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 Is it just me, or does the Plush Gug look like a walking Vagina Dentata?
"It was a paw, fully two feet and a half across, and equipped with formidable talons. After it came another paw, and after that a great black-furred arm to which both the paws were attached by short forearms. Then two pink eyes shone, and the head of the awakened Gug sentry, large as a barrel, wobbled into view. The eyes jutted two inches from each side, shaded by bony protuberances overgrown with coarse hairs. But the head was chiefly terrible because of the mouth. That mouth had great yellow fangs and ran from top to the bottom of the head, opening vertically instead of horizontally." - H.P. Lovecraft
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| .:Posted by Michael at 08:41 AM
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Click to enlarge...Friend and longtime GM Rick "Rock" Jones has excerpts from his Werewolf novel Heart of the Hunter up on the White Wolf website. Go Rick!
The really, really funny part is that they wrote his name a "Rock Jones" in their first try to post this to the site. Luckily, I managed to capture the screen before they fixed it.
I think Rock Jones is exactly the nickname that's needed. I can brave the Eyebrow in order to make this happen, yes I can...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:37 PM
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| Bunny The Vampire Slayer | Gaming |
Ginger and I saw Zorro, the Gay Blade. Reading her review, I had an insidious thought.
Mashup.
Yes, Mashup! Zorro,tGB mashed with Buffy,tVS. Bunny Wigglesworth, the sixteen year old whip-wielding "master and commander" from old Los Angeles returns to find that his beloved Sunnydale is under the control of an evil Vampalcalde named Esteban, to whom he is strangely attracted.
"In every generation there is a chosen one... he alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. He is the gay blade."
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:24 AM
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| Oh, this should be good... | Gaming |
The Slumbering Lungfish points us to Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies. I agree with Lore. I have no clue who will want this book.
I will make several predictions, because I am such an inveterate predictor.
- Dark Dungeons for Dummies will be on the web shortly after this book is released.
- Amazon's reviews will be split between 1s and 5s long before the book could possibly have been reviewed.
- (longshot) Amazon's reviews will follow the model of reviews for Bil Keene's Daddy's Cap Is On Backwards
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:17 PM
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 Ginger found a wiki based crossover game between Miami Vice and Star Wars called JediCops.
While I would've guessed that JediCops would be TROOPS, it's not. Jedi with Stubble is what Ginger wanted, so I modified Tim and Greg Hildebrant's excellent Star Wars Poster to update it for a major subtropical metropolis in the neon-infused go-go 1980s...
My best guess is that this game will be somewhat like bagpipes. It seems like it'll be the kind of thing you'll like if you like that kind of thing. I wish the creators and the players all the best.
UPDATE: Click here (or on the image) for a larger version in which you can tell that Luke is actually wearing a pink belt.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:11 PM
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Ginger and I have decided to attend The Black Road, an Amber based gaming convention.
And we're going to GM!
Nine Kobolds in Trouble will be a crossover Amber/Kobolds Ate My Baby! crossover. Oh, the Koboldanity! We have a Name and we'll soon have a blurb, the first 2 50%s of having a con round done (the 3rd 50% is a plot outline, and the 4th 50% is printing up some characters).
Onward! Excelsior! To infinity and Beyond! Follow the Black Chaos Road!
All
Hail
King
OberTorg!
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:01 PM
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| This entry approved for all security clearances | Gaming |
ThisWeb Chat with Paranoia co-creator Eric Goldberg has at least three two pieces of information in it.
- Eric really likes my favorite Paranoia adventure, Whitewash
- Whitewash was designed by Evil Stevie
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:34 PM
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 Yesterday's happy fun gaming news was the return of Paranoia. Paranoia:XP is the next generation of the first game I ever ran at a con (Owlcon VII at Rice University).
Today's happy news is that the next generation of the second game I ever ran at a con (NanCon 88: 15 in Houston, TX) should be in stores almost immediately. Call of Cthulhu Dark Ages from Chaosium is a version of CoC set in the 10th and 11th Centuries.
I am so there. I can have a Cathar Campaign in Languedoc up and running in no time.
Happy history geek gamer me.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:11 PM
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Paranoia XP is the forthcoming new edition of my favorite ever RPG. The original authors are working on it, and the link above is to their design blog.
I am looking forward to it. It is my firm hope that it not be the Episode I of RPGs.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:08 PM
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RK Mulholland's
Something PositiveSomething Positive is a consistently smart, funny webcomic that is only peripherally about gamers. That's actually a point in it's favor. The gamers in S*P are dysfunctional is ways that aren't really connected to their gaming lives.
And yet, when he talks gaming, Mulholland gets it right. Steve Jackson (who looked exactly like that when I met him at a con in Houston in the 1980s) is using Mulholland's "Redneck Trees" in Munchkin 3: Clerical Errors.
The player "Mike" in the Redneck Trees strip is a perfect example of the kind of player that makes a GM ban cross-gender play.
And Evil Stevie is right. We played Illuminati:New World Order late into the night before John's wedding. Much fun was had by all.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:01 AM
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WISH 54 asksDo you like to have bits and pieces from your characters’ backgrounds appear in the game? Do you write hooks into your character background for the GM to use in the campaign for your character? Do you like it when the GM gives you a background hook into an adventure or scenario with a previously unknown hook, such as creating an old friend of your character’s who is somehow involved? What are some examples of cases where hooks have worked or not worked for you? As a player and as GM, I love hooks. I don't even have to know when we set one up what a hook is about. It doesn't even have to be important, although it sometimes becomes so later on. Hooks big and small are what makes a campaign seem more real. Hooks give players things to worry about.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:40 PM
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| Running a game at a Convention | Gaming |
So on the Shadows of Amber board someone asked for ideas about how to run a game at a convention. I've been doing that, off and on, for more than 10 years. I've got lots of ideas. The first of which is "dive in! The water's great!"
The rest are in the extended entry below...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 06:16 PM
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| Hope for the Youth of Today | Gaming |
I was discussing WotC with some people on a webcomic forum and I mentioned that I had liked some of WotC's pre-Magic games, specifically Everway and Primal Order. One of the regulars, a guy in his twenties, concurred.
The Primal Order was the shiznat, me and a friend played it.
I'm not sure if I've ever recommended an out of print RPG that anyone has declared "the shiznat", but I'm glad it was. It's too bad that WotC didn't produce the rest of the Order books they talked about.
No, I'm not so old that I had to look up shiznat. Anyway, it was clear from context. In the old days we'd've said it was "the bee's knees."
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:35 AM
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| More Fun with Elf Only Inn | Gaming |
Wendesday's edition of Josh Sortelli's Elf Only Inn didn't tickle everyone's funny-bone. This is my reply to someone's question on the forum. And people think an English degree is good for nothing. Feh! People...
Well, if you think it's so good then perhaps you could explain it to me so that I can understand and enjoy it as well. Because as it stands now I still don't get it.
Sure, I'd be glad to.
Sortelli is clearly expressing his disappointment and rage with the Zeffirelli/Mel Gibson/Glenn Close Hamlet of 1990.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:28 PM
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| I must be a fan, I created Fanart | Gaming |
I've been following Josh Sortelli's Elf Only Inn for a while. It's based on chat-room RPG, but the humor translates pretty easily for those familiar with any other sort of RPGs. The author published a picture of his character "Lord Wootsayediditagyn" and I found myself practicing those Mad Photoshop Skillz that I don't have. Anyway, enjoy. Then read the comic. Alot.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 03:56 PM
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| Back on the other side of the dice pool... | Gaming |
So, after a long hiatus from playing RPGs, I've joined three new games.
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Dark Shades--A World of Darkness Crossover game. I play Obidiah Kennedy, a kindly insane Vampiric innkeeper with a B&B on the edge of the Gettysburg National Park
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Shadows Across Arkham--A Buffy/Call of Cthulhu hybrid game. I play Tom Burton, an older returning student who has spent time in foreign armed services.
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Vampire:Dark Ages--A Dark Ages Campaign. I play Richard du Foix, a Cathar Salubri.
It'll be interesting to see how I do. Most of the last 18 months I've been GMing House of Cards exclusively, so it's nice to get into some new minds. It'll be new material for working on the Game WISH project.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 05:19 PM
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| This week's WISH: | List three or more maxims/proverbs/bits of conventional wisdom/etc. that you've learned in your gaming career, and explain what they mean and how you've seen them apply in your gaming experience. |
There are two big temptations here: One is to roll out the favorite movie/book/comics quotes that we constantly hear from our Gen X, hyper-referential ADD gaming crowd. "Yeah, yeah, enough with the flavor text..." "Don't see the PGMP-15, Danny, be the PGMP-15..." "Get 'em? That was your plan? Get 'em?" (hey, it often worked...) The other is to trot out my favorite quotes from games that do and do not have quotes pages. I'm looking for the lines we've repeated for years that are part of our collective decision-making process.
Whatever you do, don't say 'Whatever you do, don't roll a one'.This is a meta-rule at the table, which has to do with respecting other gamers superstitions, not touching their dice if they're a 'don't touch my dice' person, letting people be wierd about probability and chance, and generally not looking for trouble at the table. If someone has to say 'chicken bone, chicken bone, lucky, lucky chicken bone' before he rolls in order to have fun, let 'em... You're not heros, you're assholes!Usually quoted when the Champions team was about to make some utterly logical but not particularly four-color heroic choice. Bled over into a lot of games, because it was useful. It's a maxim about examining your motives and the role your character wants to project in his life. Don't feel bad, lots of paladins have warhorses that are smarter than they are...aka "next time, spend a few extra GPs and buy the helmet. Head injuries may not slow you down, but that's because it's not a vital organ in your case..." Plan B is where we don't do something stupid...Plan B was frequently spontaneous... Gaming is like sex. It's only fun if you trust your partners.This includes the GM. This is about willingness to leap out into the blackness, secure that, even if you fall on your face, your partners are there for you. It's why it's no fun to play in a game when two people who really don't want to be talking to each other are both playing. It's about being picky and the rightness of being picky. And it includes the implication that, while bad gaming may be better than a swift kick in the privates, really bad gaming is enough to make people consider swearing off the art...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 10:29 AM
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| For those who did not win in the press awards... | Gaming |
Consider this note on indy game producer Cheapass Games web site. Cheapass is one of two game companies that can sell me a game, sight unseen. The streak says more about the competition than their products.
Congratulations to Us!
Just as we did in 2000, Cheapass Games swept the loser's bracket at the Origins Awards, capturing none of the six awards for which we were nominated. Nominees for the best games included U.S. Patent No. 1, Witch Trial, BRAWL: Catfight, and Girl Genius: The Works. Our games lost the awards to vastly inferior products due to many factors, including negligence, incompetence, favoritism, aliens from space, El Niño, loopholes in the tax code, and mice. Cheapass Games is proud to lose so many awards at once, and reminds all the winners that it's an honor just to be nominated 23 times. (via Steve Jackson Games, who did win some awards this time around...)
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| .:Posted by Michael at 04:00 PM
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From SJ Games Daily Illuminator and gamingreport.com come rumors of a 'big announcement related to D&D" at Origins.
The SJ rumor is that Ted Turner bought the game from Hasbro. Another rumor is that Atkinson bought it back. Gamingreport.com thinks it has to do with contractual stuff based on the retail store sale.
The first two are exciting and probably false. The last is boring but probably true.
I hope it's Ted, personally, if only to see the blogfroth that would generate. But then I've never been one not to stir up anthills...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 09:11 AM
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WISH 1: Successful NPCs
The first WISH was about successful NPCs. The direction for the exercise was:
Describe three NPCs (not major villains) that you really liked and what they added to the game.
| Ginger : Turn of a Friendly Die | | Stoat | LiveWire | Baby | | Ginger believes that character interaction is the key to NPC success. Stoat from House of Cards is a barfly and a warehouse guard and not ambitious. He gives a peek into a part of the City of Amber that the courtly PCs don't see much of. Ginger picks him because she can hear the dialog as she's writing it in the character's voice. Live Wire was an NPC who was secretly working for the villains but who eventually turned on the villains due to the kindness of the heroes. Sounds to me like his Evil Overlord hadn't read the Rules. I think Live Wire was interesting because he had his own story arc. Baby was a pseudodragon, usually something I find sorta boring. That Baby was a companion and not a familar makes her more interesting. |
| ArrefMak : In The Shadow of Greatness | | Orcus | Droppa Ma Pantz | Tatasha | | Arref presents three NPCs who caused him to change an opinion, in or out of character, and change how he thought of his own characters in those games. Orcus was an NPC from the original D&D game and the source of the Mighty "Wand of Orcus". Arref had a GM who made him come to life, have plans, body language, charm. That his character fell in love with him is enough to assure that he must have been very different from the Orcus so many of us killed in our munchkin days. We don't have Droppa Ma Pantz in House of Cards. He's a second series reference, but he's not bad. For Arref, he's one of the last living retainers who knew Oberon well and personally. What does it take to be the court jester who can make Oberon, who must have seen everything, laugh? Tatasha sounds like a great troublemaking NPC. It's not as if she is the foil to the plot, but she must be accounted for in major operations. I like Arref's line about her: "everyone has an opinion about because she forces you to think about her even if she isn't around." It's a good thing to be able to say about an NPC. |
| RikiBeth : Tales of the City | | Kelton den Garlon den Tirian den Tamlon Shadowslayer | Two Talking Swords | Arminta | | RB presents three NPCs with family problems (in their own ways. Kelton den Garlon den Tirian den Tamlon Shadowslayer isn't an Amber character but in many ways could be. "Gar" is an all-powerful four year old. While this has been done before (Squire of Gothos, anyone?), the GM made him memorable by making him act like a four year old. That the PCs may find themselves from time to time babysitting is nice. It shows that the world has more to it than "adventures" and "plot". Two Talking Swords (which probably have names) are inhabited by shadow gods--a Father God and a Trickster God. They don't have to advance the plot to be interesting to be around. Arminta is an NPC of RB's, and she has her own story arc, a background including her agenda and her family's divergent agenda. She's alive, not a plot device. |
OK, too much data and i've only got 3 of 20something. We'll split this out, but not tonight...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:53 AM
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Introducing a new meta-watching feature, which I hope will be a regular part of my blogging life...
WISH is a writing exercise for gamers, created by Ginger Stampley. I think it's a great exercise and I've participated in both WISH exercises so far. I plan on writing (and blogging) my (brief) thoughts on each entry, so that if I want more detail on a particular inspiration, I know where to turn. Comments will be on for these, and I may try some fancy HTML tricks to connect my thoughts to these links.
Email me (or comment here, which will email me) if I missed your entry or missed the point of it. I may not make any changes, but it might make you feel better...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:51 PM
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Ginger's WISH for this week is about Romance in Games:
Describe two romantic relationships involving a PC you've seen in a game. One should be a romance that worked for the participants and the other should be one that failed, died, or came to an end. What was good and bad about these relationships from the point of view of plot and character development? How did the GM make the romance appealing to the players?
Alternatively, talk about a time when a PC in a game you were in turned down a romance and why. Was this a good or bad decision for plot purposes? Why was the romance unappealing to the player or character?
For Greg Morrow's Champions campaign Voyagers, I wanted a spy. David FitzAlan was, even before he was granted super powers, hiding in a secret identity. David lived in California, working for one of the other PCs as a computer security expert. In truth, he was the titular head of and sometime attempted kidnap victim of the Shambalan Security Services. Shambala was a rouge country on the Nepal/China/India border. David had an uneasy peace with his relatives. He didn't come to their attention and they didn't have him kidnapped to come home and work for the bad guys.
This was a problem, because Shambala was bound to find out about the super powered crime fighting and want to bring him back. While that would have been fine if the comic book was his solo book CyberMancer!, it didn't work well for The Voyagers!, what with it being a team effort. The solution to the problem was to have David fall head-over-heels for the team leader, The White Lioness (played by Ginger, actually). It tied David to the team and forced him to be heroic, because Lady Hawkwood wanted him to be.
It was a star-crossed romance, to be sure. David couldn't tell her how he felt, for starters. She was happily involved with an NPC lover. She had an adopted child whom David's presence might endanger. The team's patron and 'official leader' didn't like David. For the first half of the campaign, David didn't even tell the team about his real secret identity. This was because the rumor in Shambala was that some years ago, David's older brother had attempted to have his way with Lady Hawkwood and she had fled Shambala. David's brother was socially ruined, of course, but David certainly felt a certain amount of guilt.
One of my absolute favorite moments in the campaign came when David had to fly back to Shambala, get into his Air Group Commander uniform, and attempt to stop them from killing Lady Hawkwood's NPC lover, who had been investigating David's background. How we got to that point, nevermind, that's not a favorite moment... But the unveiling was, as we all expected, a shock to all.
That he kept his unrequited love a secret through that, when he faced a very angry Vivian, Lady Hawkwood, was a great success. That the two never became lovers is immaterial; TV shows that thrive on romantic tension always die within a season or two of them resolving the relationship.
On the negative side, I played a character in Kellie Patrick-Getty's Vampire, the Masquerade campaign who started with an NPC girlfriend. This was actually a character with a similar archetype. The child of a very wealthy "old crime" "old money" family, he was supposed to go to law school and become respectable and be either a legal or a business face for some of his family's more shady dealings. After he passed the bar, he said "forget it" and concentrated on being a painter. Well, family money helped. He'd also dealt a little, but mostly to help friends, not for a profit.
The girlfriend was supposed to be his tie, his regret, his connection to his humanity and who he'd been (or more to the point, who he'd never been but wanted to be). It didn't happen. It didn't click for Kellie and we never really spent that much time dealing with mortals. Possibly we were too interested in the world of the vampires. The campaign ended before I had a chance to implement my backup plan: my Toreador should have failed to pay attention to her through the passing of time and then gone to look for her and found either an old lady or a grave.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 11:16 PM
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This is my response to Ginger's Wish Writing Exercise
WISH 1 asks us:
Describe three NPCs (not major villains) that you really liked and what they added to the game. The NPCs can be from any game you've been in as a player or GM, and any system or genre.
I'll start out with the embarrassing admission that I am horrible with names. I have to have lists and I have to review my notes before games.
Paladin AD&DThe thing I liked about him was that he kept growing out of the GM's control. He was the minor son and future heir of a castle where we needed to get the magic sword to let us enter the ruined keep of his grandfather. Young and idealistic, the lad said 'yes' when we asked him to join us. He had some knightly training and it was, after all, his magic sword. We trained him, and faced dangers with him, and taught him the difference between an adventurer and someone who's had some knightly training.
It was a major turning point when we were close to being beaten by the undead and, at our urging, he stepped forward with the magic sword of his grandfather, called upon ancestral gods, and attacked the baddies. He saved our bacon, which was nice. But most interetingly, he bacame a paladin, as his grandfather was before him.
What I liked was watching this bit of life, totally unrelated to the goals and quests of our campaign, play itself out. We watched a life-changing experience. It was amongst the best stories of the campaign, even if neither we nor the GM had intended for it to be anything but a minor detail. We send him off with treasure we found to get Paladin training. (Why, yes, the GM was influenced by Elizabeth Moon, why do you ask?)
"Romeo" and "Juliet" TravellerThis was a pair of NPCs that I never got a chance to introduce because my Traveller campaign fell apart first. [I made some mistakes, mostly in who I let in and how I set player expectations.] Romeo was a former squaddie who had worked for one of the PCs in his previous military career. The PC was hard-boiled and, by design, something of an asshole. His men worshipped him. Juliet was the little sister of a very aristocratic PC. The two of them fall in love and run off to fight in a Spanish Civil War equivalent and eventually join the anti-Imperial republican terrorists, the Ine Givar.
Oh, the hooks I lost when that campaign imploded. The rescues, calls for help, rumors, trouble, breakups, reunions, parental ultimata and strife. I didn't have a timeline, since it had to mesh with PC actions, but there was an entire relationship I'd planned out to happen across the campaign.
I really loved my little plans I had and what I was going to use them for in showing the universe and letting the players find the space they wanted to be exploring in it.
Lady Vesper from our own House of Cards is the mother-in-law of our only married PC. This is another 'what is the world like' NPCs? She came about because we needed an outraged parent to beard the royals on a wayward daughterm and the player surprised us by marrying her. We had to develop the mother-in-law, give her background (which we've hinted but not revealed), and made her be the kind of person we thought would be the mother of her daughter. She's much more than we originally considered.
She also gives me a very positive feel for our very visual method of casting NPCs and putting them on the web page. That she is played by Agnes Moorehead gives her a certain personality that she didn't have when she was 'Solace's Outraged Parent'. How did she get to be who she is? We know and it helps us make her real.
I'm really waiting for the two grandmothers to meet. Yes, I am...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:56 AM
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| Turning Portuguese, I think I'm turning Portuguese, I really think so... | Gaming |
So, I received the following Email from a brazillian address. I don't know what it's about but I'd like to. Let's post it, bablefish it, and then discuss...
Subject: Na verdade, o que / o RPG?
O preconceito ao RPG
? impressionante como o Poder P?blico e a m‚dia conseguem deturpar a realidade, transformando situaŸ´´es espec‚ficas em gen/ricas, deslocando as causas dos acontecimentos e colocando verdadeiros cabrestos preconceituosos na opini—o p?blica. ? o que est? acontecendo no caso do assassinato da estudante Aline Silveira Soares, de 18 anos, ocorrido em Ouro Preto (MG) em outubro do ano passado.
Aline foi encontrada morta a facadas no cemit/rio. As marcas de sangue e a posiŸ—o do corpo indicavam prov?vel ritual. Aline jogava RPG e diversos jogadores de seu grupo foram indiciados pelo crime.
Pronto. Bastou um jogador de RPG supostamente matar uma jogadora de RPG que a maioria das pessoas, mesmo sem ter a m‚nima noŸ—o do que / o jogo, abomin?-lo, por influ?ncia direta dos meios de comunicaŸ—o. V?rios livros sobre RPG comeŸar—o a ser classificados por faixa et?ria (at/ a‚, tudo bem) e alguns outros ("Illuminati", "Vampiro, a M?scara" e "Dem?nio, a Divina Com/dia") podem at/ ser retirados do mercado. Tem at/ gente que defende a proibiŸ—o do jogo no Brasil!
O RPG (Roleplaying Game) /, genericamente, um tipo de jogo de representaŸ—o onde um "contador de hist˜rias" narra uma aventura e os outros jogadores participam com personagens previamente elaborados. O contador, que geralmente / chamado de mestre (sem nenhuma conotaŸ—o religiosa ou hier?rquica), tem a incumb?ncia de fazer o jogo se desenrolar de acordo com as aŸ´´es dos outros jogadores. ? como um filme que possui apenas um esboŸo do roteiro: ele vai se desenrolar de acordo com as opŸ´´es tomadas pelos participantes durante o jogo.
Os jogadores precisam elaborar personagens de acordo com cada aventura a ser narrada pelo mestre. Personagens esses que podem possuir caracter‚sticas (forŸa, intelig?ncia, habilidades, modo de pensar, objetivos de vida, at/ esp/cie e sexo!) diferentes do pr˜prio jogador. Para sermos bem caricatos, isso n—o quer dizer que um homem que tem como personagem uma condessa do s/culo XVII vai se travestir de mulher e ficar fazendo trejeitos, ou que uma mulher que representa uma assassina profissional do s/culo XX vai aparecer na sess—o de RPG com roupas negras e armas de verdade para matar todo mundo. Os jogadores apenas explicam ao mestre o que seu personagem est? fazendo e, durante a explicaŸ—o, podem fazer gestos, movimentos com o corpo e at/ pequenas atuaŸ´´es improvisadas.
O jogo pode se passar na /poca medieval, onde os personagens dos jogadores precisam resgatar a princesa raptada; no futuro, onde os personagens est—o em miss—o diplom?tica para promover a paz no planeta Terra-7; numa dimens—o alternativa, onde Hitler venceu a Segunda Guerra Mundial e os personagens s—o da forŸa rebelde dos Estados Unidos; ou at/ na cidade de Ja?, onde os personagens s—o cidad—os comuns, que, por coincid?ncia ou n—o, recebem uma carta misteriosa dizendo para se encontrarem em tal lugar.
O RPG d? asas ? imaginaŸ—o. O RPG incentiva a leitura e a escrita. O RPG / uma das melhores formas de se desenvolver a criatividade. O RPG ensina aos jogadores o trabalho em equipe, o companheirismo e uma melhor conviv?ncia social. O RPG evolui a intelig?ncia, o racioc‚nio e a percepŸ—o. O RPG ensina ao jogador o que est? acontecendo ao seu redor, na sua cidade, no seu pa‚s e no mundo. O RPG descobre habilidades ocultas no indiv‚duo, como por exemplo o dom de desenhar ou de representar. E tantas outras vantagens.
Infelizmente, n˜s, jogadores de RPG, temos que conviver diariamente com a falta de informaŸ—o da populaŸ—o. E continuamos lutando contra o preconceito:
1 - N—o fazemos parte de uma seita ou culto demon‚aco. Apenas nos reunimos constantemente para praticar um gosto em comum, assim como enxadristas se re?nem para praticar xadrez;
2 - N—o somos nerds. Apenas gostamos de ler e pesquisar sobre o jogo. Para isso, precisamos ter livros e peri˜dicos sempre em m—os;
3 - N—o somos homossexuais. Assim como no futebol, n—o h? interesse grande de mulheres em participar de jogos de RPG, apesar de o n?mero de jogadoras aumentar a cada ano;
4 - N—o somos malucos. Apenas gostamos de conversar uns com os outros sobre guerras e paz, humanos e alien‚genas, monstros e her˜is, deuses e mortais, anjos e dem?nios, vampiros e caŸadores, elfos e drag´´es, geralmente presentes nas hist˜rias de RPG, uma vez que o jogo se baseia na ficŸ—o e aventura;
5 - N—o somos assassinos! Apenas imaginamos situaŸ´´es de nossos personagens num mundo fict‚cio. A morte faz parte da vida (/ nossa ?nica certeza, ali?s), e, pelo fato de os personagens serem her˜is, muitas vezes se arriscam demais e podem morrer (assim como em alguns filmes). NÌO SOMOS NîS QUE MATAMOS E NÌO SOMOS NîS QUE MORREMOS, SÌO NOSSOS PERSONAGENS. Infelizmente, o assassino de Aline n—o soube diferenciar a enorme fronteira entre ficŸ—o e realidade.
Do mesmo jeito que / poss‚vel haver m/dicos que fazem parte de uma seita demon‚aca, ou padres nerds, ou procuradores da rep?blica homossexuais, ou atores malucos, tamb/m / poss‚vel haver um jogador de RPG assassino. O rid‚culo / achar que a causa do assassinato ocorrido (ou de qualquer homic‚dio) foi o RPG, ou o xadrez, ou qualquer outro jogo.
Jogo RPG h? 7 anos. Durante esse per‚odo, escrevi seis livros-enredo a punho, tendo que pesquisar (em fontes como livros, jornais, revistas, internet, profissionais da ?rea e outros) hist˜ria mundial, geopol‚tica, literatura, artes, direito, economia, e diversos outros ramos de ci?ncia. N—o h? uma sess—o de jogo em que ningu/m aprende algo importante a respeito de conviv?ncia social, cotidiano brasileiro e mundial ou Hist˜ria. N—o h? um dia de sess—o em que n—o volto para casa dando graŸas a Deus pelo valioso grupo de amigos que tenho, formado por causa do RPG. E mesmo que pro‚bam o RPG, n—o vamos deixar de jogar, porque n—o somos marginais.
Em nome de todos os jogadores de RPG do Brasil, peŸo um grande favor: n—o deixe que discursos paliativos de representantes do Estado ou informaŸ´´es dirigidas acabem por lhe convencer. Leia, informe-se em sites sobre o assunto (como o www.rpg.com.br), converse com algu/m que joga RPG ou, melhor ainda, v? assistir a uma sess—o de RPG. Depois disso, forme a SUA opini—o sobre o jogo. S˜ assim voc? estar? livre desse preconceito idiota.
Jorge Soufen Junior / jogador de RPG, jornalista e estudante de Direito
POR FAVOR PASSE A FRENTE!!
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| .:Posted by Michael at 12:08 PM
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| The Dark Side of the Web... | Gaming |
My new favorite consipracy site "all consipiracies, all the time" is The Hard Truth. If you need to know about Aliens, anti-gravity technology, your right not to pay taxes, the pyramids, the anti-christ (not Bill Clinton!, he's the decoy anti-christ...), satanism, Fluoridation (Mind Control of the Masses), gun control, abortion, the illuminati or freemasonry, if you want to know why Bush is just the same as Clinton, if you want to know about the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, this is your site.
I plan to use it for RPG purposes. I especially like the following map of the Inner Earth. One of my favorite characters came from Shambala, and I'm happy to correct my misspelling of it and my incorrect assumption that it was in Nepal. You learn something every day.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 07:58 PM
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It has been some 30 months since Prince Gerard, last of the sons of Oberon, was beheaded by order of the Committee on Public Safety. The Committee was hailed at first, savior of a people ground under the military needs of warring Princes. They had been, in the end, foolish. They took the strong and the loyal men and they left the discontent and the downtrodden. Foolish. Even a small dog can bite if you turn your back.
They rule by fear now. Fear that anyone can be denounced. Are you sympathetic to the Royalist cause? Who isn't, sometimes? It wasn't ever as bad as this. Can you prove that your father wasn't really Prince Bleys? Can you prove that your great-grandmother wasn't begat by Prince Finndo? If he is not bleaching in the sun of some alien desert, I will one day ask Prince Benedict why he took all the men who loved and served Amber and left only those who would smash it.
After they executed Lord Rein, it was clear that inoffensiveness was no surety, even for those who were only on the sidelines of noble largesse. And the Committee purged the Gerardists, which left them free to raze the castle. They don't talk about what they found in the basement. No, they don't. But I know.
It may be that I am the last who has the power. They smashed the three steps and have blocked the way to Rebma, but there are peoples and places that are older and stronger.
I help those I can, my kin and those threatened for cleaving to us. Who'd've guessed seven hundred years ago when there was near-total war with the Moonriders of Ghenesh that they would one day provide refuge and safety for us? The Republicans treat with them, but would export their craziness if they could. They are no friends of Ghenesh.
I am building a league there, to oppose them. Those of Amber devoted to justice and right. We grow stronger daily, and I go between Amber and
Ghenesh and the Committee seeks me everywhere.
I am a legend in my long-lost home, you see. I am the avenger of those wronged by the Committee. We are strong enough to keep them out of the depths of Arden. They fear me, and they should. I will destroy the injustice they have made.
Me.
Martin.
The Scarlet Pimpernel.
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| .:Posted by Michael at 04:28 PM
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| Secret Alpha of the House of Cards Weblog... | Gaming |
It's not live yet, there's still some work to do [fix recent posts, modify archive templates, fix comments...]
But the basic conversion is done.
http://www.whiterose.org/houseofcards/blog
Off to sleep...
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| .:Posted by Michael at 02:10 AM
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My Owlcon 2K2 gaming submission is finally done. It's late, but they may take it anyway.
Kobolds Ate My Baby!
Kobolds: devilish little village-terrorizing cow-burning baby-eating mean-spirited critters who work for Tabriz (Evil Wizard for Hire). Trouble. Pyrozoomanics with chicken lycanthropy. Not the top of the food chain. Not the sharpest spoon in the pocket. You.
What has gone before: Not every plan works out. You've been captured by the stupid humans and imprisoned in their new Kobold Escape Proof Compound. That's what they think, anyway.
You have a plan, and it cannot fail. You're getting out by going down--after all, sewers and Kobolds are made for each other! You all will pull off The Grate Eskape!
No Experience Required! Based on a true story! No one will be admitted during the climactic baby juggling scene! (Did we mention that this game is "Darkly Humorous"?)
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| .:Posted by Michael at 08:49 AM
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Yesterday's happy fun gaming news was the return of Paranoia. Paranoia:XP is the next generation of the first game I ever ran at a con (Owlcon VII at Rice University).
Today's happy news is that the next generation of the second game I ever ran at a con (NanCon 88: 15 in Houston, TX) should be in stores almost immediately. Call of Cthulhu Dark Ages from Chaosium is a version of CoC set in the 10th and 11th Centuries.
I am so there. I can have a Cathar Campaign in Languedoc up and running in no time.
Happy history geek gamer me.
