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Below are the most recent 25 friends' journal entries.
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| Saturday, May 17th, 2008 |
d_fuses
|
12:10p |
Because two Ennies weren't enough
Grimm v2 confirmed as an Origins finalist.
I'd be very happy to lose to Cthulhutech, Feary's Tale, and have no idea about Kane. The others are still decent products but I can kick their asses.
Roleplaying Game
Grimm
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Written by Robert Vaughn and Christian T. Petersen
The Savage World of Solomon Kane
Published by Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Written by Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams (with Shane Lacy Hensley)
CthulhuTech
Published by Mongoose Publishing
Written by Matthew Grau and Fraser McKay
Battlestar Galactica
Published by Margaret Weis Productions
Written by Jamie Chambers
Faery's Tale Deluxe
Published by Firefly Games
Written by Patrick Sweeney, Sandy Antunes, Christina Stiles, and Robin D. Laws
Aces & Eights
Published by Kenzer & Co.
Written by Jolly R. Blackburn, Brian Jelke, Steve Johansson, Dave Kenzer, Jennifer Kenzer and Mark Plemmons |
| Friday, May 16th, 2008 |
alawston
|
1:46p |
Let's hear it for the Lawston media dynasty... Paul, the Lawston sibling immortalised by my sister as 'mon frere with the flares' (I was 'mon frere with the hair'), is currently available on BBC iPlayer, answering questions on Newsround about stinging nettles as a 'Plant Expert'. He came off fairly well, and I'm working on a way to export the video to youtube. He's still excited about having met Liso, although I'm sure I once saw Liso presenting a porn reality show called 'Search for a Porn Star' (or somesuch) when I was at university. There is groovy websiteness to hold up my somewhat nasty short story about gluttony at Seven Deadlies. Thanks to ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) baloobasfor letting me know, and giving me the opportunity. I hope your brother gets an awesome mark, and the site looks great. I haven't actually heard the story yet, as I'm at work without speakers. My sister also met Sir Ian McKellen a few weeks ago and managed to avoid mentioning that she'd seen him wave his cock about at Stratford. There should also be a new bookbag review up on Monday (if I can write it in time). On Mike Leigh and stuff. |
nuclear_powered
|
12:34p |
Game Chef 2008 Just a quick heads up for anyone who reads this and doesn't check my Dread Fuzzy Designs LJ account that the results for this years Game Chef 2008 design contest are out. I didn't win the whole thing (unsurprisingly) but I did get an honourary award! I'm well chuffed. |
dread_fuzzy
|
12:14p |
Game Chef 2008 results So, the results of the judging of this years Game Chef have now been posted and are available in this thread. First off I'd like to congratulate the winners and say that I had a really, really good time participating. I think that the use of art as a direct inspiration to game design was inspired and worked extremely well and that it produced a lot of cool art sets and very neat games. And what of The Three Clans? Well, amazingly, it won an honourary award! I know, no one was more shocked than me. You can see the award here and I've copied the text of what Andy K wrote below: Best Game That Uses All Those Hippie Mechanical things like Set Structured Scenes, Endgames, Interpretive Card Mechanics and the Like The Three Clans by Geoff Hall. Although individually a lot of writers were trying new styles, exploring new grounds, and experimenting with design, when I stepped back and looked at the entries in aggregate, it was like a field full of Structured Scenes; Playing cards or something in a certain way then interpreting the results and narrating, stuff like that. And you can't swing a dead cat without hitting an Endgame mechanic. However, this game really ties them all together in a pretty epic way. You're telling the story of a clan war (and if the focus wasn't such on barbarians, I could see it working for a Romance/Tale of the Three Kingdoms style story) between three clans. The setting is rich and expansive, complete with backstory of the world and events. I almost lament the tightness of the structure at times, it feels a little too constrained even as it focuses the story on clear barbarian leaders, hunters and priests. However, because of the scale, the story, and all the heart that went into it, this is one that I'd love to try sometime (though I'd still probably want looser story/adventure scenes, to have a little more freedom in playing the role and the resulting events). Solid example texts, too. So thank you to Andy; I really appreciate the award as I felt that TTC had become lost in the sea of GC games and, due to my obscurity and lack of marketing nous, was destined to be buried forever. And what now post-GC? Well I fully intend to carry on with development of TTC. The text needs tightening up in general and the resolution mechanic used within the scenes needs a real overhaul. There's a lack of choices and options in the game at the moment and I want to open it up somewhat and make it a little less restricted. I also need to try and contact Kevin Allen Jr. about use of his art set as, right now, I have no rights to use it with the competition finished. If anyone has any ideas as to how I would go about contacting him then please speak up as I'm clueless! Current Mood:  ecstatic |
novicejeweller
|
7:55a |
The blind faith of babes ...The babe in question being 16 and leaving school today. Three days ago he came up with a cool idea. And it is cool - he asked if I could do some work on his (plain wood) acoustic guitar - namely, change it to white and add some tribal designs so his friends could sign the back on the last day of school. Slightly more original and commemorative than a school shirt I feel. Either way - he had no doubt whatsoever that I could and would produce exactly what he wanted in the couple of days left. Now... I'm a jeweller. Mainly, in fact, I'm a salesperson. Not an artist and certainly not a do-overer of guitars. But your kids apparently still believe you're a magician even at 16. Here is is - not quite finished, I need some black paint for touching up, and once its signed I'll spray it in clear varnish to seal everything. Oddly, I'd chosen the front (and back) design which is a tribal moon before he told me he'd called his guitar Lunar (and his other guitar - a bright pink & white electric, is called Lupis)  But yeah, spent most of yesterday and large parts of last night doing this and I'm really quite chuffed with the result. Also spent 16 years getting Darren ready for the world beyond school. I think I did an OK job. I mean OK, a lot of parents would be horrified if their kid was like Darren. He owns a dress and pink boots. He openly refers to himself as bisexual. He's been known to wear black nailvarnish and eyeliner. He listens to and plays music of the loud and thrashy variety. And he doesn't give a fuck about conforming or what other people think of him. He thinks the chav culture is hilarious - in a bad way. He's sensitive and the type of person his friends will turn to if they have a problem they need to discuss with someone they can trust and has incredibly strong ethical values for himself. He's clever (if lazy), starting A levels in Setember (sciences and psych - he wants to be a doctor) and amazed everyone by learning to play guitar (self taught) and developing reasonable artistic skills at 15 after years of displaying no sign of talent in either area. He doesn't generally do the whole teenage rebellion thing, talks to us if something is bothering him, despises smoking with a fiery passion, thinks doing drugs is insanely stupid and only very occasionally gets drunk. He can interact as well with adults as he can with other teens, gets on incredibly well with my husband, thinks I'm the coolest mom on the planet and is really good with babies. Sure, at times he still shows incredibly immaturity. He has a habit of taking anything anyone he trusts says and believeing and expanding on it without any real knowledge, particularly in areas of politics and world affairs but he'll grow out of that I suspect. We all made mistakes when we were kids and unsurprisingly Darren is no exception. He's a black-wearing, long-haired, non-conformist rocker rebelling against society's expectations and doing life his way and I'm proud of him.  Current Mood:  Proud |
| Thursday, May 15th, 2008 |
gbsteve
|
11:57p |
|
nuclear_powered
|
8:11p |
Ascendancy So I've developed a new project recently; I'm building a prototype boardgame to playtest it for a designer based here in the UK. First a little background. As some of you are probably aware I spend a certain amount of time perusing a website called Board Game Geek, by far the best website in the world dedicated to board and card gaming. It's also one of the coolest, most interactive sites I've ever seen with almost all content user generated. But I digress. I use the Geek (as it is known) to do a fair amount of research on potential purchases before I consider dropping any money on them and it hasn't steered me wrong yet). I also try to keep abreast of games in development to see what cool, new things are on the horizon. One of the games that I've been keeping an eye on since early this year is Ascendancy, a game with a sci-fi theme that has nothing to do with the old 4X computer game of the same name (I know, I was disappointed too!) Now, I love me a space/sci-fi theme in a game and this is just one of a few that I'm keeping an eye on, the others being Supernova and Galactic Emperor (which I may have been weak enough to pre-order...) But back to the point. Just recently the designer of Ascendancy put out a call for anyone interested in playtesting the game and willing to assemble it themselves from pdfs and whatever they have lying around. I decided 'what the hell' and signed up. I now, after an email exchange with said designer (Nigel Buckle for the curious among you), have a whole raft of printouts sitting on my desk ready to be turned into cards, counters and map tiles. Plus I have to figure out what to use for a mammoth load of different markers that don't come in the pdfs. All in all it's a slightly daunting prospect but also pretty cool. I already did a home made version of the expansion for Vanished Planet which was fun, although far less work than Ascendancy promises to be, so I have some small notion of what I'm letting myself in for. This should keep me occupied for awhile though. Still, once I'm done I'll have a copy of an unreleased game that I will, with the help of thoughtfulwolf and the rest of my gaming group, get to playtest and, hopefully, influence the final version of. Cool! |
d_fuses
|
7:26p |
oh thank you merciful god
My meds are starting to kick in.
That + actually telling people my brain is exploding = mucho relief.
God bless better living through chemistry. Who knew there was a pill for not having imaginary knives constantly stabbed into your brain. |
| Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 |
alawston
|
1:30p |
My head hates me
The other night, I dreamed in fanfiction. No, really.
I dreamed reading some distinctly slashy prose, that I know for a fact I could never have read before, ever.
Why so certain that I wasn't unconsciously regurgitating a barely remembered piece of internet smut?
Well, because apart from the fact that I don't read a great deal of fan-fiction, the protagonists were Beano characters Dennis the Menace, Gnasher and Walter (the 'softy'), late 80s vintage. Walter was talking about the perfect band of ceramic steel created when by the coming together of Gnasher's implacable jaws, and how he secretly longed to have his member caught between them.
I swear to God, sometimes I terrify myself.
On waking, this has lead me to consider Dennis the Menace. It was a bit of a dodgy comic strip really, wasn't it? You've got this butch tyke whose arch enemy 'Walter the softy' is a pretty blatant homosexual stereotype. Rather than just avoiding this effeminate boy, Dennis makes obsessive weekly efforts to penetrate him with his furry black animal (that very rarely looked anything like an actual dog, I might add), or at least to get him dripping wet in some humiliating fashion...
But then the Beano was an odd comic, and probably still is (it's now covered with WWF stickers and Doctor Who gifts, like just about every other kids' magazine). Stuck in some sort of 50s time warp, it persisted in weird and utterly unfunny comic strip meanderings that still seemed to have a subliminal 'Japes & Fun for Boys & Girls!' strapline over every page. There was the single black character in 'football' strip Ball Boy. Some credit for making the effort, but I spent my entire childhood thinking Benji was a girl with big lipstick, he was so badly (and possibly offensively) drawn. There was the fetishisation of corporal punishment through Dennis's father's obsession with 'slippering' his wayward son. And there was Minnie the Minx, who seemed to be a parallel universe female version of Dennis the Menace - perhaps there's a 'Secret of the Sword' style origin story that I missed which explains that one. Billy Whizz was inexplicably never revealed to be on amphetamines.
And buried among all this outdated and unfunny nonsense, there was the fatalistic brilliance of Calamity James, the gloomy, accident-prone lad with a pet lemming (that generally managed to plummet on to his head, with hilarious consequences) and his own personal thunderstorm. It was the only reason we got the Beano after the age of about 8.
Such thoughts as these run through my head on the walk to work. I must remember to keep bringing my MP3 player to distract me from myself. |
gbsteve
|
10:28a |
They've got to Nick Pope now Nick Pope, arch-hound of Government cover-ups, has gone over to the dark side. The National Archives have released a whole load of UFO archives in pdf format, free to download for a month. Whilst I'm sure that Nick's badgering of these shadowy Whitehall types has forced the release of these files, the worrying thing is that he's now got some kind of video on their website. This leads me to question this whole new "openness". They must have got to him too. And this is why I haven't watched the video. I'm sure it's a trap for the unwary, light on real informarion and heavy on subliminals. Watch at your own peril! And now it seems that the Vatican is in on the act too! |
ginasketch
|
11:20a |
More Playing with the style of the book. I may replace the digital flowers with regular watercolour ones.
Current Mood:  alright |
| Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 |
nebhead
|
9:16p |
Keep on swimming! Well, my interview on Friday went ok. Not great, but ok. I answered most of the questions very well, but feel that I let myself down badly on one or two. I hate it when my mind goes absolutely blank, and I end up stuttering as I try to kick my brain into life. The preparation material clearly stated that one of the things I should know is who some of Accenture's clients are, but when asked I could barely remember one. Oooops. Any which way, I should hear back sometime next week. In other news, I have another interview next week for a position I found through KTP. The job, in a nutshell, is "to help develop and implement a new and advanced news and information service, to keep the UK’s national news agency, the Press Association, at the forefront of the world multimedia industry". I would be employed by the University of Arts, but work in the PA office on Vauxhall Bridge Road (Victoria). Kinda cool. Gotta ace the interview first though! In other other news, more lightpainting! Current Mood:  bouncy |
nuclear_powered
|
1:00p |
Where in the world in nuclear_powered? Ahem, right here. Honest. It’s weird, I’ve been active on LJ for ages now but I’ve only really been using it for commenting on other people’s entries, not making my own. I’m not sure why, perhaps laziness? That would be pretty typical. So what’s going on in the world of me? I’m back at work these days as a contractor working for what was Project Services and s now VT Nuclear Services, PS having been bought out by VT Group earlier this year. I’m working part time for more per hour than I was and I’m actually quite enjoying it. Sure it can be boring on a day to day basis as there isn’t always a lot of work on but when I do have something happening (which is more often than not to be honest) then it tends to be quite interesting. It’s good to get my brain stimulated again and, quite frankly, the extra money is bloody useful! Of course it all means that I’ve had to start using my Limited Company, Dread Fuzzy Designs Ltd., properly for the last few months. I nearly drowned in confusion trying to figure out my year end taxes but got there in the end. Now I have to sort out PAYE for this year ASAP before HMRC start breathing down my neck. One for this week that is. And speaking of DFD Ltd. I’ve been progressing the other side of that business as well recently. Anarchy is coming along slowly but it is progressing and I recently entered Game Chef 2008 and completed my game (currently titled The Three Clans, although that will likely change) on time. I’m now involved in the critiquing portion of the competition but the whole thing should be coming to a close soon. For more on that side of my business you’d do better checking my dread_fuzzy LJ account, which I keep semi-up-to-date. Other than that life is ticking along. I still spend my Friday (and often Saturday) nights gaming, although I now actually have a roleplaying group on Fridays! We’re playing some traditional 3.5 Ed. D&D and I’m really enjoying it. It’s wonderful to be able to indulge my hobby outside of conventions again. Plus when that doesn’t happen (and on the Saturdays) I’m getting plenty of board gaming in. I can only thank thoughtfulwolf for reintroducing me to the world of board games, previously left behind when I was a child. It’s amazing how far game design has come in that sphere in the past 10 or 15 years, truly amazing. Current Mood: okay |
|
leisuregames
|
9:55a |
New Releases - 12th May 2008 |
| Monday, May 12th, 2008 |
d_fuses
|
8:55p |
In your face, space coyote!
Began the day in the screaming, foetal, keep-the-sharp-objects away state.
Ended it actually WRITING something and feeling generally not terrified.
Got there ALL BY MY FREAKING SELF.
Fuck you world. I ain't done.
|
mattmachell
|
12:16a |
And now for tales of thrilling adventure! I've put the not quite top secret new draft of Pulp! (my miniatures skirmish game for pulp era excitement) up. Download it, read it and comment! I'd really like somebody to break the points-buy system good and hard. I'd also love to see what people can build from the generic traits, you should be able to do all kinds of pulp goodness by combining different elements. This new version includes the serials rules, for campaigns, and has fixed some unclear bits from the original version. |
| Sunday, May 11th, 2008 |
novicejeweller
|
9:15p |
The Monster from the Deep We noticed a couple of days ago that there was a monster from the deep rising from the depths of our pond pool to snack on waterboatmen. We spotted him again today, desperately trying to get out and being unable to do so (poor thing musta been knackered - they need to rest and breath air!). So I came up with the bright idea of leaving the pool net in the edge of the pool where he could climb on it and rest - and not get out again so we could rehome him. And it worked! a few hours after putting it there he was sitting on the net so I scopped him into a bucket, took a couple of pictures and went and rehomed him in one of the tiny streams nearby (we do actually intend sorting out and chlorinating our pool in the near future so not a good place for him to live really). He was very good sitting on my hand to have his picture taken - I did only take a couple coz I figured the poor thing probably just wanted to go lie down somewhere. Small kids were very impressed. I actually think he was a toad not a frog but I am open to correction on this! Current Mood:  accomplished |
| Monday, May 12th, 2008 |
d_fuses
|
1:20a |
wisdom
If every day is a battle - and it is, blood-soaked and brutal - than dear sweet God, let every night be an armistice, every laugh a cessation, every moment of peace and confidence be a perfect victory, if nothing else, dear sweet God, grant me that.
And that's all the wisdom I have today.
|
| Saturday, May 10th, 2008 |
alawston
|
9:42a |
Sticking up for a friend I'm not sure why I feel compelled to post this, but I do, I'm afraid. I have a colleague at work, who edits the three magazines the company produces. She is, perhaps, not over-burdened with intelligence, but has worked incredibly hard to reach a fairly enviable job at the age of just 24. Current Mood:  irritated |
| Friday, May 9th, 2008 |
gbsteve
|
10:15p |
Jack in the Green Last Monday, being a Bank Holiday, we followed the bikers down to the seaside at Hastings. We partook of fish and chips and attended the Jack in the Green festival. This was originally started by London chimneysweeps looking to cadge a few bob to tide them over the lean summer months. Now it has mutated into a pseudo-pagan affair in which Jack, as a representative of Spring, is paraded round before being sacrificed to Summer. There are several of these around the south but none as grand as that in Hastings. Jack has a whole cortege of Morris dancers, drummers, fire-eaters and bogies, who run around daubing noses with green paint. Jack is eventually taken up to the castle. The various sides, as Morris troups are called, have a chance to show off their dancing skills before the 9' high green man is brought to the stage and stripped bare, his greenery being thrown to the crowd. It's an all round jolly affair, especially with the recent good weather. ( Here are a few photos of the event ) |
gbsteve
|
9:56p |
The great space zombie
I took Piriton today for the first time ever at 10:30. By 14:30, my nose had started to run again but I still felt like I wasn't in my body. I pulled up a spreadsheet and then couldn't remember for the life of me why. My boss told me to go home so I did, taking care not to cross any major roads.
Actifed just knocks me out so I'll try benadryl tomorrow. |
d_fuses
|
10:38a |
|
| Thursday, May 8th, 2008 | |
iprnews
|
11:06a |
Early May IPR Update - Blood, Cthulhu, and Iron http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/news.php#53 Early May IPR Update
Greetings, Comrades! Normally we'd wait a little longer before putting out a new message, but we've had a bunch of things happen in the last couple weeks and just can't wait to talk about them.
Trail of Cthulhu PDF Available to Early Adopters
If you ordered Trail of Cthulhu (print version) before the 8th of May, you should have received a voucher from Pelgrane Press for a free or cut-price PDF of Trail. If you didn't get it, please contact simon@dyingearth.com
Retailers! Come Take Advantage of Our New Discount
We've seen a few new retailers and some old friends come on by in the last couple weeks since we announced our new 45% off discount for retailers. But we'd love to see more! If you are a retailer, or have a local game store that doesn't carry IPR's games, please consider getting the word out that IPR is positioned to be more competitive than ever.
Houses of the Blooded Preorder Going Gangbusters
John Wick's new game, Houses of the Blooded, is in preorder and selling like hotcakes. John is also offering a Limited Edition Hardcover with a bunch of extras... but only 100 copies are being printed and we've already sold nearly two-thirds of them, so move quickly if you're looking for an all-the-bells-and-whistles version that includes a CD containing music and template files for building your own Houses of the Blooded documents!
Remember, when you place a preorder through IPR you are paying up front and guaranteeing a copy, but you're also helping to fund the print run for a small press publisher -- super useful and much appreciated by the "little guy"!
New in Print
New in PDF
New Deals
|
alawston
|
1:57p |
Misery loves company I feel somewhat guilty this week. I've drafted in ginasketch to do some work for us for a few days, and while it's great to have a buddy in the office, her gradual decline into brain death is both troubling my conscience and throwing fresh light on the horribly naff conditions under which I spend my working day. I'm so used to proof-reading the editor's pieces for her that it takes Gina biting her lip and sniggering to remind me that this should in no way be part of my job. Further instances to follow, no doubt, as the week stutters to a close, not a moment too soon. |
d_fuses
|
8:22p |
It goes bing when there's stuff
The problem with the Dr Who RPG is NOT "who plays the Doctor".
Because the Doctor is not more awesome because he has more screen time. In fact, in some episodes, he has substantially less screen time than the companions.
Nor is the Doctor more awesome than the others because he has more skills or more powers. He does have some wonderful toys, but in many cases his companions can use them as easily as he can, and in other cases they have their own skills. The Doctor does tend to Know What's Going On more often, but there are examples of Companions who have eclipsed him here also. Captain Jack, pour example, not only knows the score but he could potentially kick the Doctor's ass if it was brawn vs brawn. Plus he's immortal. In any point based system, it would be a close call (particularly if you count Torchwood as Captain Jack's resources).
What sets the Doctor apart isn't any of this. What sets him apart is that he's the Doctor.
He has in him the characteristics of deific glory, that which inspires and raises up all those who simply come into contact with it. He's beyond cool, he is cool. He doesn't just save the day, he makes the day worth saving.
To put it another way: you don't watch Doctor Who because you want to be the Doctor, or because you think the Doctor is cool. You watch it because you love the doctor. You adore him. You worship him. Because you want to be close to him when he works.
And that makes for a difficult RPG session. If the GM controls the Doctor, he's got to be that freaking awesome. Same problem if a player does. Even if someone can pull it off, it creates an unusual session, to say the least. If nobody's the Doctor, then, well...what's the point?
That said, from first glance, the Doctor Who RPG is looking pretty damn sweet.
Crap, this read a lot better before I started watching SVU while typing it. :( |
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