| Darth and Droids |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|12:16 pm] |
Darth and Droids is a web comic based on the idea that the Star Wars prequels are actually a SF RPG. I like the way they've been working the real world personalities of the supposed players into the game. For example, Jar-Jar is the creation of the GM's young niece. ("He's purple, and he has a head like a pony, and bunny ears, and heesa talky like-a theesa!")
The player portraying Amidala is a power gamer named "Jim", while Annakin is being played by "Anne", who is former drama arts major. She has been trying to get the other players to actually play a character. The other players constantly slip out of character, which is just one reason they're always calling her "Annie."
Of course, her tendency to work in characterization has injecting a good bit of pathos into the narrative of late.
As a side note, some of the players in the supposed game are the same ones as those who endured the GM from the similar web comic, DM of the Rings. That comic was more an example of bad and/or easily distracted players trying to slog through an epic campaign, and the humour was very dependent on jokes about hit dice and ignoring the GM.
Whereas, in Darth and Droids it's pretty clear that the GM is actually pretty good, and working hard to adjust his world to match the unpredictable actions of the players. And, the players themselves have evolved as the game progressed - initially treating the game as D&D in space. |
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| Birthdays! |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|11:13 am] |
Happy birthday to my brother-in-law, the male half of ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) summerfields. He and my little sister live in Hawaii, currently, so I'll also wish them (and my American friends) a Happy Fourth of July!
In honour of the day, a trailer from one of my favorite movies:
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| New friends! And not as new, but rarely seen! |
[Jul. 3rd, 2009|04:03 pm] |
I believe I have earned my two days of vacation next week. I'd intended to leave work early today, after an unplanned extended lunch with new friend kores_rabbit and long-time acquaintance Jonathan Lavallee (who has an LJ, but I can't remember his username!) We were all free at the same time, and decided to meet. Alas, the evil forces of capitalism conspired against me, so I just barely had time to run out, wolf down something healthy, and jog back to work.
Yes.... healthy. "As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly." (Proverbs 26:11)
kores_rabbit! Calling Jonathan.
My lunch buddies!
Also - to those in fear for my arteries - I got a small poutine. |
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| Lunchtime Adventures |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|05:49 pm] |
I still have them, though they are not of great scope of late, what with a high workload.
Last week, commanderteddog and I ventured to the Patrician Grill, a diner that looks very much like a movie set. It's sort of a quintessential diner archetype from the 60s and 70s. It's the sort of place that sells dry toast, liver and onions, and orange juice in tiny, tiny glasses that let them pretend its fresh-squeezed.
There was an enormous air conditioner over the door that appeared to be larger than thebitterguy's Smart Car. It was nonfunctional, and the place was sweltering. Somehow, that made it more genuine.
I had a burger, Teddog had the All Day Breakfast Special.
On a curious note, a few blocks away there is a 1940s diner still extant called the "Senator Diner." This place has the original fixtures, but has morphed into the sort of hipster joint that sells $18 hamburgers. Given their Imperial Roman names, I'm wondering if the Senator and the Patrician were founded around the same time.
Earlier that day, I saw a giant bicycle!
Coming home late one night. Using my little point and click, so it's blurry. But the scene reminded me strongly of some descriptions of view from the Last Redoubt, in Hodgson's The Night Land.
"To my right, which was to the North, there stood, very far away, the House of Silence, upon a low hill. And in that House were many lights, and no sound. And so had it been through an uncountable Eternity of Years. Always those steady lights, and no whisper of sound..."
Finally, since quitting my Conan MMORPG account, it appears my character has come to life and is delivering sermons in downtown Toronto. With about the same impact as I had, I should add. |
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| Nightmare Fuel |
[Jul. 2nd, 2009|09:52 am] |
Video from a sewer in Raleigh, N.C. According to CNN, the pulsating critter is either a colony of tubifex worms or a colony of bryozoans. The last are usually stationary critters like coral, but some species are able to sort of... you know... squelch. |
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| A Rainy Canada Day |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|07:18 pm] |
We went out to mar2nee and Daniel's suburban home today, for some very old school D&D/homebrew, courtesy of their friend Grant. His variant of the system is marked (I hear) by very slow level progression, book keeping, and attention to small details. It was fun enough, though! I was playing a pre-gen 1st level Dwarf fighter named "Hammerfist," and roared and shouted a fair bit.
THIS! IS! SODAAAAAAAAA!
Battle is joined.
Claire likes dice.
There was heavy rain throughout the afternoon, perplexing the westerners, and the front lawn received a visit from a doe, who wandered off down the street after Elizabeth pointed her out.
Now, we're awaiting the arrival of anidada, nottheterritory, and sassy_fae. Depending on weather, some of all of us are going to see fireworks. |
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| Cthulhu Photos! |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|11:26 am] |
shadow_maze took some photos of last night's game.
mar2nee and Sarah.
velvetpage! Armed only with a .22 automatic, she dropped a ghoul that had badly injured her and grabbed her character fast in its talons!
Chance cubes!
More gaming! |
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| In Which Pyat is Objectionably Patriotic |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|10:21 am] |
Don't tell anyone, but it's being sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Also, lyrics aside, I understand some French people and locals were also involved in the country's foundation.
In Days of yore,
From Britain's shore,
Wolfe the dauntless hero came
And planted firm Britannia's flag
On Canada's fair domain.
Here may it wave,
Our boast, our pride,
And join in love together,
The thistle, shamrock, rose entwined,
The Maple Leaf Forever
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[CHORUS]
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The Maple Leaf
Our Emblem Dear,
The Maple Leaf Forever.
God save our Queen and heaven bless,
The Maple Leaf Forever.
At Queenston Heights and Lundy's Lane
Our brave fathers side by side
For freedom's home and loved ones dear,
Firmly stood and nobly died.
And so their rights which they maintained,
We swear to yield them never.
Our watchword ever more shall be:
The Maple Leaf Forever!
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[CHORUS]
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Our fair Dominion now extends
From Cape Race to Nootka Sound
May peace forever be our lot
And plenty a store abound
And may those ties of love be ours
Which discord cannot sever
And flourish green for freedom's home
The Maple Leaf Forever.
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[CHORUS] |
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| Call of Cthulhu! |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|12:31 am] |
A ran a Call of Cthulhu game this evening, my first in about six or seven years. It went well! mar2nee and Daniel had some friends visiting from out west, and they joined in, along with velvetpage and shadow_maze. I was running a sort of homebrew variant of one the starting adventures from the 5th edition, with a little subplot/scene involving an abandoned Baptist church and ghost town that was once an Underground Railway community.
An interesting game moment came near the end of the evening, as the heroes were sitting around chanting to destroy a monster. velvetpage's character went temporarily insane, and the chanting circle seemed about to be broken. However, rolling on the Temporary Insanity table produced the result of "echolocalia," meaning her character simply repeated what everyone else was saying for several rounds. And, of course, they were all chanting, so she joined in again.
Evil was defeated, with only one party death. However, that character had accidentally shot a vagrant, so in some way it was an act of cosmic justice. |
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| Good night, Moon. |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:08 pm] |
Lots of stuff going on today. Visited an old friend and his wife, and their two kids. Took velvetpage's father to supper. Went shopping, and ran into bandersnitch.
Elizabeth got a special treat tonight because she cleaned the backroom. She stayed up till 10:30, and we went star gazing. The telescope is a $20 Vivitar 50mm, basically the cheapest "real" telescope on the market. It's not a toy, but it's a lot more useful for spying on neighbours than stargazing. However, you can see the bands of Jupiter's cloud cover, and you can see Saturn's rings, and that's nothing to sneeze at.
It came with a ridculously light aluminum tripod that wobbled for 20 or 30 seconds anytime I adjusted the telescope position. I swapped it out with a old solid camera tripod I got at a thrift store.
Moon-gazing, mostly. And yes, it was mostly a matter of sitting in a dark yard, being dined on by mosquitos while I fiddled with the telescope. But she seemed to like it.
We got some nice views of the Moon, and... er... a star. A bright one, nearly overhead. I did attempt from photography through the telescope, but this is a fussy business without the right tools, and even fussier when you have an excited 6 year old nearby, poking at the telescope and jogging your elbow. This was the best I got.
Elizabeth wanted to make a creepy photo.
While examining the star, a satellite or faint meteor zipped through the field of view. It was not the ISS, as I'd checked the times it would be visible from Hamilton. That experience, of peering at this tiny circle of sky just as something went darting past, was very cool. |
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| For Rafferty! |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:32 am] |
Coney Island, 1905. Click through to the large version, and you can see people in evening dress, shimmering between the lights.
We'll take a trip up to the moon
For that is the place for a lark
So meet me down at Luna, Lena
Down at Luna Park
Totally Galvanica. |
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| I still love Shorpy.com |
[Jun. 27th, 2009|11:26 am] |
Shorpy is an amazing website. Recent uploads include a very clear and high resolution street scene from 1864 Atlanta.
1955, Larkspur, California. Our neighbor Mr. Cagwin at age 98. Born 1857 in Joliet, Illinois; as an infant came west via sailing vessel from New York and by litter across the Isthmus of Panama; selling newspapers in Hangtown, California, at age of five when the Civil War broke out; worked at Carson City Mint, then San Francisco Mint at the time of the earthquake; retired in 1922. My brother, doing occasional yard work for the Cagwins at the time, took this Ektachrome slide in their Arts & Crafts style home, which they had built after moving to Larkspur in 1905. |
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| June 26, 1999 |
[Jun. 26th, 2009|08:42 am] |
Ten years ago today, on a blisteringly hot and sunny day, I married velvetpage. She was a cute nerdy girl. Today, she's curvier and nerdier and cuter than ever.
This is a photo from our honeymoon. In a week, we'll be going back to the same place, knowing a lot more about each other, and with a wealth of years to talk about.
Also, there is a hot tub. |
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| Farewell to Hyboria |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|08:46 pm] |
My dad bought me a used IBM-XT clone for Christmas, 1989. Around that time, Omni magazine was carrying ads for dial-up MUDs, multiple-user text enviroments where you could hang out and pretend to be a dwarf. I loved this idea. I imagined making a con artist in one. I'd describe him as a wise old man, and he'd sit outside the town gate and sell bogus treasure maps to people. Indeed, when I eventually got onto MUDs and MUCKs, I did this sort of thing.
It's frustrating that I can't do that sort of thing in a much more advanced game, like the Conan MMORPG. I can't, because every character in the game is clearly marked as a player or computer character. And, no one talks to the other players, if they can help it.
I gave up on the Conan MMORPG about a day after my last review. I don't know whether this game in particular is just really badly flawed, or whether I'm simply not constitutionally fitted to play MMORPGs. Certainly they seem to require an investment of time over and above anything I'm willing to commit. I got to level 11, and the quests did not get any more epic. They just got longer, or more unrealistic.
At one point, a blacksmith asked me to fetch a crate of steel from a ship at the dock, in exhange for a pair of boots. I got there, and found the crate stuck in the crane. The crew told me I could have it, if I could get it down. I poked at the crane, and the crate fell to the deck and crashed open. The captain was displeased, but let me take the ore, though I'm not sure where I put it. But, this seems to have been an unavoidable scripted event.
Oops! Butterfingers! Can I still have my steel?
It also explained the pile of broken crates on deck. Every few minutes, another player comes along to do this quest, and a broken crate is added to the pile. Presumably, they vanish after a while, or the ship would be nothing but a pile of broken crates. Also, that seems like an awful lot of steel for me to be carrying on my own.
But, really, this is just an example of how the MMORPG works against any kind of immersive experience. How hard would it be to designed a quest that doesn't end up with a stack of broken crates piling up in the same place? It's like everything in the game is designed to remind you that you are playing a game. It's like watching a movie in which the boom mic is constantly visible, or reading a book filled with editing markups. It's like playing an RPG in middle-school with guys who make fun of you for trying to act in character.
Tortage
It almost makes me angry. Here they have created this enormous, beautiful world, with an engine for adjudicating relationships between players, with three dimensional cities and wilderness. This is precisely how I imagined computer games would be someday! Except, the reality is clunky and non-engaging.
You'd think I could wander through this world experiencing wonderful adventures, and meeting interesting people. But the game is specifically designed to defeat that. You don't go into the tavern and swap tales of treasure, or seek adventuring companions. You run pell-mell from place to place, following little arrows on the map and killing things when you arrive. The game does not encourage interaction. If you stay and chat, you get left behind.
The last quest I accepted involved killing 20 snakes, and 20 scorpions. I didn't even start on it. The one before that required me to kill 30 Pict tribesmen. Except, instead of killing 30 of them, I killed the same two guys, 15 times over... because they respawn in the same spot after a couple of minutes.
How is that fun? How is that immersive? |
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| Good News! Sort of! |
[Jun. 24th, 2009|03:41 pm] |
Well, the dental surgeon went poking in my mouth today again. Last week, he'd entirely failed to find the weird lump of flesh at the back of my mouth. It is protruding from the jaw bone behind the top rearmost tooth on the left side. If you can picture that. My range of jaw motion is almost back to normal, and there's no pain any more.
This time, I took care give more precise directions. He poked his mirror in and said, "Oh! Look at that. What is that? There's a white..." *mumblemumble* *pokepoke* "There's a hole, or a... Does this hurt?" *Jab, wigglewiggle*
After a few moments of this, he relented. He said he was stumped by the precise nature of the "lump." It has a "hole" in it, and a small hard thing was impacted in it. He suggested it was a tiny salivary stone that was impacted in a minor salivary gland, noting that he'd looked at a major duct before, which is one reason he'd not seen this. It's also possible it was something I'd ingested. The stone(?) crumbled as he removed it. It left behind the lump. With a hole in it. He stuck a probe into it and found nothing. The lump remains.
I go back in a month, to get the lump inspected. |
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