Curious result of the light fromthe setting sun and the clouds. In fact the sky was half bright blue and above pake grey and orange
Wednesday 29 September 2010
Tuesday 28 September 2010
Sunday 26 September 2010
Catching Up #sam #kittynapalm #birthday
[gallery]
Otherwise this week is back to normal, planning new research funding proposals and finishing another project.
We've picked up a few new things. We now have the entire of Deathnote, RahXephon, and The Hunger Season 2, on DVD. So lots to watch. Sam also had her hair recoloured (see previous post!) and it is awesome!
On a relate note Changeling, for roleplay, is going great. We finished the first episode and tomorrow evening is episode 2. But also, since I wrote a post a few weeks ago, my Etheric Labs posterous is getting hit a lot! Some actualy play posts for changeling are hitting 1000 hits, while one post is now close to 2500. It was my rant about Vampire. I need to write more.
Saturday 25 September 2010
Monday 20 September 2010
Cthulhutech
I have in mind a one shot of Cthulhutech where you are a team of mecha pilots
Here is some inspiration.
Q: What's the worst ninja magic ever? A: "The evil vagina bubble from Hell." (NSFW) @coilhouse
via io9.com
Ummm... yeah! Good morning Monday!
Sunday 19 September 2010
Thursday 16 September 2010
Fading Suns - Space Opera with Boundaries
In a not so distant future (relatively speaking if we are comparing to other Space Opera settings such as Warhammer 40,000 and Dune) Humanity has conquered numerous worlds thanks to the gigantic space gates. However, as with all things, there is hubris and so worlds have been lost, technology forgotten and science and magic blur in a future that seems to be at the end of time.
At the writing of this Red Brick are in charge of sorting out a 3rd edition of a game originally created by Holisitic Designs (Some may recognise the style of art and writing from White Wolf. You'd be correct as the excellent Bill Bridges of Mage: the Awakening put this baby together). This means my books are a copy of the defunct 1st edition and all my books in pdf form (and I printed these suckers out, thank the gods for university book binding). If you are lucky you can find some of the books for sale in FLGS or online. In Paris I almost got a French edition since the French are happily still printing new material for the game.
So what is Fading Suns? For starters it is science fantasy. There are starships, giant jump gates (more recently seen in Stargate thanks to the Ori), a lack of faster than light travel save for these jump gates, demons, psionics and theurgy. You have ancient noble houses, a form of interstellar unified church, Dune like shield fighting, an Empire racked with infighting, intrigue and superstition, and a ancient guild of technology.
What does this all mean in play and why do I like this? OK lets talk the system, the much debated Victory Point System. This looks like, feels like and works a little like the old Storytelling system pre-new World of Darkness. You have an attribute and skill stat. Add them, that's the target. Modify it and roll under on a D20. But the twist is the higher you roll, so long as it is under the target, gives you a greater degree of success. I really like this as it then has a system for raising and lowering the target number so that you can have a) more chance of success but less degree of success, or b) less chance for success but a greater degree of success. So the system favours risk. Now the only gripe is the lamentable critical failure, where a roll of 20 is a critical fail no matter what. Now one mod often seen to remove the 1/20 chance of this is to use a 2D10 roll instead, making a natural 20 less likely (1/100) and giving a smoother range of results.
Character creation is equally more interesting with a form of career path system, where you choose to belong to one of the big three factions (church, nobles, guild) or the few alien races, and these in turn give you options on the character career progression. So for example you could be a noble, be you need to answer questions about the strata they were born into, how their school was, and what they did after that. All of these options mean you get access to some skills over others, before a final few points are given over to the player to distribute to even out the character. Now you can do this all by points and throw out the career paths, but of course having a speedy way to make characters is good.
With the system out of the way what about the setting? Why not play Star Wars? Why not Play WH40K? Well Fading Suns does a few things right. It's not too far in the future, making it easy to grasp and getting into as a player. Plus the focus is on purely human characters, unlike Star Wars, so it has that Firefly feel, but where the Western is replaced with the Dark Ages. But the best things about the setting? THe mythology and the inherent boundaries that are present.
Fading Suns works on the premise that the jump gates are ancient tech from a race that no longer exists. That makes that technology something to seek out. But also the gates are activated by keys, at least ones that humanity had created. And so there is this wonderful feeling of caravans in space where guild ships guide others through jump gates to the next world. The other thing about the setting is the mysticism and feeling of the end of times. Fading Suns has the jump gates, which allow transport from one star system to another, no matter how far apart they are in real space. So stargates then. Well the stars themselves, all stars, are dimming. Yes before they are meant to, and in a way that opposes the rules of relativity and how light travels in space and nuclear fusion.Mad eh? So of course the Church and other faiths have a reason for all this (sin and demons etc).
What about the church? Well it seems all the old faiths of Earth combined when a man found the Universal Flame (God of some form) when travelling space. But, of course, the Church is split into rival factions and each has it's own twist on faith. Add into the mix other mystics, the faith of alien races, and the issue with jumping through gates and the experience you feel if not shielded, and you have the perfect situation for tales about faith, hope, demons, sin, and the very nature of the universe as miracles are uncovered and science, faith and magic clash.
One thing that is important about Fading Suns is the limitations of the setting. The setting has a system of known jump gate routes and the linked worlds are the Empire. There are worlds beyond these that once were part of the larger known universe, but they have been forgotten, or war has led to them being shut off. So straight away the ST running the game has a setting to run and no fear of being dropped in the deep end and having to come up with world after world like in Star Wars (it was such a daunting task). You can still do it for lost worlds where you can go exploring, but the inherent limitations make this task more manageable. It also means the game lends itself well to various levels of gameplay, be it courtly on one world, or flying to others, or even going beyond the boundaries of known space. For all these reason I love the game and suggest if you are tired of those well known Sci Fi games then you should pick this up for something that feels more mature.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
New Devil May Cry's Debut Trailer
via kotaku.com
Your name is Dante? I don't fucking think so!
And since when did Dante smoke, or have black hair? This is an imposter!
My Gaming Area
[[posterous-content:UV7VxMoDLd8iTLoQoMA6]]
So what about where I game?
Above is a picture of my lovely wife sat at home. This is really half of the room. Behind me (from the viewpoint of the picture) is the kitchen area, and so is just lots of white cupboards.
As you can see from the picture we have around about a 10X12 feet sqrd room. There is a balcony and our that sofa from IKEA (just fits two people). So with the tv there is really only space for people to sit as the room would feel quite cluttered. Recently we moved an office chair in as we'd like to get another proper chair to sit in front of the radiator. The walls themselves have various images and artefacts of Venice so lending to the style of the room. The bookcase is home to many graphic novels, art books, and on top sits a model of the Black Pearl along with some War Machine miniatures.
So for gaming the majority of the players are cushioned on the floor. the ST screen is set up on the floor to hide dice rolls and for me to look at for reference, while I sit in the office chair, looming over the other players. So things are focused (on me), with the players in an arc about me. Without a table things are more relaxed as the players lie about, rolling dice and sipping their drinks (coffee, tea, beer, wine). We normally have a ipod dock set up with about 3 hours of music in a play list chosen for the game (soundtracks are great things for the game) and candles are lit as we often play in the evening, so we usually put on the dimmest of lights in room while others are turned off. Being sat about in such a free form space also allows for a degree of improvised acting if needed and also makes conversations much more relaxed and intimate, rather than rigid if we had a table present. It would be good if all players had a proper seat, but the logistics are a nightmare with such a small flat.
My ideal gaming space would be the same, but without the kitchen interfering. I like having a room that can vary in the amount of light it can have, not be too distracting, have space for players to relax, and allows for mood music. Comfort is the friend of good roleplay. I'd prefer darker walls, but such is the way of living in rented flats.
What's your gaming space like?
Friday 10 September 2010
Thursday 9 September 2010
Just what were you expecting it to be about???
Ever picked up a game and thought 'How do I run this game?' What is the first thing you do? Yes you read the setting material. You read the rules. You read the small short stories and the examples of play. And of course, if it is included, you watch films, read books and listen to music that are quoted as being inspiration for the game.
So recently, in a very lengthy online discussion on forum (so yes it did get a little bitchy) I was confronted with problem. A person wanting to run Vampire: the Requiem, and his players, dislike the setting of the game because they found the Covenants too shallow, and that there was no 'ancient enemy', like in Masquerade, and that the exploration of what it means to be a Vampire was too boring (or too emo). What he, and his players wanted, was an in built purpose (i.e. I am this type of monster and this is what I do) more akin to say Hunter: the Vigil, or even the Forsaken in Werewolf: the Forsaken. He wanted clearly designed goals for the players, and in his terms, quests. In turned out he and his players wanted their game to be more like the PC game, Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines.
So I sat back and had a think about this, how he could play a game within the Requiem setting that also gave him and his players what they wanted. And what I realized is this. Some STs are really quite lazy and unimaginative. All the things present in Masquerade were easily simulated in Requiem. In fact you know had books that presented you a multitude of options that you could use. It was up to the ST and not White Wolf, to say what was fact, what was history and what was just a myth. The complaint this ST had was that he was not given a consistent origin for Vampires.
You see, as stated in a recent White Wolf pod cast, Requiem replicates somewhat the experience of vampires in 'Interview with the Vampire'. The vampires are not gods, they have to fear humans, and they have no true clue as to their origin. Using this in a game, where the players and the NPCs are all for all intents and purposes immortal is important. It means myths and legends remain so. And that Vampires, due to the imperfect memories they retain by sleeping through the ages, have to rely on faith for their beliefs and codes of conduct. It means younger Vampires do not have to taken an elders beliefs as fact. This to me is exciting and means it is up to the players and ST to come to their own conclusions. Requiem is thus built on contradictions so that conflict arises due to conflicts of faith/belief/philosophy. And all of this is important to Vampires, as it up to them to believe what they want so that they can better understand their own place in the world and reconcile their monsterous nature. But, with such tropes so common in Vampire media, why is this such an issue? What was this ST and has players wanting from a game about Vampires? Ah, cool powers, things more darker than the player characters to kill, and some sort of higher calling. They wanted to be dark heroes.
This left me wondering. Is it bad to think that people are really not running the game as intended by the designers. Now, you can say, and this is fair, that players can run the game the way they like it. It's their game after all. But when you run a game that is so against the grain of the game as it is designed, where many of the important issues of the setting and systems that reinforce those, are made moot by the 'collateral damage' attitude taken in the game, why even bother using that game to run what you want. Why not find something that caters for the action you seek but simulates the Vampires in a more action orientated way. Hell just play Masquerade if you want ancient evils, and forget about whining how Requiem does not have that in the setting. And if that is still not enough why not just make the modifications to the game yourself. All the tools and ideas are there. And failing that do your own research and make up your own setting material.
I often feel like those that complain the most about the game are those who are too lazy to put in the hard work to make the game their own.
A very good year
Which year would you consider the best of your life so far?
Update
So since last time....
I am applying for jobs everywhere. The list is getting bigger, the net is being cast wider. This is fun... not. I am finishing off the paper as I speak and prepping a poster
Anyway Manchester was good. Good to see Sam's Mum, the cats, and others. While Sam was at the Muse gig I hung out with John at his place and watched Prince of Persia and chatted at length about various things. Good just to catch up with someone and somehow not feel out of the loop.
Following the Muse gig, and finding Sam, we headed to Analogue Trash, where it was great to see Rhys, Sarah, Midnight, Tofu, Nix and others. However, we didn't stay long as the Muse gig had destroyed Sam's feet making walking pretty impossible for her.
Otherwise, roleplay is going well with the Changeling chronicle now building steam, and of course Sam's birthday is coming up and a small stay in London.
A taste of things to come. I took this on my X10 camera.... but consider this was me messing about while a true artist was taking photos with a proper camera, I bet you imagine how epic Sam will look.
Tuesday 7 September 2010
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