Journal of No. 118

 I am probably the weirdest possible advocate for mental health, since my subject knowledge comes almost entirely from research for role-playing games, but... given what looks like the cruelties of Bedlam centuries ago, or the shock treatments and lobotomies of the early 20th century, at least the doctors were trying to be doctors... the current criminalization of the insane is almost certainly worse in many respects. 90 minutes of often painful reality. Luckily for you, it doesn't seem to be streaming at the moment. But it's well made and affecting.
https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/bedlam/

ian_tiberius contributed to the Paranoia Kickstarter, and got some early access to the new ruleset.

Other players: dark_of_night, karteblanche, zorker, and bridared, which last personage may never have had an LJ, but who cares since none of these other people update theirs, either.

Now to justify the nostalgia tag, we have to send the Wayback machine to Origins 86, which I went to the summer after I graduated high school. Paranoia had won the Origins award the previous year, and I had a great talk with somebody at the West End booth, and bought (with my measly high school ducats) a shitload of Paranoia. And never regretted it. It's on my shelf today, and somewhere packed in there is some correspondence between me and West End in which my SASE is addressed to GAR-Y-SVN.

To amplify the nostalgia tag, ian_tiberius popepat & [Bad username or site: 'joemafi' @ livejournal.com] almost ran a Paranoia larp sometime in the early 90s. And so naturally, for this present incarnation, I wore the t-shirt that was generated for the almost game.

Anyway, the general milieu is pretty familiar, with a few changes. The rules have been jiggered with more forcibly, but don't really get in the way of the fun, and possibly add to it. There are cards that can be played in combat (or elsewhere) with special effects -- not sure the mix is quite right, but for a one-off, it was satisfying to pull them out as needed.

It was a rare successful troubleshooter mission, with just a few total party kills, but not enough to go too deep into the clone stack.

And through the luck of the draw, and patient conservation, I was able to do some Once-Upon-A-Time-style strategizing. I placed myself in the vicinity of a broken gurney in a battle-chem induced frenzy, and then invented an impromptu weapon -- the broken gurney. And concluded with the discovery of a cake. As usual, you had to have been there.

A good time with good friends. Thanks to Ian for putting it together, and everyone else for contributing to a great time.

Twas Maxicon and the slithy toves did gyre and role-play in Santa Clarita.

I showed up for just Sunday, and despite aggravation on the 405 (incidentally, it was only recently I learned that people in other benighted regions of the world look askance at the local usage of 'the' 405 or 5 or what have you.) I made it there with time enough to fret fitfully until my game was up: Movie Mashup. I promised that characters from various movies I liked would interact in situations drawn from other movies. I had some grand idea, but in the full light of day I later discovered that it just didn't work, but I managed to put together something that at least provided some light amusement.

Starting in the cantina in Mos Eisley, our six protagonists turned out to be Jake and Elwood Blues, Willy Wonka, Tank Girl, The Dude, and Dante Hicks. They were approached by some farmers in black & white outfits... er, rather, they were entirely in B&W (as was Dante). Their village was under attack by bandits, and they were in search of Seven Samurai to protect them. They agree and join the fourth Samurai, who, being a droid, had to wait outside the cantina.

On their way to the Maltese Falcon, they were accosted by a bounty hunter in robes and a mask with a phased plasma rifle in a 40 watt range. It turned out to be Princess Leia, who had a few words for Jake: "You contemptible pig! I remained celibate for you. I stood at the back of a cathedral, waiting, in celibacy, for you, with three hundred friends and relatives in attendance. My uncle hired the best Corellian caterers in the state. To obtain the seven limousines for the wedding party, my father used up his last favor with Mad Pete Trullo. So for me, for my mother, my grandmother, my father, my uncle, and for the common good, I must now kill you, and your brother."

While Captain Sam Spade and Navigator Joel Cairo got the Maltese Falcon off the planet, they soon ran into problems since the planet they were approaching was "an ugly planet; a Bug planet! A planet hostile to life as we know it!"

Shot down by bug butt cannons, our heroes tried to get into the escape pod. Except Willy Wonka, who figured with fizzy lifting drink he could just evacuate himself into space and come to no harm. The rest had some problems opening the escape pod door when HAL decided, "I'm afraid I can't do that, Jake." But fortunately, Tank Girl was around to draw an ass on the door and kick that ass.

On the planet, the were saved by Rico's Roughnecks and finally made it to the village, where some piss-poor plans were made for defense, while Tank Girl and Jake Blues had a threesome with one of the local Japanese maidens washing clothes at the riverbank.

Eventually sleep came, but they woke up in color in a Mexican village that had gotten its seven gunslingers to protect it against bandits. Tank Girl takes out most of Calvera's bandits. But that's not the only threat. A new army was brewing to wipe out the town with a whoopin' and a hollerin'. But The Blues Brothers (accompanied by somewhat less expert musicians) put on a pretty good show that soften the hearts of the Klansmen, cholos, and other reprobates waiting to be inducted into the army by Hedley Lamarr. Tank Girl succeeded in stealing Hedley's froggy.

A bit later, Mongo is foiled, not initiallu by Willy Wonka's candygram, but digging deep Mr. Wonka emerged victorious.

Then Governor Vizzini appeared. 'You have defeated Hedley Lamarr, so you must have studied. You have defeated my giant, so you must be very strong. Now you must beat me in a battle of wits....'

Tank Girl challenged him to a game of Battleship, which she managed to win. Rather than pushing them all through the Matrix or Toontown, I decided this was a good place to stop. It was a short game, but I think it was good light entertainment. Brian was good enough to run a mini game based on some of the remaining characters I had, and then we wandered away to have some time to mingle and schmooz with folks.

Got to sneak in some Rock Band, and then it was time for Aaron's run of Dockside Dogs, a Cthulhu adventure that riffs off of Reservoir Dogs, written by the same bloke who wrote Gatsby and the Great Race. I can't say much without spoilers, but it was entertaining that basically the other characters were the most dangerous things on the scene.

After that broke up, I said my goodbyes and made a rapid return home.

Twisty Little Passages is "an approach to interactive fiction" (aka IF, i.e. Infocom-style text adventures). I remember when the book came out, thinking, "Cool idea. I need to get this book. Er, $30? Maybe I can wait." Well, a pb exists, and cheaper still is the electronic text, which I read on my kindle.
( YOU ARE STANDING AT THE END OF A ROAD BEFORE A SMALL BRICK BUILDING )

The second Wyrd Con is wrapping up about now. I only went Saturday, but packed quite a bit in. I wanted to show up for the LGL brunch this morning and hang out with friends old and new, but couldn't face the thought of driving to the OC and back twice today (since we're having dinner with Dad later today).
( spoilers & war stories )

Hey, VALIC finally sent that $850 dollars to E*TRADE, so I got my $169.35. Wait, what?

It appears that, due to my short tenure at NDA, I was not fully vested. I'm not really sure what the point is of sending me statements with the fully vested amount on there. Was this some sort of inducement to come back to work for them?

Anyway, I can now sweep away a modest stack of stupid paper that's been glaring at me from my desk for years, giving me a place for my lighter-gun.

---

LA Noire arrived today, so the streets of LA will soon either be safer or more dangerous for my virtual presence.

---

Rough cut of soundtrack for my Maxicon game is settled.

Framework of said adventure is mostly done, except for the part where it says, "Then the climax happens."

Remember that whole erotic monster manual thingy? I've played role-playing games with the guy who won first place.

Sunday, we were chez brez for a game of Fiasco, a GM-less storytelling game in which your plan is sure to fail -- hopefully in an amusing way.
Little add-ons to the game consist of playsets (Bully Pulpit is releasing one per month) that provide some ready-made setting and disastrous ideas off which to riff.
We ground the gears somewhat at the start, trying to figure out how the system worked, but eventually got ourselves into some fun trouble, what with the cooked books on the airport contracting job, the truckload of marijuana, assault and battery, crooked cops, the souvenir paperweight/live grenade, and all.
There's not much in the way of rules, but ultimately I found some of the rules opaque and distracting, rather than supportive of storytelling. It was very curious with this coming so soon after playing in Ian's improv rpg, the fictional plot of which could well be described as a fiasco of exactly the sort that Fiasco is attempting to produce. Very similar experiences in some ways, but I'd have to say Ian's game was more satisfying. Fiasco, on the other hand, provides enough scaffolding that it takes a lot less time to jump into the story.

I finally got around to Charlie Stross' The Atrocity Archives. Not a perfect work, but I really did enjoy it a lot. Secret UK occult spook outfit battles tentacled monstrosities from beyond space and time. Although I think it wants to be a cross of Le Carre and Lovecraft [actually, the afterword makes it Deighton and Lovecraft], the brooding Cold War-esque feel sooner or later (usually sooner) gives way to extravagant action that's more James Bond-y. And not Fleming Bond, but Moonraker-film Bond. Nevertheless, a corking good read [though I thought the tacked on Hugo Award-winning novella "Concrete Jungle" was decidedly inferior].
The afterword is also interesting reading, especially his conceit that Len Deighton was one of the greatest horror writers of the 20th century: shadowy entities dominate the world, threatening annihilation of the human race. And HPL was one of the greatest writers of spy thrillers: scholars of esoterica root through libraries and data, searching for well-protected secrets, ever in danger of death from the agents of the other side.

---

I skimmed through my yardsale find of Stairway to Hell, published by Chick Publications.
( right, game over right there )

Enjoyed guest starring in Aaron's Dreamlands game, travelling along the Oukranos, seeking a desperate cure to my cursed existence. It was also fun to see newtoniancat in action, converting a soda can into a hotdog grill. Not to mention clambering about the Old Zoo. The area is overshadowed by an attention-grabbing peak. There's a trail to the peak, and I found an interesting LA Times blog covering some of the history of Bee Rock, including a suicide leap from the rock in 1944.