So you may be wondering what I am doing? Well Since I started using posterous to cross post to my LJ, wordpress, twitter etc I have decided to now use posterous as the new home for my the Etheric Labs roleplay blog. Why? Asethics. Ease of use. So enjoy. Everything has been reposted and retagged.
Wednesday 30 June 2010
Etheric Labs' new home
Friday 25 June 2010
BBC News - Bionic feet for amputee cat
via news.bbc.co.uk
Possibly the most heart warming bit of news today.... a total Bionic Cat
Thursday 24 June 2010
My Feud with the Undead | Vampire Week | Flames Rising Horror Webzine
First let me state, that I am not the worlds largest Vampire fan. I don’t mean the RPG nor simply movies, or fiction- but as a franchise or archetype or whatever on a whole, the Vampire just doesn’t do it for me. So when the request came down through the digital bullpen that the powers at be who run this most fantastic site said they were looking for someone to write a blog post on Vampires, for our Vampire week, I shrugged my shoulders and put my digital hand up. Why not give it a shot?
Those of you familiar with what I have been doing on Flames Rising, know that I am pretty much a die hard and committed Zombie fan. I won’t go into anything related to Zombies here in too much detail, because this is supposed to be about vampires and I have already written about 150 words not concerning them, but I will say that I look forward to possibly doing my own little blog pieces solely on the walking dead, again though-this is about the living dead, or the undead, and we should begin. Ready?
There’s been such a demand for the Vampire as of late that it makes my head spin. I walk into a big box brick and mortar book store, or even the used book store around the corner and I can’t escape it. It’s been there for more years now than I care to remember and I am assailed and affronted with the image of tween and twenty something glamour vamps, tramp starlets and hulky man boys bearing fangs, row upon row of new young adult and adult fiction books filled to the brim with anti heroes and villains seeping sexuality and bemoaning the troubles of a wicked curse known as vampirism.
And I cringe.
I say, “This is all terribly wrong, where are the real blood suckers, whatever happened to Count Orlock or even the vampire deity cults of the Sumerians? Who or what has hijacked this monster? So I decided to look a little deeper into what the vampire is and where did it come from?
The Cliché
So this is where we explore the cliché of the myth, before doing so I want you to grab something black out of your wardrobe, or even better if you’re a recovering Goth then go get some of those ridiculous cloths that we all used to wear and put on either Pornography by The Cure or any assorted song title that has the words bat, blood, curse, or even vampire in the title… are you ready? Good.
The classic cliché of the vampire is of course the one we have come to know through so many movies and books, the classic Bela Lugosi is dead, undead, undead sort of black velvet lined cape and collar, pale skin, widows peak, gold medallion and tux. A laughable excuse for the portrayal of the blood sucker if I have ever seen one. I mean he’s everywhere from Sesame Street to the box covers of our cereal isles in the grocery store. I remember my first encounter with the good old Count theme, I was about five, and my grandfather was from Hungary, and not just like , oh you know, we are from Hungary here’s our Slavic sounding name. Nope, he was off the boat so to speak Hungarian and sounded, as you would imagine very similar to dear old Bela. My grandfather would sit and tell me of Vlad and what he did for Romania and Walachia, the sacrifices and the blood fest he undertook in what Vlad at the time believed to be the ultimate goal in his life time, which was defending the holy or Christian lands from the invading Turks, etc, etc. And then he said that is where Dracula comes from. Because at the time I was under the impression that Dracula, was in fact a myth, now my little head was filled with all this historical mumbo jumbo. I read books on Dracula; I watched movies containing Dracula and every representation that I could get my little hands on. And every time I found something common, even in the pages of Bunnicula, there were always a few constants.
1. Sunlight destroys them on contact.
2. A wooden Stake through the heart was really the only sure fire way, other than sun.
3. Holy items, crosses in general were a very good way to keep them at bay.
4. Garlic was good as well, could repel the count as effectively as a cross.
5. They slept in coffins, lined with the soil of their native homeland.
So that’s pretty much what I thought vampires were from about five till I reached the ripe old age of 11. And I am guessing that many of you had the same impression. The Count Dracula myth is one that has brought joy and fright to so many millions of people over the years that there is even a whole themed vacation you can take to walk in the footsteps of both the historical and fictional Dracula. There are two, or at least what I would call two fantastic pieces of work done in the last ten years on the subjects of both Dracula and Vampires in general, and if you haven’t yet read them, well go do so. They are “The Dead Travel Fast” by Eric Nuzum and “Sundays with Vlad” by Paul Bibeau, both are similar in their explorations into how and why the Vampire myth has seized the country, if not the whole of the world in the last 150 or so years, and they offer both a hilarious and serious look into two different men’s souls trying to come to terms with their inner love of all things fanged.
So we have our classic Eastern European myth of the Vampire, right?
So let us take off the vinyl and lace, black eyeliner and capes and get to looking into how this sucker, pun intended, has evolved. Also, some of us really shouldn’t wear vinyl.
When I was 11 I didn’t have access to the gross amount of Vampire themed books that pervade the shelves of the book stores as they do today. I had to read grown up books and figure out grown up themes for myself. Which I think has contributed to a lot of successes on my part, and also more than a few follies, but I had to read Bram Stokers Dracula and books like “Interview with a Vampire” because that’s where you found vampires, I had to watch the Hammer films, and I had to reach out to find things that weren’t necessarily meant for children to read. Because the “Young Adult” section wasn’t full off waif thin supermodel vampires it is today. It was filled with books like “The Great Gatsby and “The Outsiders” ridiculous books by R.L. Stine, like his pre “Goosebumps” work, but the Vampire was almost a strictly adult themed villain. So you had to go to the adult fiction section. There among the pages of Anne Rice’s homosexual master piece “Interview with a Vampire” I found the first representation of the cursed anti hero. The guy that didn’t necessarily want to be a vampire, I am sure this was something that had been explored by other novels at the time; however, I was 11 so give me a break. But that was really the first time I had ever read about a Vampire, not really wanting to be a Vampire, I mean the dense symbolism of Bram Stoker’s work was so thick that if there was a hurt soul in the pages of his fiction, especially in his Dracula, well- I had and continue to- completely miss it. But Anne Rice’s work was full of lamenting, and forlorn, her vampires were the fictional equivalent of a Morrissey lyric. “The more you ignore me, the closer I get, you’re wasting your time…” That was pretty much the feeling I got when reading “Interview” and by that time it was already the 90’s, we had seen AIDS take numerous high profile victims, and we had seen the first video game inspired conflict in the CNN reports of the Gulf War, technology was everywhere. The internet was becoming a tighter nit hub of BBS’s and sites were being built specifically for commerce and gathering. It was some exciting shit. And so was that book, and so was the fact that information was becoming more and more readily available. So I started looking into where the Vampire came from.
From The Beginning: Vampires in Ancient Cultures.
In Babylon, the Lilu were bloodsucking demons as were the Akhkharu of Sumeria. Lilitu one of the Lilu later became Lilith in Jewish mythology, they often depict her as living in part on the blood of new born babies. The Persians on the other hand were the very first to put down any form of the Vampire in story form, archaeologists have uncovered pottery which shows vampire like demons or spirits subsisting on the blood of men. The ancient Egyptian goddess Sekhmet was often depicted either drinking blodd or a beer like mixture which would pass for it.
Rome and Greece both offered their own stolen versions of the great monster, with Empusa, who was one of the daughters of the Goddess Hecate, she , oddly enough had feet made of bronze and would also seduce men before drinking their blood. Lamia was one that most likely came from the Lilith tradition and preyed, again on poor weak children for their blood. So moving forward in geography we come more towards the Asian shelf, lets take a look at what exactly our friends in the eastern quadrant of the world thought about our fanged Phnom’s shall we?
Look east my Son towards a land of…The Undead?
Asia or the countries which make up the land mass inhabited by the multitude of different Asian cultures is a huddled mass of lights technology, living land, spirits and the red dragon. If you have ever been to either Hong Kong or the heart Tokyo you know exactly what I am talking about, but this land of unparalleled futurism is also a land that doesn’t forget it’s dead, or should I say undead.
Starting off in Japan (as we all should for their wonderfully addictive games and cinema) we find something akin to the vampire, the Nukekubi, which is a being whose head and neck detach from the demons body and wander around looking for human prey in the night time, it’s funny to me that Japan, among the other eastern cultures has all of it’s modernity and technological might, but it doesn’t have it’s own source of a vampire. The representations of Japans bloodsuckers are those of strictly western descent. But if you go a little further you can find our familiar myth in the hands of the very capable Philippines, who have the Aswang (yes, I spelled that correctly and yes I did laugh very, very hard when I read it the first time) who is a female or at least looks female and human by day, but grows wings and claws and sucks your blood out at night with help from her tongue. The Malaysians also have a variation on this called the Penanggalan, which is another supposedly beautiful woman who detaches her head , which consequently grows bat wings, at night to suck the blood out of Pregnant Women.
But Possibly my favorite of these Asian Beliefs is the Chinese Jiang Shi, which literally means “Stiff Corpse” ( so says Wikapedia, so that’s a little suspect) who are reanimated corpses that hop about killing things to gain their essence or spirit, they are often described as covered in a mossy fur. So now wouldn’t the Twilight saga be a bit more interesting if Edward didn’t just sparkle, but also looked like an acid test version of Kermit, hopping so sexually about…makes you wonder.
So much for a pain in the neck
So now both you and I know a little more about Vampires than either of us would most likely like to, and we have seen the great count in it’s various forms, from Chinese Toad to Hebrew demoness, and you’ve learned my great dirty secret that in fact I do, to a certain extent like Vampires, well, what do we do now?
Nothing, we enjoy the stories, we laugh at the insanity and we go into the graveyard. We dust off those pleather pants and then quickly put them away, because no one my dears, repeat NO ONE, looks good in pleathers, and we wait for the next fad in the long line of this monsters history to come and go. Because whether I like it or not the Vampire doesn’t obviously constrain itself to cultures, history or time ; no it seems that so long as there are humans there will always be Vampires, and for this, I am somewhat eternally grateful.
Cheers,
Eric
Related posts:
- Vampire Week: Still Sucks To Be Me Review
- Announcing Vampire Week at Flames Rising
- Read about Bram Stoker’s Dracula for my Guest Post at Crackle.com
- Open Grave: Secrets of the Undead Review
- Vampire Hunter D Anime Review
Tags | Flames Rising, monsters, vampires
via flamesrising.com
Monday 21 June 2010
Modern gadgets made in 1977 - Boing Boing
Rob Beschizza at 5:09 AM Monday, Jun 21, 2010
Alex Varanese's sunset-hued walnut burl wonderland is a place I'd be happy to spend my evenings. From a blog post announcing his latest trip to the old-school:
This project is undoubtedly my most conceptually ambitious work to date. It comprises 14 full-sized, 18x24" prints that explore the awesomely absurd idea of time travelers who return to the late 1970's to release the technology of 2010 and dominate the world of consumer electronics. I re-imagined four modern products as if they existed over 30 years ago and tried to bring them to life through fake print ads, abstract glamour shots, and even a characteristically pretentious type treatment or two.It also shows how modern 'retro' gadget designs are often quite half-baked compared to the real (fake) thing. If you're going to go retro, you should either be so good at understanding the timeless that few even notice what you're up to (consider how Apple often channels Braun) or basically do what Alex did here, which is make everything out of wood and spidery LEDs.
via boingboing.net
Friday 18 June 2010
Upcoming things
Ok on the gaming front from this blog we shall see some more gaming advice. I was going to move away from chronicle/story structure, and look more at characters. In particular what I think about player character design, playing a character, playing the non-player characters, designing non-player characters and stuff like that.
Also I will be putting out notes on the upcoming chronicle, Changeling: the Lost - Broken Masks, Shattered Dreams. This is a chronicle for CtL set in Venice and I will be looking at the city itself and the interesting facets of the real world location, the supernatural elements of the city, and how I have taken these things and used them in the context of the game. I will also be presenting some example NPCs for the setting as, like Vampire, this game requires a certain level of preparation to get characters ready.
Right well that is all for now. Expect on here and the Etheric Labs livejournal the next Vampire actual play post.
Sunday 13 June 2010
This Episode...
So Episodes, and their structure. Last time was looked at taking the chronicle pitch and planning out the series of events that would tell this story. Now we have a series of events that tell a particular story that we wish to run, we will now look at exploring a few of these events that take place together, or almost together, and now plan an episode about these.
An episode in any TV series depicts a small part of the larger story. An event occurs, like a murder, a theft, a discovery, a terrible accident (this list is limitless really) and deals with the immediate causes and effects about this event. For instance in Supernatural in season 2 a girl foresees the death of one of the main characters. This is a story that revolves around a simple concept, even though it is part of a larger plot for the entire season and series. However, Supernatural is also a show that is filled with episodes that have no relation to the main season or series plot.
Now lets take an example event and apply an apply it to an episode. Let us once more refer to my Vampire: the Requiem chronicle and take a major event, the assassination of the leader of the Carthians. This event involves a number of things. First let us look at causes. There is the need for the opponents of the Carthians to cause unrest within this political group. There is also the need to show that even those in a position of power are just as likely targets as anyone else. This event within the chronicle is a critical moment as it initiates a number of things. Firstly it escalates the rumours of a conspiracy within the Carthians. It also starts the election process and more importantly makes the player characters (PCs) key witnesses, investigators and allies as they become involved in the whole mess.
So we have the reasons for an event occurring, and also the desired (yes, desired, there is no guarantee that any of this will happen) outcomes after the event. Now let’s apply these to the episode.
Generally an episode consists of a number of scenes. In TV again let’s take Supernatural as an example. An episode in that show has a number of keys scenes. Typically they are;
· Find out that some weird shit has gone down and arrive at the location and discover the first bits of information on the weirdness. Who has died? How? Where? And any other little bits of weird evidence.
· The first initial investigation that leads up to a conflict, either directly or indirectly with the antagonistic force. So this may be searching a haunted location and some initial attacks by the ghost, or say, in the episode ‘Wendigo’ , the conflict is the presentation of a complication, like the theft of survival equipment.
· There is then the next bit of investigation and a series of revelations.
· Another scene based upon some form of conflict or challenge that leads to the tension of the episode being heightened.
· A scene where the last bits of investigation and revelation leads to the group being able to formulate some form of plan or solution, which takes us to…
· Final conflict/challenge event.
· The last key scene deals with the resolution of the event and some form of character growth.
So that is 7 key scenes. Now that is not a hard and fast rule. There can be more or less scenes depending upon the complexity of the story and the player choices. Now just like the chronicle structure of events, scenes are, in a way, mini-events, and they are a guideline of how the players get from the start of the episode to the end. Not all of scenes will happen. Others may occur without player knowledge and so with their interference, and so take place ‘off screen’. Some scenes may even need to be added on the fly. But really there are 3 scenes that have to occur. The introduction, the finale and conclusion, and a scene in the middle where the tension and risk in the story are heightened. If we can map the tension in the episode it should increase slowly towards the middle of the episode, spike, then increase slowly (perhaps drop a little) then spike up again before settling for the conclusion.
Now an episode does not have to focus on just one plot line, it is possible to include two or even three plot lines. This adds to the complexity, however, it is best within the episode to focus on a conclusion that involves the just one of the plot lines. So while other plot events are being heightened for the other plots, one plot progresses so that a significant event occurs. It is this event which is then the main focus of the episode.
To help in the design of episodes it may well be worth trying to classify the episode using the ‘Thirty-Six Dramatic Situation’ by Georges Polti. These have been shown in ‘Mage: the Ascension – Storytellers Guide’. Along with ‘The Big List of RPG Plots’ by S. John Ross, we can identify the type/types of stories being told in an episode. We are even able mix and match these plot archetypes, going as far as making and episode appear to be one type of plot before, as a twist, becoming another. The old bait ‘n’ switch.
So what more can I now add? Well how about just the act of writing an episode. Script over notes? Notes every time. Typically each scene in my notes consists of a few basic elements.
· Name – Just to inspire the writer more than anything.
· Objective – Well exactly what it says. What is the point of this scene? What should be revealed or occur.
· Location – a brief description of the location, including anything atmospheric. Perhaps included a list of sights, smells, sounds.
· NPCs – a list of NPCs present for this scene and why they are present.
· Play by Play of the scene – this list simply is a bullet point description of the scene and how it ideally should play out, with further bullet points for contingencies.
· Clues – every scene should be treated as if it is a crime scene, laden with clues, but also red herrings.
Really the advantage of this is to allow absolute flexibility, while not having planned out so much that all that hard work is wasted when the players go off on a tangent or find an unusual solution or mess up on an epic scale. Scripts are only of use when you have a particular scene in mind that has to occur. Most often this is at the start of an episode.
So that rounds that up. Next time will be roleplay techniques in game that I make use of, and then we may look at just general horror roleplay tips.
Saturday 12 June 2010
Friday 11 June 2010
Thursday 10 June 2010
Wednesday 9 June 2010
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Monday 7 June 2010
Recently
I will be brief. I have work I should be doing. Lets us see. Went to the Stavin' Chains gig in London, which was a crazy/fun night with Kane, and ended up with a late night booking of a hotel room (very nice big bed!!!!). The next day we then were at Aiko's for her house leaving party as she and her house mates finish uni, and so much meat was chargrilled and alcohol consumed. 
And of course there was Paris. I really can't write it up better than glittersavvy, suffice to say Paris takes some working out but then when you find what you like about it you finally understand why it is a great place to be. Personally the revelation came during the evening after going to Versailles (which is epic... if you don't understand why then you should be shot for being a pleb) and then walking about the Latin Quarter. 
Inside the Paris Opera House
Outside Versailles 
Some of the Gardens!
At the Grand Trianon 
Out side the Petite Trianon
Of course my spoken French was bollocks. I could say hello, thank you, ask for the bill, but that was all really, and was all that was needed in the end with such a modern city. Oh and we walked everywhere. From one end of the city centre to the other. It is fairly easy to navigate the main roads, the trick is discovering all those excellent side streets where real shops and bars lurk. The real Paris. Otherwise I've been writing a little and sorting out funding for the future. Hopefully better news on that soon.
Show me a Film, Tell me a Story
Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 So last time I went on about chronicle structure. How to put together episodes of a chronicle to make a coherent whole that tells a main story and follows sub plots, in such a way that it allows for the players to have as much influence over the direction of the plot as possible. This time we look at taking that structure and using it for a chronicle idea. But first we must consider the main issue. Just what do you want to run for your chronicle?
The chronicle follows a pitch, a main idea that will sell the chronicle to your players. So for example let us take a few chronicles and games that I have played in. Firstly for Vampire: the Requiem the pith was simple;"The players are a group of recently embraced vampires who become involved in the deadly political games of the Carthian Movement, an election for a position of power, and the power games between the Covenants." Pretty simple. So far the players have been working for one of the Carthian election candidates, and have seen firsthand the benefits of change and conservatism within the Carthians, and all this occurring before the larger back drop of intra-covenant power games, elements of which that can be investigated in sequel chronicles. Another example is a Technocracy game for Mage: the Ascension in which I played; "The players are a task force of operatives using enlightened science, combating a variety of threats, including a conspiracy within their own department." Again simple. Another, this time for Fading Suns; "The players are a group of Questing Knights and their entourage, having set out from Byzantium Secundus, to investigate the claims of a lost house of nobles on the recently rediscovered world of Iver." This last one is for something I am planning for Geist; "The players are a Krewe of Sin-Eaters in Paris, and must deal with the needs of the dead that haunt the city, and also the insane plans of a ghostly mage who plans to rewrite the face of the city and the world itself". So those are all pitches. In a sentence or so your chronicle has a definite concept, the players a purpose, and of course there is an end. So now we must take these pitches and elaborate on them in order to fill out the potential 7-10 episodes of the chronicle. First and foremost be flexible. Episodes contain events. Some of these events occur only due to player interaction. Others occur even if the players do take action. Some events will occur with the player’s knowledge, others will not. So across the 10 or so episodes will be a series of events that can take place, and it is these events that push the story along. They also are the frame work for the chronicle's start, middle and end. For example, in Vampire right now there are three main events that define the player's chronicle and journey. In the start they are presented to the Chairman of the city (the Carthian equivalent of Prince). In the middle we have the assassination of the Carthian Prefect. The final event is the election and the consequences for the players. These events are set in stone. They occur regardless of player interaction, and are the result of NPCs acting, rather than reacting. The players react to these events, but have freedom in how they get from one event to the next. Other events can then be added along the chronicle timeline. They can be things like people having secret meetings, murders, thefts etc. Now these are events that can be discovered or simply the effects of them felt (for instance the Invictus and Ordo Dracul team up in my chronicle and the meeting of course takes place secretly. There is then a later event, an Ordo Dracul ritual, which the players drop in on as they follow clues. If they didn't discover it a vampire would have died and they would not have known why). Once these key events have been put in place, and others littered throughout (or at least ideas of events for a chronicle can move direction dramatically due to player involvement) you are now in the position of putting these events into episodes. The other advantage of this event planning is that you take a simple pitch and can elaborate upon it easily. For instance, going back to the Vampire election plot as you have noted there are interactions with the Ordo Dracul and Invictus. Now these were not in the original pitch, but have been added as the event time line, based upon the pitch, has been laid out. But how? Well NPCs are not static reactionary plot instigators. They are characters like the PCs. They too have plans and react. They also have history. So the looking at the Carthian election plot the questions were who would want to interfere and what do they want to get out of it. This is where event planning becomes a two way street of ideas. Some events are based upon background material you have developed already for your game setting. Some events ideas will in fact shape this material. For instance the Ordo Dracul, why do they want to be involved in the election plot? Well they are banned from the city for some reason. Now this reason was either a) already written down by me or b) (and this is true) was an amendment to the background based upon the desire to have them act as an outcast group. So from pitch to chronicle is about planning events (not too rigidly though) that lead the main plot (and eventually sub plots) from set events that occur at the start, to the end, via events in the middle. By looking at these events, their source and results, you can further expand upon the pitch and the background material of your setting, leading to a plot that has internal logic to why things are occurring. Next time we will look at episode planning, taking events from our timeline and expanding them into entire episodes.
Saturday 5 June 2010
Thursday 3 June 2010
Tuesday 1 June 2010
The best laid plans of mice and men...
“No battle plan survives contact with the enemy.”
Colin Powell quotes (Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989-93). At present, US Secretary of State, 1937)
How true. Plans never survive. Just the good bits, the parts that allow for adaption and alteration. Good plans have contingencies, trap doors and well allow for a degree of failure so you may win another day. This is true in everyday life, war and research (I can hold my hand up and proudly say that unexpected results and major barricades to progress have led to better things coming out of my work than initially expected).
So how about his in the realm of gaming?
I am a firm believer that my history with wargames and ccgs has led to a good ability to plan, but more importantly, not act rigidly with the constraints of these plans and even throw them out of the window when the chips are down and the shit hits the fan and spatters! How many times have I seen a spell fail to go off and leave my charge in tatters only to then leave the enemy with the initiative but also forgetting the potential for a flanking maneuver by my own forces. Or what of the times I have played magic only to see a combo get annihilated but leaving the opponent short of the cards needed for defending against a lowly grunt who proceeds to grind them into submission. Sometimes things happen unexpectedly but in such a way to offer new options, options only realised and utilized if you have the courage to fly caution to the wind and grab a hold of that chance.
EPIC PARIS/VERSAILLES POST!!!!!!!!! - My Wife's write up of our trip
Well since she took a massive amount of pictures and has written loads on it already I thought I should cross post this
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)