A good gaming weekend

Kicked it with good folks this weekend. We got playtest Emperor’s Heart with 6 people. I’m seeing better where I need to tighten things up, especially in the initial set up and the scene framing aspects, since those both seem to be where people need guidance.

The best part about lots of experience roleplaying is that you have a lot of tricks up your sleeve, the worst part is that you have internalized it to the point where you forget how to articulate them.

Getting the game to fly stronger is going to be important, especially as I get folks together to play more than just one-shots here and there, but an actual campaign, both to see what happens in terms of the way play shapes larger scale story development, as well as what happens as players become more familiar with the system.

We also played a giant game of 3 player Mechaton, which included using squads of Tyranid from Warhammer 40,000 as the third side. Mechaton is superawesome, though I think I’d want to make a bunch of numbered, colored little flags to put next to the mechs in order to speed up play and make it easier to track defense and spotting.

Update on what I’m doing

Emperor’s Heart

I’m writing up a demo situation and characters.  Not only for the sake of simply demoing and focusing on the play mechanics, but also if I look close at an idealized set up scenario, I can look better at giving folks better advice on how to use Drama Cards and build good situations.

I’ve also recently discovered the pouch style index card holders, and trying to see if any would work really well for the game if I wanted to make a game kit on a larger scale.

Robot game idea

Between reading a lot of Jared Sorensen games and watching giant robot anime, I totally want to do a mission based game in the lines of Evangelion or Raxephon, minus the endless trauma and existentialism (For that, I direct you toward’s Ben Lehman’s Bliss Stage).  I’m thinking more of a game based in the questions of sacrifice and group dynamics, closer to what happens in Lacuna or Thirty.

Artesia

The nice thing about non-gamers is that a lot of stuff is painless.  On the other hand, it’s about coordinating our schedules to play, which, being non-gamers, they’re not aware of how much intention generally has to go into gaming.  Hopefully by the end of the month, I will have my weekends back, in which case, things will be easier.

The two players have come up with really awesome character concepts, and now it’s about putting rubber to road for play.  I foresee myself making cheatsheets for combat and magic in the near future.

The fullness of being human

So when I started this blog, I was thinking it would be more personal than the last one.

Sadly, my online-ness has mostly been trapped in Forge Etiquette: “Games are Serious Business”. But this isn’t the Forge. I’m not trying to communicate in a way to best dialogue in the face of internet cockboxing.

I think over the last 2 or 3 years, there has been brief flashes of really good comments in the community about the role of being artists or creators- to whom you owe responsibility. For example, owing responsibility to your own expression, to the people who you respect and value their input, and not so much to Random Internet Dude, whether he be Indie Hipster Gamer or Gnarled Grognard Gamer.

So, my blog, this blog, is going to fall in line with that. I’m still going to talk mostly about games, or things that influence or impact gaming for me, and not, like whether I’m dating someone, or if I got new shoes.

A big part of my creative community with whom I choose boundaries is the anti-oppression movements- anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-heterosexism. This isn’t intellectual liberal “gimme a cookie” leftism to be hip. Every one of my friends and family have emotional and/or physical scars because of the above, and remaining silent is equivalent to assent to their death, be it slow or fast.

And that ties into gaming because it is a form of media, and all media inform one way or another on those issues (including silence).  This is probably where I’ve been looking at things differently from the beginning- texts of roleplaying games are mass media.  Public internet communication is mass media.   We are participating in it, and do you have the privilege to NOT think about your messages?

So I am thinking about mine.  If you find that preachy or strange, I will give you the words given to me whether talking about my communities, my hobby, or even my country- “If you don’t like it, leave.”

I’ve been talking to the wrong audience for a long time.  It’s time for a change.

Why I don’t play your game

Naamen’s experience of Grimspace is pretty much parallel to a lot of my issues with the media of roleplaying games and racism. As I recently tried to explain on a few threads, it’s a double whammy- the basic ugly in my escapism, added to a culture that defends it.

This has been something I’ve been dealing with for the last few years, really. I found myself pulling further and further from communities and online groups. “We’re cool as long as we don’t talk about -that- topic” is not much different than the broken game group or “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in the military.

At the end of the day, though, I guess people will be who they will be, no matter what you do.

The question is, are these the people you want to hang out with?

My First Podcast: Race & Rpgs

On Bear’s Grove.

I haven’t had a chance to listen to it, but I’m sure I speak waayyy too fast. I’m not normally Luke Crane hyper, except when you put a microphone in front of me.