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Get your butt comfortable
May. 26th, 2014 07:51 pmFor the past few days, I've been living about 2.5 lives, and not had time to catch up on it. Until now (?) We'll see how far I get.
( click at your own risk )
( click at your own risk )
The Mask of Fu Manchu / Secret Ante
Jan. 16th, 2014 03:13 pmSax Rohmer's novel is at least 75% less racist than the film. It's also interesting that while the film Fu Manchu is trying to revive the legend of Genghis Khan, in the book his goal is to gain control of Islam (or at least an Islamic sect) by impersonating the Mahdi. Fu Manchu is portrayed as an honorable gentleman (if a ruthless criminal mastermind), and it's very much a plot point that he's a man of his word -- explicitly contrasting with a rather bombastic British archaeo... er... privileged private tomb raider, who ransoms his daughter with fakes of the antiquities he has promised. And the book actually ends with Fu Manchu deviously infiltrating a very generous wedding gift into the wedding of the daughter and her young swain. (Fu is probably exceedingly relieved that the wedding prevents the young swain from becoming his own son-in-law, since his just-as-evil-genius-y daughter improbably ("I have tricked you many times; for, although I love you, [swain], you are really not very clever.") has taken a fancy to him. (But it's ok, the swain only sexed her up while he was under the influence of a mind control drug.))
I also read through![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
aaronjv's Secret Ante (aka Soul Strip Poker), a larp of revealing characters (souls, if you like) through poker. In effect, you use memories or character aspects as chips to bet with. If you win someone's 'Fear' chip, you can get them to reveal their Fear to you, or reveal it publicly. I think my favorite sentence in Secret Ante is: "It's probably more intellectually challenging to play a fictional character, and more emotionally trying to play You." OK, I'm also partial to the part where he thanks me for providing some dim inspiration in the form of Casino Arcane/Arcana.
I also read through
aaronjv's Secret Ante (aka Soul Strip Poker), a larp of revealing characters (souls, if you like) through poker. In effect, you use memories or character aspects as chips to bet with. If you win someone's 'Fear' chip, you can get them to reveal their Fear to you, or reveal it publicly. I think my favorite sentence in Secret Ante is: "It's probably more intellectually challenging to play a fictional character, and more emotionally trying to play You." OK, I'm also partial to the part where he thanks me for providing some dim inspiration in the form of Casino Arcane/Arcana.Wyrd Con 4 - two days in
Sep. 14th, 2013 11:00 pmCan't sleep, clowns will eat me.
Friday, I showed up foraaronjv's game of Itras By, scenario by hagdirt.
It was a phantasmagoria. A blow-by-blow would be more unedifying than even the usual after-the-fact war stories. IB is a communal story telling exercise, and you can't lose with the right crowd, and I think we had a good one. It may not have lived up to the sheer butt-raping insanity of some OctaNe sessions with Jazon_brez, but still good stuff. K gave us enough of a line to hang our chaos on. And A finessed it and made sure everyone had some input.
No doubt it was the absinthe A plied us with, but I was most satisfied with literally belting out the Alabama Song when I was in a bar setting. That wasn't my only contribution, but it may have been the least Mike-like. Which is worth something.
[PS if you only know the song via The Doors, shoot yourself in the head. If you don't know who The Doors are, just hold your breath for a few seconds so your brain dies.]
I had a large gap, and strangely my plan for introvert sociability worked perfectly. I went to get some food, and sat all by my lonesome self in the hotel restaurant. I will say that their short rib sandwich with horseradish mayo is pretty awesome, but it does have slightly too much meat on it. In any event. Aaron showed up and joined me. And then Fei. And then... oh shit, I've forgotten her name, but the nice kiwi lady. And then John. This all happened one person at a time, and I was glad to be the starting nucleus.
But I had to be off to change for the Masquerade Ball. This was an interstitial adventure for the Messina campaign, so I kinda knew I wouldn't be a star, but it was definitely still fun to wander about as an ancient Thomas Alva Edison and interact with the other people there.
I think there was a plotline there that I wasn't actually, well, informed about. But I tried to roll with it as best I could, but it ultimately devolved into gunfire and swordplay. Not Tom's thing at all. That poor Duchess whatever-her-name-was (my hearing has always been bad) took a bullet to the head, and crumpled practically in my arms.
Zipped home and back. Well, not entirely. As I left Saturday, somehow I forgot my flip chart thingy. So I turned back. Having seen how terrible the 405N was, I cleverly (?) went further south to hit the 110 N to the 105W, so I could swoop through the Manchester/La Cienega Offramp to get home. Alas, the reason that the 405N was rotten was that the two-lane nearly a freeway Manchester/La Cienega Offramp was closed. Entirely. Which meant additionally, that all the people who wanted to get off on those two major arteries were trying to get off at La Tijera (as was I, but I settled for zooming out and back in to get off at Sepulveda/Slauson.) In any event, I spent 15 minutes heading toward Wyrd Con, and 45 minutes coming back. So there went my extra time for lunch and beer. I picked up the dingus and headed back down.
Now I rushed my ass and got to the room for Exodus 22:18 with a half hour to spare, and... there was nobody there. I rearranged some tables and chairs, and still nobody. Augh. Fortunately thing picked up rapidly right at game time.
I was flustered a bit, but found my center fairly quickly.
The game went fairly well. Problems with pacing was probably the biggest problem. The conceit is that the players are townsfolk attempting to determine which among them are witches.
It pains me to say it, but I was slightly shocked when a couple players seemed to make it their mission to paint giant targets on their backs.
At the same time, they were portraying a more skeptical, modern view of the witchcraft hysteria. Sadly, though I agree with it through and through, that is the quick path to getting yourself burnt, and so it proved. Or so it would have been, if they had not extemporized a method of self slaughter.
In any event, while they made for good scenes, it also led to a fast, easy resolution, and with many of the townsfolk wondering, "Are we done? We rooted out the obvious witches."
Some flurries of drama and accusations happened thereafter, though leavened with boredom. A number of other good scenes here and there.
At the end, there was some good feedback and criticism all around. Some I agree with, some I disagree with, and some that would probably be very good for a game that was not the game that I wanted to run.
Sleep is finally catching up to me. Not me at my best, not me at my worst. I was satisfied. I think, on the whole, it was certainly not a failure. Well, no, that's too litotes-ish. It was good. But not perfect. But these things never are.
Friday, I showed up for
aaronjv's game of Itras By, scenario by hagdirt.It was a phantasmagoria. A blow-by-blow would be more unedifying than even the usual after-the-fact war stories. IB is a communal story telling exercise, and you can't lose with the right crowd, and I think we had a good one. It may not have lived up to the sheer butt-raping insanity of some OctaNe sessions with Jazon_brez, but still good stuff. K gave us enough of a line to hang our chaos on. And A finessed it and made sure everyone had some input.
No doubt it was the absinthe A plied us with, but I was most satisfied with literally belting out the Alabama Song when I was in a bar setting. That wasn't my only contribution, but it may have been the least Mike-like. Which is worth something.
[PS if you only know the song via The Doors, shoot yourself in the head. If you don't know who The Doors are, just hold your breath for a few seconds so your brain dies.]
I had a large gap, and strangely my plan for introvert sociability worked perfectly. I went to get some food, and sat all by my lonesome self in the hotel restaurant. I will say that their short rib sandwich with horseradish mayo is pretty awesome, but it does have slightly too much meat on it. In any event. Aaron showed up and joined me. And then Fei. And then... oh shit, I've forgotten her name, but the nice kiwi lady. And then John. This all happened one person at a time, and I was glad to be the starting nucleus.
But I had to be off to change for the Masquerade Ball. This was an interstitial adventure for the Messina campaign, so I kinda knew I wouldn't be a star, but it was definitely still fun to wander about as an ancient Thomas Alva Edison and interact with the other people there.
I think there was a plotline there that I wasn't actually, well, informed about. But I tried to roll with it as best I could, but it ultimately devolved into gunfire and swordplay. Not Tom's thing at all. That poor Duchess whatever-her-name-was (my hearing has always been bad) took a bullet to the head, and crumpled practically in my arms.
Zipped home and back. Well, not entirely. As I left Saturday, somehow I forgot my flip chart thingy. So I turned back. Having seen how terrible the 405N was, I cleverly (?) went further south to hit the 110 N to the 105W, so I could swoop through the Manchester/La Cienega Offramp to get home. Alas, the reason that the 405N was rotten was that the two-lane nearly a freeway Manchester/La Cienega Offramp was closed. Entirely. Which meant additionally, that all the people who wanted to get off on those two major arteries were trying to get off at La Tijera (as was I, but I settled for zooming out and back in to get off at Sepulveda/Slauson.) In any event, I spent 15 minutes heading toward Wyrd Con, and 45 minutes coming back. So there went my extra time for lunch and beer. I picked up the dingus and headed back down.
Now I rushed my ass and got to the room for Exodus 22:18 with a half hour to spare, and... there was nobody there. I rearranged some tables and chairs, and still nobody. Augh. Fortunately thing picked up rapidly right at game time.
I was flustered a bit, but found my center fairly quickly.
The game went fairly well. Problems with pacing was probably the biggest problem. The conceit is that the players are townsfolk attempting to determine which among them are witches.
It pains me to say it, but I was slightly shocked when a couple players seemed to make it their mission to paint giant targets on their backs.
At the same time, they were portraying a more skeptical, modern view of the witchcraft hysteria. Sadly, though I agree with it through and through, that is the quick path to getting yourself burnt, and so it proved. Or so it would have been, if they had not extemporized a method of self slaughter.
In any event, while they made for good scenes, it also led to a fast, easy resolution, and with many of the townsfolk wondering, "Are we done? We rooted out the obvious witches."
Some flurries of drama and accusations happened thereafter, though leavened with boredom. A number of other good scenes here and there.
At the end, there was some good feedback and criticism all around. Some I agree with, some I disagree with, and some that would probably be very good for a game that was not the game that I wanted to run.
Sleep is finally catching up to me. Not me at my best, not me at my worst. I was satisfied. I think, on the whole, it was certainly not a failure. Well, no, that's too litotes-ish. It was good. But not perfect. But these things never are.
The Last of Us / Borderlands
Jun. 27th, 2013 02:12 pmFinished The Last of Us, which got almost as much pre-release hype as the Blair Witch Project. I think Somethingawful correctly said that this hype amounted to the Citizen Kane of Citizen Kane comparisons. Fortunately, I was not disappointed, because it is a really really really really good game. But like TBWP, it doesn't live up to the hype (nothing could!).
Great story, great acting, great art/design/graphics. But nothing terribly revolutionary in the story, gameplay, or feel. Sure, it's a perfect swish from the free-throw line, but how impressed can one get at that? Actually, I think the most impressively new thing is what you *don't* see. There are minimal 'HUD' elements on the screen, making the game more immersive. Sure you got your hitpoint thingy and weapon icon, but they're pretty unobtrusive. But no compass and map. This is sometimes annoying when it's not entirely clear where to go next, but fortunately(?) you are stuck on rails. There's only one way out, and you'll find it eventually. Your companions can sometimes help with that. If you wander by the exit (but miss it) they'll stay nearby and scornfully (I presume) watch you wander around hunting for more bullets.
Being stuck on the linear rails is a bit of a drag, because the game largely boils down to:
kill all the enemies in this area
watch a movie
repeat
But, as I say, it's at least a great story/movie to be watching in little dribs and drabs that you earn by killing things. Of course some of the story happens in gameplay as well. Without spoiling much, you're mostly leading a teen girl around, protecting her from enemies. She slowly learns survival skills from you, and ultimately becomes a psychotic killing machine just like you (okay, a bit of an exaggeration). But it is a bit of a shock the first time you see her launch herself onto some guy's shoulders and stab the shit out of him. I will say this, the enemies are not tin targets that drop down in a shooting gallery. A lot of the combat is pretty gritty and up close and personal. It feels real, and often unpleasant.
I played a little bit of the online multiplayer... enough to get my ass handed to me by 12-year-olds a few times. There seems to be an interesting 'campaign' element to this as well, as success in the multiplayer games translates into food that allows you to increase your little band of imaginary hangers-on in the game lobby. But I've barely scratched the surface there.
I also played quite a bit of Borderlands, based on Smaug's & Prime's recommendations. I enjoyed it, but it starts to get tedious/monotonous, as you carry out 'missions' that seem mainly designed to send you back and forth long distances across the maps so that monsters can fight you. The another annoying thing is: what is the point of leveling up, if the monsters all level up with you? ARgh! I love the elements of humor all over the place, and enjoyed the game, but it was not super-special. A solid B to Last of Us's solid A.
Great story, great acting, great art/design/graphics. But nothing terribly revolutionary in the story, gameplay, or feel. Sure, it's a perfect swish from the free-throw line, but how impressed can one get at that? Actually, I think the most impressively new thing is what you *don't* see. There are minimal 'HUD' elements on the screen, making the game more immersive. Sure you got your hitpoint thingy and weapon icon, but they're pretty unobtrusive. But no compass and map. This is sometimes annoying when it's not entirely clear where to go next, but fortunately(?) you are stuck on rails. There's only one way out, and you'll find it eventually. Your companions can sometimes help with that. If you wander by the exit (but miss it) they'll stay nearby and scornfully (I presume) watch you wander around hunting for more bullets.
Being stuck on the linear rails is a bit of a drag, because the game largely boils down to:
kill all the enemies in this area
watch a movie
repeat
But, as I say, it's at least a great story/movie to be watching in little dribs and drabs that you earn by killing things. Of course some of the story happens in gameplay as well. Without spoiling much, you're mostly leading a teen girl around, protecting her from enemies. She slowly learns survival skills from you, and ultimately becomes a psychotic killing machine just like you (okay, a bit of an exaggeration). But it is a bit of a shock the first time you see her launch herself onto some guy's shoulders and stab the shit out of him. I will say this, the enemies are not tin targets that drop down in a shooting gallery. A lot of the combat is pretty gritty and up close and personal. It feels real, and often unpleasant.
I played a little bit of the online multiplayer... enough to get my ass handed to me by 12-year-olds a few times. There seems to be an interesting 'campaign' element to this as well, as success in the multiplayer games translates into food that allows you to increase your little band of imaginary hangers-on in the game lobby. But I've barely scratched the surface there.
I also played quite a bit of Borderlands, based on Smaug's & Prime's recommendations. I enjoyed it, but it starts to get tedious/monotonous, as you carry out 'missions' that seem mainly designed to send you back and forth long distances across the maps so that monsters can fight you. The another annoying thing is: what is the point of leveling up, if the monsters all level up with you? ARgh! I love the elements of humor all over the place, and enjoyed the game, but it was not super-special. A solid B to Last of Us's solid A.
Fallout: New Vegas
Mar. 14th, 2013 04:36 pmPicked it up cheap & used, just like the tramps at the Atomic Wrangler in Freeside.
For a relatively big title, there were a lot of glitches and such, which was disappointing, though I guess a different development team was involved (though it looked and handled pretty much just like Fallout 3). Guess I'm glad I didn't pay anywhere near full price. Especially when some of the glitches are things like Sometimes Dhatri is nowhere to be found and may be glitched out of the world. So much for that mission. The main plot isn't that complicated, but there are a number of different factions you have to negotiate, and forge alliances here and there, and sometimes it's not very clear; some tighter plotting or writing could have helped a lot.
But as usual, the fun is roaming around the wastes running into random little adventures and places here and there, totally unrelated to the main story. I actually played through twice, and it was interesting to see how different some stories can turn out, making different character choices. It's not quite role-playing, but the one thing Fallout does right is giving you lots of options 'dialogue choices' to navigate through, many of them particularized to your character, say if you have high Speech skill, or Barter or have chosen a perk like Femme Fatale. So game 1 I maxed out on Guns, Speech, and Lockpicking, while game 2 I went for Barter, Energy Weapons, and Unarmed Combat. And I picked totally different perks (little bonuses you get when you level up). Making so many different choices gave me some insight on and appreciation for the design work they put into the game.
I can hardly wait for Fallout 4 to come out and for 3 years to pass so I can get it for $9!
For a relatively big title, there were a lot of glitches and such, which was disappointing, though I guess a different development team was involved (though it looked and handled pretty much just like Fallout 3). Guess I'm glad I didn't pay anywhere near full price. Especially when some of the glitches are things like Sometimes Dhatri is nowhere to be found and may be glitched out of the world. So much for that mission. The main plot isn't that complicated, but there are a number of different factions you have to negotiate, and forge alliances here and there, and sometimes it's not very clear; some tighter plotting or writing could have helped a lot.
But as usual, the fun is roaming around the wastes running into random little adventures and places here and there, totally unrelated to the main story. I actually played through twice, and it was interesting to see how different some stories can turn out, making different character choices. It's not quite role-playing, but the one thing Fallout does right is giving you lots of options 'dialogue choices' to navigate through, many of them particularized to your character, say if you have high Speech skill, or Barter or have chosen a perk like Femme Fatale. So game 1 I maxed out on Guns, Speech, and Lockpicking, while game 2 I went for Barter, Energy Weapons, and Unarmed Combat. And I picked totally different perks (little bonuses you get when you level up). Making so many different choices gave me some insight on and appreciation for the design work they put into the game.
I can hardly wait for Fallout 4 to come out and for 3 years to pass so I can get it for $9!
Wyrd Con - Saturday & Sunday
Jun. 24th, 2012 09:21 pmFirst thanks of the post: to dark_of_night, who not only tolerated my absences this weekend, but let me steal her laptop and other stuff for the game.
I showed up with an hour and change before Death in Valhalla was scheduled. I strolled by the room, and the panel was still going on, so I headed to the bar for a beer and an 'appetizer' of sliders, which turned out to be a plate of cheeseburgers AND a plate of french fries. I ate what I could, but pre-game butterflies take up a lot of room. I fortuitously bumped intoian_tiberius and Eric. Ian was already signed up, and we managed to convince Eric to have another drink so that he couldn't drive, and then would have to play in my game. While at the bar, we managed to recruit another couple into the game as well. Second thanks go to I&E for playing, but also helping with transporting matter from my car to the room and helping to arrange the room for play.
( This could get long (unless I fall asleep) )
dark_of_night, who not only tolerated my absences this weekend, but let me steal her laptop and other stuff for the game.I showed up with an hour and change before Death in Valhalla was scheduled. I strolled by the room, and the panel was still going on, so I headed to the bar for a beer and an 'appetizer' of sliders, which turned out to be a plate of cheeseburgers AND a plate of french fries. I ate what I could, but pre-game butterflies take up a lot of room. I fortuitously bumped into
ian_tiberius and Eric. Ian was already signed up, and we managed to convince Eric to have another drink so that he couldn't drive, and then would have to play in my game. While at the bar, we managed to recruit another couple into the game as well. Second thanks go to I&E for playing, but also helping with transporting matter from my car to the room and helping to arrange the room for play. ( This could get long (unless I fall asleep) )
