Further Assimilations

I'm staying up too long again tonight, but I really want to write down my weekend impressions while they are fresh.

The clock read quarter-to-eleven before I could drag my carcass out of bed, which meant that Closing Ceremonies were only three hours away. No panels, no costuming, just time spent with friends today. I wandered the halls, trading hugs and saying hellos and goodbyes, until noon when the con auctions were to begin. My interest this year remained solely academic, as I'd vowed to spend no money at the con: the budget this spring wouldn't support it.

The White Elephant auction at 1:00 contained many fascinating items, including Shadowrun gaming materials that almost tempted me. (I looked carefully, finding none of the books that my group has specifically mentioned searching for.) Soon enough, though, the Closing Ceremonies began, dragging on for almost three hours before everyone could tear themselves away. I joined jsciv and candidevoltaire for an evening of gaming that lasted until 11 with a dinner break; we played the new Battlestar Galactica board game for two hours, and I judged it worth playing but not one I'll be purchasing soon, if for no other reason that it plays best with exactly five players. Now, I'm back in my hotel room, bleary and typing away.

Was the con a success? Indeed so, from my perspective. Rumor has it that attendance numbers reached average Technicon levels, which must be a good thing. I had a lovely time, as did anyone else I got to ask. Should there be one next year? I'm not as sure. I think this must be the last Technicon in its current form: future versions with or without the same name will need much new blood, and perhaps new ways of doing things, to attract college students jaded by DVD players and online gaming. I'll always be available for the panels and performances I'm good at, but I have no interest in a strenuous staff position, and I doubt many other of the con's veterans do either anymore.

I'd like there to be another T-Con; but I feel that forcing the issue would cause more harm than good. I'm comfortable biding my time and letting things take their natural course. And until I learn what that course is, staff members of SheVaCon expressed strong interest in having me present my late-night insanity at their event, which will give me something to do while waiting for Technicon 27 or Technicon Next Generation #1.

Wow, I just had an idea for the 10:00-10:45 Saturday night panel that I wish I'd had three weeks ago. It's better than what I've got, but will require more late-in-the-game recruiting. I'll probably go with it though, if I can find some willing souls who are (a) staying up that late and (b) aren't already involved with something else.

If you're interested, aren't on my lifestyle filter, and are fine with whatever weirdness might show up on my lifestyle filter, let me know.

In other news, we are definitely Shadowrunning tonight. Google Calendar is supposed to be sending out reminders, and my own reminder emails will be sent out as soon as I can do so. I'll also have a synopsis of last session up as soon as it gets written.

Tonight I GMed my first Shadowrun game since leaving Salem. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed doing that! Using second edition worked well, I was able to make several correct rules calls without touching the rulebook. I did find out that I need another little box of six-siders - they go fast in SR, where a combat roll can easily take 8-12 dice at once.

( Session details )

Combat and spellcasting went smoothly once we found the rhythm, and the scene stopped at a perfect break point. I'm feeling good about this, and I've got plans to integrate our geographically challenged decker and Jesse's runner into next session. Thanks everyone, for making it so much fun!

We began prep on the new 2nd Ed. Shadowrun campaign last night. Looks like we'll have a core group of a detective, a freelance bodyguard, an ex-corporate enforcer, an Amerindian shaman, and a street mage; with decker and shaman 'guest stars'. This is subject to change as the characters all get fleshed out, but it looks good. The decker's player is moving in two weeks, and will only be able to attend by webcam, which I think is amusingly appropriate.

Two elves and three humans make up the racial mix, which is fairly standard for a new group; I don't know yet if the guest stars will be metahuman or not. We're off to a good start, though. I encourage weirdness in my campaigns, because I think it adds to roleplaying and tone; Jesse and Dwight have already surprised me with their character ideas. I love it.

I'm already planning to have old friends make a cameo or two. "Skid" Dersitaliantis and Mister Zeta will pop up, though I don't yet know if I want to get the GSSC involved. Hey, TeeFive players: did you know that next year is the game's 20th anniversary? Some of our original 'runners should be in their forties or fifties by now.

I'm sure we'll need at least one more character creation session, then we can get to adventuring. One thing I want to do this week is extract the old TeeFive custom character sheets from the OS 9-era PageMaker and make PDFs for the group. I have to say, from a design standpoint, that I love that I could lay out the core game mechanic in about 10 minutes last night! Naturally, I also recommended Blade Runner to everyone who hadn't yet seen it.

We're going to hold the game sessions at my new place. This will make my GM duties much easier, as I won't have to haul the library back and forth. I'm also considering making the game a bit meta: for example, setting up gmail accounts for the characters to use during downtime. I wonder if the players would get into that. The decker ought to get one, right?

Thank goodness this will only be twice a month, as I could really submerge myself into this if given a chance. :)

Mad Scientist University: Apples to Apples meets Mad Science.

I think I need this game. Apples to Apples is a proven, repeated winner at any party I've seen it appear, and the additional mad science elements seal the deal. Games like these are absolutely perfect for most of the groups I'm in: minimal setup, simple rules, and more focus on playing the game entertainingly than actually winning.

Won't be buying it before Xmas, but I may put it on my Xmas list :)

In case you hadn't heard, we have indeed invented the Star Trek replicator. Of course, it's expensive, slow, and only works on solid objects, plus the results are a bit fragile. But, one step at a time, right?

A company known as FigurePrints is using this first-generation technology to sell gamers unique figurines of their World of Warcraft characters. The service is so popular that they've had to establish a lottery for accepting orders, even with round-the-clock production. Customers dress their characters in their favorite gear and submit the orders; the figure company retrieves (with permission) 3-D model information from Blizzard, then does a little touchup to cover gaps and clipping artifacts. In a bath of extremely fine powder, something much like an inkjet printer head sprays layers of colored glue, and after some hours, the figure is gently removed from the bath and cleaned up a bit. The result looks like the picture on the right (click it to embiggen).

So, if you play WoW, would you pay $130 for one of these? Does your character have the outfit you'd want to see it in? Would you get one if it were available for another game? Would you get one when the technology gets a little better? Expound!

Local weather is trying to be obliging. "You don't have a light jacket right now? Okay, we'll just drop the morning temp to 45 degrees so you can wear your winter coat, does that help?"

Had a very weird dream the other night where I climbed down a narrow drainage pipe to find myself in a secret underground studio where they were filming the return of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" to the cable channels. I was privileged to sit in on one of the sessions where they watch the movie and write the jokes; I started ad-libbing along, and they hired me on the spot, causing me to draw the wrath of one of the other writers for some reason. Any dream interpreters wanna take a shot at that one?

In the ongoing Stuff Reduction Plan, I did some heavy game materials archaeology yesterday. I found my copy of Amber Diceless, a fascinating take on RPG mechanics that uses no random chance at all; Star Warriors, a fast-paced, careening tactical game of Star Wars fightercraft; and Ogre, light infantry and vehicles against a robot tank the size of a small city block. I'm keeping those. (Actually, I fear the Ogre set may belong to rattrap.)

Going away is the stack of official Star Trek fan magazines, which will be probably be trashed; and raininva has dibs on the bigger stack of West End Star Wars RPG and Indiana Jones RPG books. Battletech 3025 scenario and source- books are going; Battletech 'Mech listing books are staying. I'm not sure whether I'm keeping Castle Falkenstein, or the hardcover first-edition copy of White Wolf Mage. (Starr, a onetime Vampire LARPer, may give me permission to keep that.) However, I will divest myself of the two Last Unicorn Star Trek RPG hardcovers, and the Traveller: A New Era core book. I have a lot of gaming stuff.

Last treasure unearthed: my Wireframe Babylon Project books and GM screen. The savvy fan will find the names of jsciv, yubbie, and impink within; and down in the playtesting credits, a listing for some doof that goes by mikailborg online. Yeah, I'm keeping that one.

Today in Paris, at their WorldWide Invitational event, Blizzard Entertainment announced their upcoming game Diablo III.

That is all. (That's plenty!)

The other day Starr picked up a book for me, one that I've been meaning to read for years: Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle In the Dark. I'm enjoying it, but he's preaching to the choir, and I've not yet gained any new insights from the book. On the other hand, I also finally have a copy of tltrent's In the Serpent's Coils waiting in line, and I'm looking forward to reading that one. In my opinion, "Young Adult" fantasy and science fiction is where much of the good stuff is happening right now. Say what you want about Harry Potter, but Sorcerer's Stone was a better read than many of the transcribed D&D adventures that pass for fantasy novels these days.

Speaking of transcribed D&D, Gary Gygax's recent death caused me to drag out some of the old adventures I'd saved since the mists of First Edition, with an eye to running them again. In particular, I'm looking at the old S-series: "Tomb of Horrors", "White Plume Mountain", and "Expedition to the Barrier Peaks" (a particular favorite).

Now, I know these were convention tournament modules, but I was struck by the lack of role-playing, or even much of a plot besides "collect loot and survive to the end". The adventures are full of unfair puzzles, insta-deaths, and places where the GM will have to do some blatant railroading if the party's not going to wipe (no running back from the graveyard to rez!)

If I were to run them now, and the basic concepts are juicy enough to make the idea interesting, I'd have to do some major re-writing for my audience. I'd want map revisions, monster changes, and some serious story integration. It wouldn't be a trivial task, even discounting the problem that the adventures were designed for experienced First Edition AD&D characters. What game system do I want to use - a D&D version, Earthdawn, Herc & Xena, an alternate-universe Shadowrun? (And in most of those cases, which edition?)

Yeah. This is kinda turning into a campaign, which is too bad; I'm not sure I can spare the time right now, fun as it sounds. The urge to run "Barrier Peaks" near Roswell using the Deadlands setting may have to wait.

Addendum: The sentence "the chest contains 10,000 gold pieces" was obviously written by someone who had never counted out 10,000 quarters, say, and then tried to carry them around for any length of time.

This morning brought a bank of that 30-meter visibility fog, and the "bridge from nowhere to nowhere" effect on the Monitor-Merrimac. Already, though, it's turned clear, mild, and sunny with a cool breeze: I suddenly want to skip work tomorrow and go to Busch Gardens. Won't, of course, but still.

Yes, "I can't support your virtualization software at this time" means I can't troubleshoot the apps you're running in it, either.

I finally have the free Pirates of the Carribean MMO running correctly on my laptop. I'm likely to play it about as often as I launch Second Life - which is to say, almost never - but it's amusing nevertheless to get "FedEx" quests* from Johnny Depp. None yet from Orlando or Kiera, but then, those are probably saved for people who actually play.

Starr went to her mom's on Tuesday to plant the irises I retrieved. Turns out there were about two dozen, so with the other plants she'd brought, she spent most of an afternoon digging. Add that to her hospital shifts for Wednesday and today, and I've got a still-tired lady on my hands!

Happy WoW stuff: thanks to shrewlet, I got all the materials to finish building Mirandala's epic quality Destruction Holo-Gogs. Among other materials necessary were 206 chunks of difficult-to-mine ore... I can only assume that a LOT of refining is done to turn that into a single pair of goggles.

Also, my polymorph quest issue was resolved while I was offline, so Mir can now turn people into pigs. Thank you, GMs! Too bad that the spell's unavailable to my warlock, since I named her Circy.

And thank you ranchonmars for the postcard! I have too aged since the Pathfinder days, but it's dang nice of you to say otherwise :)

*Game character A gives you item to take to character B, who will reward you with money, loot, XP, or often as not another FedEx quest. Perversely amusing when characters A and B are less than 20 gameworld yards from one another.