appeared at the gaming table: Neil, Dave, Andrew, Craig, Ben, Graham, Mark, Iain and Dave (Horni)
I just wanted to put this moment into evidence. How fucking cool is this much gaming?!
Neil
Now however the state of gaming nirvana has reached a new and palpably stable level. I'm now part of FOUR - yes, read that - FOUR gaming groups. Actually thats a slight misrepresentation of the facts. I am part of one pretty large group of gamers who have formed four groups that I am involved in. So, without further ado...
GROUP ONE - Sundays, Matt's House. Currently playing Pendragon with a side order of Spirit of the Century. Easily the longest group, stretching back around six years. We've played D&D, Buffy, Shadowrun, WFRP, Exalted and no doubt some more before we landed at the Great Pendragon campaign. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew, Matt, Ian and Nigel
GROUP TWO - Thursdays, Dave's House. Currently about to play Cold City. The smaller, experimentalist group. We've played a simplification of Primetime Adventures (yes, I did say simplification - its possible) as 'Ben's As Yet Unnamed Horror Campaign' or BAYUHC and we have playtested Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' system. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew and Ben.
GROUP THREE - Sundays (the 'other' Sundays), Neil's House. Recently convened to playtest Duty and Honour for me. Exciting. Current membership - Neil, Dave, Andrew, Ben and Nigel.
THE BOARDGAME GROUP - Saturdays (once a month), rotating venue. This is essentially the overarching collective group that we belong to. Everyone is welcome. Its a night to eat loads of snack food, drink a little and play some silly boardgames like Munchkin and Zombietown. So far the following have appeared at the gaming table: Neil, Dave, Andrew, Craig, Ben, Graham, Mark, Iain and Dave (Horni)
I just wanted to put this moment into evidence. How fucking cool is this much gaming?!
Neil
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Omnihedron Productions takes the next step
Baby step admittedly, but another step.
Grabbing the bull by the horns yesterday I rustled up a fledgling website for Duty and Honour under the omnihedron.co.uk umbrella. Today's job is to sort out the front page of the site index and then spin out another set of pages suitable for Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' material.
http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/
I also sat down and did some of the maths about the monies needed to get this venture off the ground - including printing, artwork, promotional materials, convention attendence etc. and it is all very do-able. VERY do-able. All systems go!
Neil
Grabbing the bull by the horns yesterday I rustled up a fledgling website for Duty and Honour under the omnihedron.co.uk umbrella. Today's job is to sort out the front page of the site index and then spin out another set of pages suitable for Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' material.
http://www.omnihedron.co.uk/dutyandhonour/
I also sat down and did some of the maths about the monies needed to get this venture off the ground - including printing, artwork, promotional materials, convention attendence etc. and it is all very do-able. VERY do-able. All systems go!
Neil
Vacuum vs Purpose
I hate working in a vacuum. It really sucks.
Do you see what I did there? God, light entertainment lost a lot when I chose not to take the stage! Anyway despite my sometime epiphet as 'The Iron DM' I haven't actually refereed anything worthy of the name of a game for nearly two years now. A couple of one shot playtests and a few games of A Faery's Tale with the kids but no ongoing campaigns or such. There have been times that I have felt the surge of the creative spirit but in the end it is always tempered by tiredness and our gaming timetable. And the vacuum effect.
It always hits me whenever I sit down and address that gaming urge - whats the point? I have limited time and energy - why should I be wasting it on game development if I am not sure that it is going to be used? So much of what we do in our gaming nowadays is context-based that designing something 'in a vacuum' is pointless. How can you do anything without the characters there in front of you - as in virtually all of our gaming the characters not only drive the story but also the NPCs and the background! And you don't get the characters until your are in the GMing hotseat.
It even comes down to testing out systems. I have tried SO hard to test out the character generation for The Burning Wheel but without a context it is almost impossible. Without some lens to focus that smorgasbord of generic fantasy into the searing light of an interesting character it all seems ... pointless.
So why all of this self-reflective naval gazing?
Well as astute Bottom of the Glass readers will be aware I have been a tad pre-occupied of late with work and gaming issues. Work appears to have started towards a conclusion, one way or another, and gaming is working out quite nicely too. My involvement with The Collective Endeavour has really given me the focus to move Duty and Honour from the 'yeah, its a game that I'm working on' stage to the 'No really, this is actually happening' stage.
Which means I need to start playtesting! STAT! And that means I have to recruit a playtest group. Thats not a problem. 'Group Three' spawned in under a day with Ben, Dave, Andrew and Nigel answering the call to take the King's Shilling on our 'off-Sundays' from Pendragon. And INSTANTLY the vacuum is filled. Pfoof! (as Billy Gunn says in that Options advert)
So last night I settled down and started the research for 'The Cadiz Campaign' - my playtest campaign for Duty and Honour. And it had purpose and reason and felt like a valuable use of my time. Whacked my favourite episode of Sharpe on (Sharpe's Regiment btw - the one where they go back to England and pretend to be recruits - 'Black as BOG!' Love it!) and it was all systems go!
Neil
Do you see what I did there? God, light entertainment lost a lot when I chose not to take the stage! Anyway despite my sometime epiphet as 'The Iron DM' I haven't actually refereed anything worthy of the name of a game for nearly two years now. A couple of one shot playtests and a few games of A Faery's Tale with the kids but no ongoing campaigns or such. There have been times that I have felt the surge of the creative spirit but in the end it is always tempered by tiredness and our gaming timetable. And the vacuum effect.
It always hits me whenever I sit down and address that gaming urge - whats the point? I have limited time and energy - why should I be wasting it on game development if I am not sure that it is going to be used? So much of what we do in our gaming nowadays is context-based that designing something 'in a vacuum' is pointless. How can you do anything without the characters there in front of you - as in virtually all of our gaming the characters not only drive the story but also the NPCs and the background! And you don't get the characters until your are in the GMing hotseat.
It even comes down to testing out systems. I have tried SO hard to test out the character generation for The Burning Wheel but without a context it is almost impossible. Without some lens to focus that smorgasbord of generic fantasy into the searing light of an interesting character it all seems ... pointless.
So why all of this self-reflective naval gazing?
Well as astute Bottom of the Glass readers will be aware I have been a tad pre-occupied of late with work and gaming issues. Work appears to have started towards a conclusion, one way or another, and gaming is working out quite nicely too. My involvement with The Collective Endeavour has really given me the focus to move Duty and Honour from the 'yeah, its a game that I'm working on' stage to the 'No really, this is actually happening' stage.
Which means I need to start playtesting! STAT! And that means I have to recruit a playtest group. Thats not a problem. 'Group Three' spawned in under a day with Ben, Dave, Andrew and Nigel answering the call to take the King's Shilling on our 'off-Sundays' from Pendragon. And INSTANTLY the vacuum is filled. Pfoof! (as Billy Gunn says in that Options advert)
So last night I settled down and started the research for 'The Cadiz Campaign' - my playtest campaign for Duty and Honour. And it had purpose and reason and felt like a valuable use of my time. Whacked my favourite episode of Sharpe on (Sharpe's Regiment btw - the one where they go back to England and pretend to be recruits - 'Black as BOG!' Love it!) and it was all systems go!
Neil
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Getting Back into the Swing of Things
Right lets get this update underway. First off I'll touch on a subject that I rarely venture to in my blog - work. Work is less than perfect at the moment. Hours are longer, work is more intense and the blame culture is in full flow. Moreover the minutae are overwhelming the bigger picture and it is strangling everything. As a result of that and two rather horrific viruses I have been almost totally unproductive. Inert. Living to work rather than working to live. That sucks.
So what have I been up to? Well, I have returned to WoW after a pretty long break. A new server (The Maelstrom) and a new guild (The Border Reivers) and a new character (Gorthe, a Warrior of all things!). Everything is very pleasant, the guild is an absolute pleasure and the commitment is almost zero. Alls good really - WoW is definitely a 'game' now rather than a lifestyle choice!
I've finally got my roleplaying game, Duty and Honour, into some form that can be properly playtested. I've been conversing a lot with the guys from The Collective Endeavour (see the links in my sidebar) which has been very productive. I like the vibe there and the collective nature of the contributions appeals to the old Leftie in me.
The game itself has changed quite a lot as it moves from being a set of chargen rules and a resolution mechanic and becomes a real game. So far it has been reasonably well received but there is a fair bit of work to be done yet. If anyone is interested they can download the alpha playtest documents here. If you have any comments I would love to hear them.
Fan fiction wise I have been formally given the Teen Titans to write at DCI, which is very cool. I still have Green Lantern on the burner as well. The site is moving along, albeit slowly, but my ability to write is severely curtailed by my lack of energy after work. It'll come.
Roleplaying-wise we are still playing Pendragon and motoring towards the magical sword in the stone moment. The stories of our original characters are coming to the end now and it is going to be a sad moment to see them ride off into the distance but there are lovely new characters ready to take their place. We have also just finished a very-alpha playtest of Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' game and then we will be playing Cold City ran by Andrew. I went to Furnace, a convention in Sheffield, a couple of weeks ago and it was excellent. I played Monkey (a game in development), Mob Justice, Dead of Night, Conspiracy of Shadows and Burning Wheel. Yes, I know, indie games whore...
And thats about it really. Who knows what will come in the near future - I'll just keep on plodding on though.
Neil
So what have I been up to? Well, I have returned to WoW after a pretty long break. A new server (The Maelstrom) and a new guild (The Border Reivers) and a new character (Gorthe, a Warrior of all things!). Everything is very pleasant, the guild is an absolute pleasure and the commitment is almost zero. Alls good really - WoW is definitely a 'game' now rather than a lifestyle choice!
I've finally got my roleplaying game, Duty and Honour, into some form that can be properly playtested. I've been conversing a lot with the guys from The Collective Endeavour (see the links in my sidebar) which has been very productive. I like the vibe there and the collective nature of the contributions appeals to the old Leftie in me.
The game itself has changed quite a lot as it moves from being a set of chargen rules and a resolution mechanic and becomes a real game. So far it has been reasonably well received but there is a fair bit of work to be done yet. If anyone is interested they can download the alpha playtest documents here. If you have any comments I would love to hear them.
Fan fiction wise I have been formally given the Teen Titans to write at DCI, which is very cool. I still have Green Lantern on the burner as well. The site is moving along, albeit slowly, but my ability to write is severely curtailed by my lack of energy after work. It'll come.
Roleplaying-wise we are still playing Pendragon and motoring towards the magical sword in the stone moment. The stories of our original characters are coming to the end now and it is going to be a sad moment to see them ride off into the distance but there are lovely new characters ready to take their place. We have also just finished a very-alpha playtest of Ben's 'Liberty Comics Presents...' game and then we will be playing Cold City ran by Andrew. I went to Furnace, a convention in Sheffield, a couple of weeks ago and it was excellent. I played Monkey (a game in development), Mob Justice, Dead of Night, Conspiracy of Shadows and Burning Wheel. Yes, I know, indie games whore...
And thats about it really. Who knows what will come in the near future - I'll just keep on plodding on though.
Neil
Friday, October 26, 2007
News of my demise...
... well, you know the rest.
Loads of things are going on at the moment - most very poor, some excellent - but all of them are eating time which I could have dedicated to blogging about them. Oh the irony. I'm going to make an effort to catch up this weekend.
Neil
Still here
Loads of things are going on at the moment - most very poor, some excellent - but all of them are eating time which I could have dedicated to blogging about them. Oh the irony. I'm going to make an effort to catch up this weekend.
Neil
Still here
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Media Whore!
No, it's not another rant.
My interview with the Sons of Kryos has just been posted on their site. I'm the last one on the podcast. I don't say anything spectacular, I don't pimp my game and I really need to get a new accent. However it is there.
And yes, for those in the know, the irony of me wanting to 'soak my feet' in light of the subsequent infection etc. was chuckle-worthy.
Neil
My interview with the Sons of Kryos has just been posted on their site. I'm the last one on the podcast. I don't say anything spectacular, I don't pimp my game and I really need to get a new accent. However it is there.
And yes, for those in the know, the irony of me wanting to 'soak my feet' in light of the subsequent infection etc. was chuckle-worthy.
Neil
Monday, October 08, 2007
The General Election That Never Was...
... mentioned by Gordon Brown. Ever. At all. What the hell happened here? Was it the final crescendo of the silly season? Is there honestly nothing else to be done than this. Did the PM ever mention having an election. No. Has he ever suggested it? No. Have any of his ministers mentioned it? No. So nobody in the Labour Party has said there would be an election.
So whats the fuss?
Ah they never said there WOULDN'T be an election! Well thats spectacular. I'm sure that Golden Brown (textured like sun) has better things to do than constantly placate the banal speculation of the media. I was watching the incredibly irritating SKY news on Friday and these things were trumpetted as 'sure signs of an upcoming election' - a statement on Iraq and the comprehensive spending review. Wow! At the start of the parliamentary session, the PM will have the audacity of speaking to the most contraversial foreign policy of the decade and matters of the economy, which is pretty central to the business of government. Oh, and the PM cleared his diary. Shock!
No, this was an election inseminated, gestated and coddled in the womb of the media. They want an election because elections mean sales. They created a no-win scenario for Brown. They started the speculation in time for the Conservative Party conference and let the Tories undercut Brown when Brown was really not in the position to undercut. He had to make a choice - election on the backfoot or 'bottle' a situation he never prescribed to. Wonderful.
Remember who runs the minds of the country kids. I'll give you a hint - they don't work in Westminster.
Neil
So whats the fuss?
Ah they never said there WOULDN'T be an election! Well thats spectacular. I'm sure that Golden Brown (textured like sun) has better things to do than constantly placate the banal speculation of the media. I was watching the incredibly irritating SKY news on Friday and these things were trumpetted as 'sure signs of an upcoming election' - a statement on Iraq and the comprehensive spending review. Wow! At the start of the parliamentary session, the PM will have the audacity of speaking to the most contraversial foreign policy of the decade and matters of the economy, which is pretty central to the business of government. Oh, and the PM cleared his diary. Shock!
No, this was an election inseminated, gestated and coddled in the womb of the media. They want an election because elections mean sales. They created a no-win scenario for Brown. They started the speculation in time for the Conservative Party conference and let the Tories undercut Brown when Brown was really not in the position to undercut. He had to make a choice - election on the backfoot or 'bottle' a situation he never prescribed to. Wonderful.
Remember who runs the minds of the country kids. I'll give you a hint - they don't work in Westminster.
Neil
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Under Pressure (do do do dododo do)
Well, where have I been? I've been shackled to my job for the last month or so. It's not my practice to talk about work matters on my blog (see my first ever post as to why) but needless to say it has been a shitty few weeks, I am not at all happy and it doesn't look like it's getting any less shitty soon. Hurrah!
Well, this has really taken the wind out of my sails when it comes to game design. I still have my milestone to aim for - Furnace 2007 - but in the end I come in from work every night absolutely knackered and usually quite dismayed at what has gone before. Not the best frame of mind to be entering a creative space. There's been precious little fanfic written recently either. In the end my life appears to have been put on hold for the sake of Freshers Week and the travails of the workplace.
I have been able to achieve a few things however. Reading is still well within my grasp and I have been scouring eBay and other places for research material. Sadly there aren't a lot of accessible books on life as a British footsoldier in Wellington's Army but I did discover Wellington's Victories which is winging it's way to me now. I have also been reading Harbours and High Seas and Every Man Will Do His Duty as well as Commanding a Kings Ship (which sits between the overly familiar Hornblower and the exceptionally wordy O'Brien). What was funny is that on my Facebook page, a friend of mine commented on my digital bookshelf that it was not the sort of stuff he expected me to read. And do you know what? He's right!
Despite the assurances of my parents, I have no great memories of being a great fiction reader when I was a kid. Comics? Oh God yes. Maps? I devoured them. Non-fiction books on war and soldiers and snakes and more maps? Yeah, absolutely. Actual novels? Simply not my thing. I remember reading 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings', 'Starship Troopers' and 'Citizen of the Galaxy' and a few more, but nothing like my peers. When I did start reading a lot it was pretty standard fare for a roleplayer of my age - Gemmell, Pratchett, Donaldson, May and other random stuff. Later, as I grew older I discovered a liking for SF military novels, like Honour Harrington and the Hope series and also a roleplaying resonance with Urban Fantasy like Laurell K Hamilton and Kim Harrison. However this was all rather, well, predictable. It's what happens when you only EVER look at the SF/Fantasy section of Borders. OK, I might make a foray into the Horror section but not often.
Once I ventured out of the SF section I discovered a massive array of books that I was really interested in. Books about the past. Books about real people and real things, even if they are told in a fictional setting. I've started to stalk the History section of Borders now and they have some very cool things. It's an entire new thing to do - although I am aware that I need to avoid letting my collectors gene loose on this or it could get messy!
I didn't have a very good History teacher at school and it never quite hit with me like it could have. Similarly I only ever had one really inspirational English teacher and he stayed for only a term. I was pretty much a maths and science bod, with a sideline in arty stuff. Maybe if things had gone a little differently I would have taken a different path and discovered this interest earlier on ... and not taken the path that lead to the hellhole of pressue I'm in today.
Yes folks, my problems at work are to do with having a shite History teacher!! You heard it here first.
Neil
Well, this has really taken the wind out of my sails when it comes to game design. I still have my milestone to aim for - Furnace 2007 - but in the end I come in from work every night absolutely knackered and usually quite dismayed at what has gone before. Not the best frame of mind to be entering a creative space. There's been precious little fanfic written recently either. In the end my life appears to have been put on hold for the sake of Freshers Week and the travails of the workplace.
I have been able to achieve a few things however. Reading is still well within my grasp and I have been scouring eBay and other places for research material. Sadly there aren't a lot of accessible books on life as a British footsoldier in Wellington's Army but I did discover Wellington's Victories which is winging it's way to me now. I have also been reading Harbours and High Seas and Every Man Will Do His Duty as well as Commanding a Kings Ship (which sits between the overly familiar Hornblower and the exceptionally wordy O'Brien). What was funny is that on my Facebook page, a friend of mine commented on my digital bookshelf that it was not the sort of stuff he expected me to read. And do you know what? He's right!
Despite the assurances of my parents, I have no great memories of being a great fiction reader when I was a kid. Comics? Oh God yes. Maps? I devoured them. Non-fiction books on war and soldiers and snakes and more maps? Yeah, absolutely. Actual novels? Simply not my thing. I remember reading 'The Hobbit' and 'Lord of the Rings', 'Starship Troopers' and 'Citizen of the Galaxy' and a few more, but nothing like my peers. When I did start reading a lot it was pretty standard fare for a roleplayer of my age - Gemmell, Pratchett, Donaldson, May and other random stuff. Later, as I grew older I discovered a liking for SF military novels, like Honour Harrington and the Hope series and also a roleplaying resonance with Urban Fantasy like Laurell K Hamilton and Kim Harrison. However this was all rather, well, predictable. It's what happens when you only EVER look at the SF/Fantasy section of Borders. OK, I might make a foray into the Horror section but not often.
Once I ventured out of the SF section I discovered a massive array of books that I was really interested in. Books about the past. Books about real people and real things, even if they are told in a fictional setting. I've started to stalk the History section of Borders now and they have some very cool things. It's an entire new thing to do - although I am aware that I need to avoid letting my collectors gene loose on this or it could get messy!
I didn't have a very good History teacher at school and it never quite hit with me like it could have. Similarly I only ever had one really inspirational English teacher and he stayed for only a term. I was pretty much a maths and science bod, with a sideline in arty stuff. Maybe if things had gone a little differently I would have taken a different path and discovered this interest earlier on ... and not taken the path that lead to the hellhole of pressue I'm in today.
Yes folks, my problems at work are to do with having a shite History teacher!! You heard it here first.
Neil
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
A lesser man would go SQUEEE!!
I've been meaning to show this off for a few weeks but I have never really had the time in the midst of the pre-Freshers Week chaos. This is the rough for the cover of Duty and Honour. I'm really pleased how my cack-handed composition instructions turned out and even in the very rough state of the image, the way it just screams the game to me. It's certainly made it seem very really and very exciting. The artist who is doing it is a guy called Peter Frain and I expect to be pimping him to high heaven when I get the finished piece. Anyway, without further ado, the rough cover art!
Oh ok... SQUEEEEE!!!
Neil
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Back in the (Sword) Swing of Things
Pendragon is back and back with a bang!
Sometimes my mind boggles at the way our GM, Nigel, manages to take the massive complicated morass of 'stuff' that has been shoe-horned into this campaign and consistently come up with a game that proves engaging, dramatic and most of all escapes being engulfed by the tome it is drawn from. There has been some critique on 'Story Games' regarding TGPC and whether it is too restrictive regarding the actions of the players. I think this session was a perfect example of how this is simply not the case at all!
Lets recap where we are. It's the winter of 504 and Britain is in turmoil. Saxons, Cornish and Irish are ravaging the country and there is still no real sign of a High King. Nanteleod, a welsh king, has been pushing through Wales and the north, but has not yet tackled the burgeoning Saxon problem. In response to this, we, the ruling knights of Salisbury, have been on a little expansionist push of our own, effectively annexxing Marlborough and casting glances at Oxford and the rest of Rhydychan (or however you spell it!). Our cause is helped by the Countess Rhyd-whatever being an ally and begging our Countess to help out.
Thats the metaplot - what about the actual game?
The main central piece of this game was the love triangle between Sir Aeryn the Younger, the half-fey manipulator Rhiannon and the scheming Sir Merrin. Aeryn loves Rhiannon. Rhiannon loves Aeryn. Merrin has a pact with her father, the King of the Forest Sauvage, to have her hand in marriage. She has no choice but to enter this loveless union. It's magnificent and totally Arthurian! If you want to get even deeper it's almost the antithesis of the themes that have been running through the storyline of my character, Brion - family, fidelity, children, love and faithfulness.
The marriage itself wasn't the centrepiece - it was the scenes around it. The initial rebuff of Aeryn as she broke the news, the cold, almost staged nature of Rhiannon's acceptance of the proposal, Aeryns conspicuous absence from the wedding, his night before the wedding final attempt to win her heart and Merrin's automatically controlling changes to her lifestyle - moving her to his castle, annexing the Tower of Babel and seeking to use his power as Chancellor to legitimise Aeryn's bastard son as his own ward.
You would think that he wanted to die a slow and painful death at the end of Aeryn's sword!
However, thats not all! The spring festival was attacked by British mercenaries hired by the Saxons to confuse us. All very bizarre. However, the battle was again just a ruse behind which a smorgasbord of personal issues played out. Merrin's desperate attempts to protect his bride-to-be at the cost of his own body. Aeryn's son rushing to Merrin's aid and being firmly put in his place. Aeryn himself single handedly taking the gatehouse and the archers, because he IS the best swordsman in the land. Guillame protecting his churchmen and his Countess - a theme that seems to be rising in prominence with him. And Brion? Him and Cullwch tearing through the courtyard back-to-back ('the Irish wrecking machine') and then him rallying the troops and driving the usurpers to their doom. All great stuff, especially as the 'no armour' situation added to the danger and suspense.
And that is just the first part of the year!
I still haven't written about the machinations of the politics that we have to get up to in order to keep our borders even passingly safe or the building programmes that have been undertaken. It doesn't take into account the plotting of battles or the balancing of troop movements or the consideration of treaties. Why? Because in the end thats window dressing to some of the great character displays that are being had in the game.
Character centred, character driven stories with a great deep background and something for everyone? I don't care whether it's labelled 'story' or not - it's a damned fine game!
Neil
Sometimes my mind boggles at the way our GM, Nigel, manages to take the massive complicated morass of 'stuff' that has been shoe-horned into this campaign and consistently come up with a game that proves engaging, dramatic and most of all escapes being engulfed by the tome it is drawn from. There has been some critique on 'Story Games' regarding TGPC and whether it is too restrictive regarding the actions of the players. I think this session was a perfect example of how this is simply not the case at all!
Lets recap where we are. It's the winter of 504 and Britain is in turmoil. Saxons, Cornish and Irish are ravaging the country and there is still no real sign of a High King. Nanteleod, a welsh king, has been pushing through Wales and the north, but has not yet tackled the burgeoning Saxon problem. In response to this, we, the ruling knights of Salisbury, have been on a little expansionist push of our own, effectively annexxing Marlborough and casting glances at Oxford and the rest of Rhydychan (or however you spell it!). Our cause is helped by the Countess Rhyd-whatever being an ally and begging our Countess to help out.
Thats the metaplot - what about the actual game?
The main central piece of this game was the love triangle between Sir Aeryn the Younger, the half-fey manipulator Rhiannon and the scheming Sir Merrin. Aeryn loves Rhiannon. Rhiannon loves Aeryn. Merrin has a pact with her father, the King of the Forest Sauvage, to have her hand in marriage. She has no choice but to enter this loveless union. It's magnificent and totally Arthurian! If you want to get even deeper it's almost the antithesis of the themes that have been running through the storyline of my character, Brion - family, fidelity, children, love and faithfulness.
The marriage itself wasn't the centrepiece - it was the scenes around it. The initial rebuff of Aeryn as she broke the news, the cold, almost staged nature of Rhiannon's acceptance of the proposal, Aeryns conspicuous absence from the wedding, his night before the wedding final attempt to win her heart and Merrin's automatically controlling changes to her lifestyle - moving her to his castle, annexing the Tower of Babel and seeking to use his power as Chancellor to legitimise Aeryn's bastard son as his own ward.
You would think that he wanted to die a slow and painful death at the end of Aeryn's sword!
However, thats not all! The spring festival was attacked by British mercenaries hired by the Saxons to confuse us. All very bizarre. However, the battle was again just a ruse behind which a smorgasbord of personal issues played out. Merrin's desperate attempts to protect his bride-to-be at the cost of his own body. Aeryn's son rushing to Merrin's aid and being firmly put in his place. Aeryn himself single handedly taking the gatehouse and the archers, because he IS the best swordsman in the land. Guillame protecting his churchmen and his Countess - a theme that seems to be rising in prominence with him. And Brion? Him and Cullwch tearing through the courtyard back-to-back ('the Irish wrecking machine') and then him rallying the troops and driving the usurpers to their doom. All great stuff, especially as the 'no armour' situation added to the danger and suspense.
And that is just the first part of the year!
I still haven't written about the machinations of the politics that we have to get up to in order to keep our borders even passingly safe or the building programmes that have been undertaken. It doesn't take into account the plotting of battles or the balancing of troop movements or the consideration of treaties. Why? Because in the end thats window dressing to some of the great character displays that are being had in the game.
Character centred, character driven stories with a great deep background and something for everyone? I don't care whether it's labelled 'story' or not - it's a damned fine game!
Neil
Sunday, September 02, 2007
I Do Not Understand eBay
Maybe someone could explain, because it is beyond my small brain.
I'm currently looking for some LEGO Imperial Soldiers (as featured below) so that I can whip them out when I demo Duty and Honour, in case I need them. I have managed to pick up a slack handful of french ones from Tynemouth Market, but the redcoats are a little more elusive.
So on eBay, the motherlode appears. 25 Redcoats, 5 Blueboats, Flags and 3 cannon. This is it. This is the Auction of Doom. £0.01 starting bid, £0.99 postage, 7 days to go. Excellent.
Two days in, 8 IDIOTS have bidded and it's standing at £18.00.
WHY HAVE THEY BEEN BIDDING SO EARLY?!
I simply do not understand the mentality. Yes, I know that this lot is going to go for silly money because each of the figures individually sells for around £2.00, but there was a chance - a scant outside chance - that it could have been a bargain. I mean, the idiot known only to the internet as digger_1967 bidded £1.00 with five days to go. Why bother? Look at the other similar auctions? Do you honestly think you would snaffle this under the noses of everyone else for five whole days? No. And then we have ht2fred who bumped the bid up to £15.00. Well done. That would have been excellent work - with 20 seconds to go! But no, no - do it FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE END OF THE AUCTION!
Anyone who has used eBay knows that the 'action' happens in the last ten seconds of any hot bid and the winner will be the person with the fastest processor and the best click-speed or bid-bot. Bidding early only serves to bump up the inevitable end price of the lot. You're not going to scare anyone off with your £1.20 bids or even your £18.00 bid so early. You're just wasting your time.
And costing me money....
Neil
I'm currently looking for some LEGO Imperial Soldiers (as featured below) so that I can whip them out when I demo Duty and Honour, in case I need them. I have managed to pick up a slack handful of french ones from Tynemouth Market, but the redcoats are a little more elusive.
So on eBay, the motherlode appears. 25 Redcoats, 5 Blueboats, Flags and 3 cannon. This is it. This is the Auction of Doom. £0.01 starting bid, £0.99 postage, 7 days to go. Excellent.
Two days in, 8 IDIOTS have bidded and it's standing at £18.00.
WHY HAVE THEY BEEN BIDDING SO EARLY?!
I simply do not understand the mentality. Yes, I know that this lot is going to go for silly money because each of the figures individually sells for around £2.00, but there was a chance - a scant outside chance - that it could have been a bargain. I mean, the idiot known only to the internet as digger_1967 bidded £1.00 with five days to go. Why bother? Look at the other similar auctions? Do you honestly think you would snaffle this under the noses of everyone else for five whole days? No. And then we have ht2fred who bumped the bid up to £15.00. Well done. That would have been excellent work - with 20 seconds to go! But no, no - do it FOUR DAYS BEFORE THE END OF THE AUCTION!
Anyone who has used eBay knows that the 'action' happens in the last ten seconds of any hot bid and the winner will be the person with the fastest processor and the best click-speed or bid-bot. Bidding early only serves to bump up the inevitable end price of the lot. You're not going to scare anyone off with your £1.20 bids or even your £18.00 bid so early. You're just wasting your time.
And costing me money....
Neil
Friday, August 31, 2007
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
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
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
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
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
Monday, August 27, 2007
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
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
Monday, August 13, 2007
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
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
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