Game quotes are a key part of the Ambercon experience. Thusly, my jotted notes from the weekend. They’re all funny from my perspective, and probably from the perspective of those who were in the games. Maybe not so much for others. Also my note-taking is terrible and unreliable.
Author: Bryant
Let me get this straight. Nicholas Cage is playing Benjamin Franklin Gates, scion of the family Gates, which has been sworn for generations to find and protect a legendary treasure. The Founding Fathers of the United States left clues to the location of the treasure in the symbols of America, in particular the eye in the pyramid. Now he’s racing against a British rival to reach the treasure before it’s too late?
I’ll see that.
So Rachel Ray, Bobby Flay, Anthony Bourdain, Emeril Lagasse, Frederic van Coppernolle, Jamie Oliver, and Alton Brown get kidnapped by Princess Florimel to compete for the post of Head Chef of Amber Castle…
Cooking ensued. Lots of fun, despite the fact that I am somewhat Food Network challenged. Mostly posted for the sake of my foodie friends, who can now proceed to be properly amused.
So I figured I might as well go to an Amber convention because I like new things and I have friends who said “You should come!” And if I’m going to go do something new, I’m of course going to write about it. Thusly.
The Black Road has something like 36 people attending, which makes it the smallest con I’ve ever been to. The small size means it’s relatively easy to get all the GMs and all their players talking before the game. I had two PCs in hand weeks before the convention, which boosted my anticipation considerably. It’s tempting to think this could work for bigger cons, but that way lies madness. At least for the convention organizers.
First game was a cool swashbuckly affair run by Ginger and Michael. I got to play a Rebman water mage with attitude. I find that in a con game, if you blow your first roll, you might as well go with it — it’s a corollary of the Rigney Rule (“Your character is defined by his or her first action and the consequences thereof.”). When Nerissa asked the currents where land was and they lied to her by 180 degrees, it was pretty clear she was going to be the snobbish sometimes competent one of the bunch. More on the game later, maybe.
Oh, but I will note that it used the Everway rules, which were mostly transparent to we the players but which also worked out well. Next I’m playing in a cooking-themed game set in Amber. Tomorrow I’m playing My Life With Master and kill puppies for satan, both Amber-themed, of course. But still. Who knew that in order to play indie RPGs, you just need to go to an Amber con?
Bush’s new campaign video, “Kerry’s Coalition of the Wild-eyed,” will certainly inspire his base. It’s a miscalculation nonetheless.
The video opens with Gore asking how we can possibly drag the good name of America through Saddam’s torture prison. This keeps the Abu Ghraib scandal prominent. That’s not so good for Bush; it doesn’t poll well at all. Then you get the cheesy Nazi images which won’t hurt Bush, although their use here implies that Abu Ghraib wasn’t so bad — which, again, people will disagree with.
Next, Howard Dean says he wants his country back. This may be the most effective moment for Bush; the Dean = anger meme is still around. It’s immediately followed by the segment of Michael Moore’s Academy Award speech in which he says that we went to war for fictitious reasons. Hey, if Bush wants to remind a disenchanted public that they may agree with Moore, that’s fine by me.
Then Gephardt calls Bush a miserable failure. 54% of Americans polled by USA Today think that sending troops to Iraq was a mistake. Whoops. More Nazi images in left-wing political ads follow — again, this’ll be pretty effective — and then Gore calls out that Bush has betrayed this country. You know, it’s easier to smear Gore as an out of control maniac when you don’t show him speaking with honest passion.
Finally, Bush kindly presents Kerry’s soundbite about all the people who are unemployed because of Bush’s policies. Ouch.
So yeah — this is going to make anyone who was already going to vote for Bush very happy. But it is not going to persuade fence-sitters. It simply exposes the undecided to 20 seconds of Bush criticism without any response from the Bush campaign other than “wow, aren’t they angry and cynical?” Problem is, it’s a cynicism and anger which is shared by many voters.
(Via rone.)
“If you’re not excited by a movie that features giant robots, hand-held death rays, flying fortresses, mysterious ninja hotties, underwater dogfights, last-second cliffhangers, and guest-starring cameos from dead guys, then maybe this movie wasn’t made for you.”
(Scroll down. But the Wes Anderson flick sounds great too.)
Oh, yeah, did I mention my new thing? I did not. Now I have. It is a support site for a very cool roleplaying game plus it is also a technology demonstration. Next time I feel like doing a site that takes user submissions it’s going to be a lot quicker, I can tell you that.
I used this script but modified a lot and more secure, yes yes.
Kerry grandstands a little and visits the Senate to vote on an amendment which provides more veteran benefits. The Republicans use various procedural tactics to make sure he can’t vote on the bill, delaying it until the next day. Kerry heads back to keep on campaigning. The Republicans vote the bill down.
Of course Kerry was playing political games and manuvering to make himself look good. But it worked. Maybe Bush doesn’t want the military vote.
Dave Winer, 3/23/04:
The Cluetrain says we should be more open and communicate. I’ve bought into that. So have the Trotts and their investors. If they have to walk on eggshells in order to communicate, they’re going to do less of it. So try to give them the benefit of the doubt, and try to work with them. I will too, overlooking how they’ve treated me in the past, because it’s good for the community for us all to work together.
Dave Winer, 5/14/04:
Six Apart announced new pricing for Movable Type and hell breaks loose. The users are acting as children, saying somehow they didn’t know that eventually Six Apart would charge for their software. I knew they were going to charge, why didn’t you? I can say this because I’m not a customer (I do use their software, but I didn’t pay for it) and I’m not them. But I’ve been where they are and it sucks. No one’s perfect. If you use their software, you owe them some money. If you don’t like the price, don’t use it.
Dave Winer, 5/21/04, on Six Apart’s pricing:
Editorial: It’s lame to charge for weblog software based on how many weblogs you make and how many authors there are. A weblog isn’t that big a deal. Manila lets you make as many weblogs as you want with as many authors as you want. Today’s modern $2K computer can manage thousands of weblogs. Charge a fair price and don’t fuss over how many blogs they make or how many people edit them.
Dave Winer, 6/14/04, on transitioning weblogs.com sites:
There are several commercial Manila hosting companies, including weblogger.com. Thomas Creedon maintains a list of commercial and free hosting services. If you want to have your site hosted more cheaply, consider the possibility of forming a co-op of some kind.
Anil Dash of Six Apart, 6/15/04:
We’re also interested in offering TypePad as a hosting service for those who are transitioning their weblogs.com sites. I’ve got a good idea how to do a lot of the tech, but if people can lend insights into a more open way to export and import these sites, I’m all ears.
I’d love to see someone document the process of migrating (from any tool to any other, really) in order to help us all focus on making this better for users in the future. I’d volunteer myself but I’d rather it be someone neutral who’s interested.
Dave Winer, 6/23/04:
One difference between what happened to SixApart and what happened to me, is that I came to their defense, and they joined the mob. I’ll still come to their defense in the future, when I think the community needs moderation, but I won’t forget what they did, trying to hustle new business with the people whose sites were stranded.
Another Gmail tool: