Posted in Uncategorized on March 11, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
The interview are going to be bi-weekly, every other Monday until I settle in to the new city/apartment/job in the next month.
But there are some exciting interviews coming up:
I am excited.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged rpw13 on January 18, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
Reading: I read a few chapters of The Death of Bees but the truth is I was so distracted that I was not productive. My lunch-time and before-bed reading routine was kaput this week.
Planning: I cannot plan anything just yet. This weekend I plan to continue to prune my belongings. Roller blades I have only put on once in the past decade…gone. Books I have read that I don’t plan to re-read or reference…given to friends to the Friends of the Library Book Sale.
Writing: Lists but I’m also conducting some exciting e-mail interviews for my Monday Interviews that have been going up on the blog. The next 3 are ready to roll and they are really exciting and a bunch more are brewing.
And you?
Posted in Uncategorized on January 5, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 23,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 5 Film Festivals
Posted in Uncategorized on January 3, 2013 | Leave a Comment »
This act and its consequences came about as an oblique result of discord among the arch-magicians of the land. At this time they numbered eight: Murgen, Sartzanek, Desmei, Myolander, Baibalides, Widdefut, Coddefut and Noumique.*
*Whenever the magicians met together, another appeared: a tall shape muffled in a long black cape, with a wide-brimmed black hat obscuring his features. He stood always back in the shadows and never spoke; when one or another of the magicians chanced to look into his face they saw black emptiness with a pair of far stars where his eyes might be. The presence of the ninth magician (if such he were) at first made for uneasiness, but in due course, since the presence seemed to affect nothing, he was ignored, save for occasional side-glances.
I’m enjoying the book but wish it was more petty magicians feuding and less nobles.
Posted in Uncategorized on October 15, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
J.C. mentioned that he was reading a Vampire sourcebook while watching Game of Thrones. Game-deprived as I am, I replied with the following:
Or you could just rip-off the plot, whole hog. Your buddy is prince and needs you to take a job in the city that does not suit you. You live in the country with the werewolves in relative peace. The vampire clan you deposed has a lost bloodline in exile somewhere. In order to secure the princedom, you had to bond your friend to a vicious clan in order to secure your power-base and they have taken over his court.
Posted in Uncategorized on July 20, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Reading: Poking at The Killing of Worlds by Scott Westerfield, hoping that I get hip deep into it before a fun fantasy novel arrives on my desk.
Planning: Getting prepped for something important and getting my disaster-area room into some kind of order this weekend.
Writing: Same as it ever was, cover letters and Marvel Heroic Milestones. I’m tinkering with a review of Dark Knight Rises and a post about how to do a post-Nolan trilogy re-boot but after the tragedy, it just feels wrong and disrespectful to geek out right at this moment. So, for now, I’m exchanging geeky e-mails with Witt and furrowing my brow.
And you?
Posted in Uncategorized on July 13, 2012 | 4 Comments »
Reading: I’m on the last pages of The Risen Empire and have The Killing of Worlds, the second half of the book, ready to roll. I’m enjoying it, a fun space opera.
Planning: This weekend will have ice, stretching and mobility work. I am sore. The cover letter and resume work continues.
Writing: Banged on a cover letter all week and it is getting there, should go out in the next day or two. The Ballad of Hal Whitewyrm got an update, should be a tense couple of moments, looking forward to seeing how Hal works out in Westgate.
NOTE: I forgot that I am playing writing back-and-forth ping-pong with Drew on Google Docs. Federal Book Enforcers started out as a joke but it is becoming a really interesting science fiction story with a whole lot of what we both think about librarians spilling onto the page in sci-fi-noir spurts and starts. We each write a few hundred words at a time and then send it back and it is more fun than a joke on G+ has any right to be.
And you?
Posted in Uncategorized on June 2, 2012 | 1 Comment »
System matters, so play games that will best support you and your friends’ play.
John Q. Forge thinks that games are more important than people, GM’s or anything. They think that other shit doesn’t matter and rely on mechanics to solve everything!
No, that isn’t true. Mechanics can help make a good game great and a good night shitty but other elements are important too, from relationships at the table to food.
Publish your game without risking more than you are willing to lose and when possible, if it is important to you, keep ownership of your creative works.
Forge Mc Forgey of the Forgingville Forgers thinks that freelancing for gaming companies is amoral and they hate every publisher and game company.
No, lots of folks who have published their own games and have participated in the Forge and the Forge booth have freelanced. Some are not interested. There is no trouble here. Move along.
Talk and reflect about play earnestly and honestly because it is rewarding and will help you and others understand our hobby better.
Lady Forge Indie RPG of the Forgia uses Actual Play to make their games look good and lie incessantly about how their games work at the table and how real role-playing games cause brain damage.
Yeah. I like to talk about trouble I’ve had with games, be it Burning Wheel and Apocalypse World or whatever mainstream game you like. I’m sure someone, somewhere has lied or resorted to hyperbole about a game. I’m not the AP Police.
GURPS is an indie RPG!
Okay.
GNS is a lie!
I never particularly liked it, myself. Not grokking GNS never got in my way when I was gaming but it did get in my way of participating in some discussions that don’t really interest me.
Creator Ownership is a brand!
Okay.
I went to the Forge/Forge Booth/Gaggle of Indie RPGerati at a con/friend’s house and indie RPGers treated me really poorly, if you all policed your community with more dignity, you wouldn’t have these problems and the indie community would love me!
I’m sorry someone treated you poorly. That sucks. Do you want a hug? I…man, for a hater-voice inside my head, you are exhausting.
I’m just getting warmed up!
I know.
Posted in Dungeons & Dragons, Uncategorized on May 30, 2012 | 5 Comments »
I have been noticing tweets here and there about Save or Die in the upcoming new edition of D&D.
I don’t mind Save or Die if I can make a character fast and painlessly or take over an NPC as a new character, getting back into the mix quickly and easily. I wonder if having a batch of pre-gens could help with this? Maybe. This reminds me of another Save or Die option, Dark Sun’s character trees, a mechanical sign that the setting is going to be harsh on your character and license for the DM to take the gloves off.
When something has a Save or Die effect, it has to be cool. It doesn’t have to be epic, not every Save or Die effect needs to be Dragon’s Breath but it should be something that we can remember, something descriptive.
I’d like some way to remember the dead, the stacks of dead hirelings and low level characters who paved the way for the survivors who made it to the higher levels. This might be a moment at the beginning or end of each game where we remember dead characters or a little character graveyard, a bunch of folded up index cards with the dead’s names, deeds and how they died, like a little adventurers’ graveyard.
I do mind Save or Die if I have been asked to make a story for the character, or if the character creation is longer than a few minutes or if the character creation asked me to make difficult decisions that left me with a strong attachment to the character.
I’m fine with games where folks venture into dangerous, monster-infested, highly trapped, arcane holes in the ground and perish. I’m fine with playing a character who ends up being a cautionary tale but get me back into the action fast and give the table a way to remember the dead.
Posted in Uncategorized on April 27, 2012 | 7 Comments »
Reading: I picked up two books at the bookstore, basically on the strength of their covers and back cover blurbs and put them down after a few dozen pages, never intending to pick them back up. I’m still picking at Honeybee Democracy but I’m hungry for some fiction.
Got some Civil War-related comics coming to me through the public library’s inter-library loan and I’m re-reading Runaways for work. I forget how good Vaughn’s Runaways was. That was some fun comic bookin’.
Planning: Off to New York City for some belated birthdaying.
Writing: It is all cover letters and resumes and datafiles around here. I’ve got some more ideas for some funky blog posts but I’ll get to that next week.
Fun Side Note: Michael Miller is rocking the DC Super Hero Draft on G+ and it is good fun.
And you?
