You guys catching this Keith Olbermann stuff? Oughta be.
Month: September 2006
Spirit of the Century (which is cool, buy it if you like pulp gaming) has an interesting character generation system that reminds me a tad of Lexicon. Hm, Wikipedia has failed yet again; there’s no page for Lexicon. That one, I might actually fix. Anyway.
Spirit’s character generation is a group activity that ensures pre-play connections between characters. I think it can be played out in blog entries. Let’s try it.
Comment here with:
A concept. Pulpy concept. It’s the 30s.
A name. Pulpy name. You know.
Then write up your character’s youth, from birth to age 14. (You were born in 1900, by the by.) Talk about your character’s family’s circumstances, the size of your character’s family, how well he or she gets along with his or her family. Where is your character from? What region? How was he or she educated? What were your character’s friends like?
Also, write down two Aspects which are tied into the events of the character’s childhood or the character’s upbringing. What’s an Aspect? It’s a tag that helps explain who a character is; it’s stuff you wanna see in the game. “Aspects can be relationships, beliefs, catchphrases, descriptors, items, or pretty much anything else that paints a picture of the character.” Quick Witted, “You’ll Never Catch Me Alive,” Raised by Wolves, Champion of the Golden Temple, etc., etc., etc.
The MacArthur Fellows always cheer me up, as much for the people I don’t recognize as for those I do. It must be such a neat surprise to be named.
And look! David Macaulay. I love his books. Josiah McElheny! I don’t know you but you’re not Dale Chihuly. Terence Tao, way to be smart. Luis von Ahn, thanks for inventing CAPTCHA. I love that people invent stuff that seems obvious afterwards. And John Zorn, yeah, there’s a lot right about that.
You know why Wikipedia kind of sucks sometimes? We’ve had a whole year to write about the 2005 recipients, but only 6 out of 25 of them have bios. S’up with that, Internet?
Hey, are you hiring sysadmins in the Boston area? Do you have a NOC position for someone with a few years of experience in desktop support and NOC work (first-tier monitoring and response) or a position for a solid mid-level Windows sysadmin with a ton of hardware, EMC, Veritas, and Windows work under his belt?
Let me know; I might know people who would fit your needs.
Not that it’s likely we’ll forget. That string of pictures has, for the last five years, meant the most to me.