It's where I talk to myself. Gaming, politics, and links I don't want to forget about.
Not enough gaming today? I have more! See now the UPC Bar Code Character Generator, which informs me that the Johnny Cash album sitting next to my computer is a female elf with Str 14 and no other notable stats. Star Wars Galaxies is a fairly wise, cute halfling with special military training.
Via One Hit At A Time. So much gaming talk. It must be Gencon coming on.
Dear Brother #6 is written to Alan Greenspan, because Reese’s brother made an appearance in the episode.
In Dear Brother #5, Mister Beulay goes to Washington. Not an epic session, but after raising Huey Long it’s nice to take a break.
In installment four, our heros speak with the Kingfish. See? I said there were politics in it.
In the third Dear Brother letter, Reese gets a tattoo and we meet Danny and Angie. Those who read my blog for the politics are starting to get confused. But it’s really a very political game!
In the second installment of the Dear Brother letters, Reese and the gang fight a crocodile. At least, if you define “fight” as “feed a helpless old man to.”
The Dear Brother letters are my in character record of the terrifyingly cool Unknown Armies game run by the mysterious Canadian Rob. I’ve been writing ‘em for a while but never thought to put them on the Web until now. Thus, six in quick succession. Sorry ‘bout that.
In this entry, Reese and the gang fight Mickey Mouse.
hypocorisma is a weblog dedicated to naming. Just naming. Not names for gaming, not choosing names for your kid — those are aspects of naming, and S. V. Affolee is into the process of naming itself. There’s a domain expert for everything out there.
So this is an experiment.
I like genre-mashing. I also like drawing on the tropes of Western media to give genres a new spin. I also think the Game WISH is the bee’s knees.
Thus, I’m kicking out Monday Mashup as a writing exercise. The format is pretty simple: I’ll toss out a roleplaying game/setting and a piece of pop culture, and you write up a brief rendition of a possible campaign that incorporates ‘em both in whatever unhealthy form you prefer. If people dig it, I’ll keep going, and if not, I will continue to chortle about my weird ideas in privacy.
This week: the forensic scientists of CSI meet Greyhawk. Go!
WISH 55 asks about names:
How do you choose character names? What makes a good or bad name for a character? What are three examples of really good (or really bad) character names, and why are they so good or bad?
I just kick names around until they feel right. I tend to use baby name books and sources often, thanks to Gretchen’s pernicious influence. I have an archived copy of the Onomastikon which has been very useful for culturally appropriate names. I don’t think my names are ever particularly stellar, but they work.
Examples. Um. I’m still fond of Paul/Emoticon. Paul made the fatal mistake of allowing American reporters to coin a superhero name for him, and as he’s French he didn’t realize how lame a name Emoticon was. (His power was projective empathy, which manifested as glyphs in the air in front of him.) He was always a little annoyed about that, although he refused to show it.
Daevros was a great character with a lousy name. What can I say? I’m not a Dr. Who fan, so I didn’t realize.
Oh, I guess I can admit to the source for Reese Beulay’s last name as my third example. I like David Bowie a lot, and I found the contrast between the song and the concept of backwoods redneck mystics to be amusing.