Posts

Movies reviewed this week: Frances Ha and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Years apart, actual quotes. It’s interesting how two of my favorite designers approached the same problem. Unlike a lot of games out there, InSpectres didn’t start as an idea for a cool setting or anything like that. What I wanted to do was try designing a game that “fixed” some problems I saw in similar games that dealt with investigation (no names, please). That problem is what I call the “murder mystery” plot. Basically, it goes like this: the players stumble across a mystery of some sort. The GM then provides clues (in the form of helpful or not-so-helpful NPCs, scraps of forensic information or first-hand knowledge of the event). If the players are smart, they’ll figure it out. If not, then the GM has to guide them along until they do figure it out. In effect, it becomes an exercise for the GM in which the players are guided down a pre-built track and react to stuff that pops up along the way (not unlike a funhouse ride). In the end, the game succeeds or fails on the merits of the GM running that game. What this game does is to allow the GM to set up the events, but then have the players (through their characters) decide what is really going on. The GM then reacts to the players and what they see as intriguing or exciting elements of the story. The other thing I wanted to do was to set up a play structure (the series of events that occurs in each game session). Using this play structure as a guide, the GM and players know what is expected of them at various stages of the game. The fun, of course, comes from doing stuff in each stage. ...

Movies reviewed this week: American Hustle.

Mostly thanks to Hillfolk and the enabling influence of Kickstarter, I’ve wound up with a number of decks of playing cards. As one does. In a feeble but well-meaning attempt to justify the trickle of ten buck pledge levels, I’m going to write up some quick little DramaSystem series pitches based on said decks. I am not committing to running a DramaSystem game based on each deck. Primus, the system works better when it’s in campaign mode. Secundus, not insane. This is the Urban Punk Bicycle Deck (original) from UncommonBeat. (Click to enlarge, cause they’re better-looking full sized.) I am not sure if they’re still available or not; the Web site says Coming Soon. Email ’em and find out! It is not my favorite deck or even in the top half. The backs are really garish without being graffiti-inspired, while the court cards are oddly 80s-flavored. I still love the concept and the spray painted outlines on the pips. OK, so what can we do with this? Nutshell Ten years after the Global Financial Crisis was not averted, all politics are local. All governments are local, for that matter: it takes too much energy and too much effort to worry about what’s happening fifty miles away. The clock is ticking, as the storehouses of resources dwindle away, but it’s hard to care much about that.

1 bottle vanilla soda (we used Dry) 1 shot vodka (Tito’s!) 1/2 clementine, peeled and segmented Squirt of lemon or lime juice Pinch of ginger Ice I imagine the procedure here is pretty obvious. I squeezed one of the clementine segments over the drink and dropped the husk in, but the rest go in unmolested so you can eat them at the end after they absorb some vodka. The ginger is sprinkled over the top once you’ve mixed it.

Movies reviewed this week: Movie 43.

This post has an expiration date, which is approximately three days from publication. Reading it after 9/28? You missed out. The current Bundle of Holding is for a bunch of GUMSHOE games and it seemed worth going over what you get. It might appear that there’s a lot of duplication in the bundle, since all four of the full RPGs are based on the same ruleset. Not so! Night’s Black Agents is the easy sell: technothrillers meet vampires. Spy action, bloodsuckers, Ronin and Alias and so on. You get the basic GUMSHOE rules tuned for action, which had not been a particular strength until this point. Also you get The Zalozhniy Quartet which is probably a solid 8-12 sessions of play, at a guess. Maybe more. ...

Movies reviewed this week: Yor, the Hunter from the Future.

As always, thank you.

Quick notes from the 1 PM Novels You Should Have Read Since Chicon 7 panel. Any errors are wholly mine. Panelists: Elizabeth Bear (moderator), Willie Siros, and Jess Nevins. Any really outstanding books? Siros: Sea Change, S. M. Wheeler fairy tale fable, internal logic, compared to The Last Unicorn Nevins: Brian Catling’s The Vorrh fantasy that avoids the usual fantasy tropes Bear: Cassandra Rose Clark, The Mad Scientist’s Daughter SF, robot civil rights, riff on “Bicentennial Man” issues of climate change, peak oil, global cultural change as background elements Siros: Iain Banks, The Hydrogen Sonata Nevins: Selvedin Avdic, Seven Terrors Horror, post-war Bosnia Bear: Toh EnJoe, The Self-Reference Engine picaresque novel - vignettes revealing greater story Siros: Shaman, Kim Stanley Robinson In dealer’s room – Larry Smith Bear: The Drowning Girl last year, but still good Nevins: Nick Harkaway, Angelmaker Siros: Peter Hamilton, The Great North Road Tighter than other recent Hamilton Bear: new Tales of the Beanworld hardcover, Larry Marder makes a good entry point into the series Nevins: Anna Tambour’s Crandolin medieval cookbook novel? Bear: Barbara Hambly’s Benjamin January series Good Man Friday historical detective novels Siros: Karen Joy Fowler: We Were Completely Beside Ourselves mainstream/slipstream Bear: American Elsewhere, Robert Jackson Bennett weird small town with small things going on that add up to something bigger Austin writer, writes books that are hard to summarize Nevins: Lauren Beukes, Shining Girls time travel, serial killer Bear: Ian Tregillis has finished his Milkweed trilogy Bitter Seeds, Coldest War, Necessary Evil alternate WW2, Nazis create super soldiers and UK turns to necromancy Siros: Neal Gaiman, Ocean At The End Of The Lane Bear: Karen Lord, Best Of All Possible Worlds planetary romance, not plot-driven, reminds Bear of Bradbury “a very relaxing book” Nevins: Koji Suzuki’s Edge quantum horror about California falling into the sea, Greg Egan-esque Bear: Seanan McGuire’s cryptid books lighthearted fun Jim C. Hines Libriomancer and Codex Born magicians who can pull things out of books they’re written in some books are locked off… the One Ring Nevins: The Last Policeman, Ben Winters policeman doing his job in a small town before the meteor hits Nevins: Deb Taber, Necessary Ill Siros: Devon Monk, Cold Steel and sequels steampunk Wild West, brothers who are lycanthropes Bear: Merrie Haskell’s Handbook for Dragon Slayers, middle school to write a handbook for dragon slayers, one must slay a dragon… Bear: Summer Prince, Alaya Dawn Johnson far future post-apocalyptic YA, set in Brazil Siros: Brandon Sanderson, Rithmatist math based magic, YA Bear last thoughts: Wesley Chu, The Lives of Tao Ramez Naan, Nexus and Crux The Incrementalists, Skyler White and Steven Brust coming in September Max Gladstone, Three Parts Dead epic fantasy constructed like an urban fantasy which is a courtroom drama Siros last thoughts: Steven Gould, Impulse next in Jumper series The Thousand Names, Django Wexler historical fantasy/alternate world Evening’s Empire, Paul McAuley Nevins last thoughts: Hannu Rajaniemi, The Fractal Prince Audience Mira Grant, Blackout (Newsflesh trilogy) Lois McMaster Bujold, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance David Levithan, Every Day, YA Daryl Gregory, Raising Stony Mayhall, YA zombie POV James S. A. Corey, Abaddon’s Gate, third in the Expanse series Allen Steele, Apollo’s Outcast, compared to Heinlein’s juveniles Anthology: Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, John Joseph Adams edited Paul Cornell’s London Falling, London urban fantasy verging on horror Year Zero, Rob Reed, humor The Golem And The Jinni, Helene Wecker, literary fiction set in 1899 NYC The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, sequel to The Long Earth