Editorials and Musings

We’re doing some spring-cleaning here this weekend, and I decided it was long past time I made some more room on my shelves. To the local second-hand bookstore went my Dungeons & Dragons v3.5 core rulebooks and the Eberron Campaign Setting, Star Wars Revised Core Rulebook, the Serenity RPG, my Amazing Engine core and supplements, HERO System 5th Edition and the Sidekick supplement, Systems Failure, The Shadow of Yesterday and Nine Worlds. Into the recycling bin have gone Traveller: The New Era, Brilliant Lances (the T:NE starship combat strategy game), Car Wars Deluxe Edition and Shatterzone, as well as reams of character sheets, system summaries, campaign notes and printed PDF rulebooks, stuff I’ll never need to use again and, in all honesty, probably never actually put to any practical use in a game in the first place.

Am I giving up on the RPG hobby? No; I still have almost a shelf full of RPG product, including the D&D 4th Edition Player’s Handbook. Also, John Wick’s latest game, Houses of the Blooded, will be on its way to me as soon as John sorts out some unfortunate shipping issues. But if you’re a regular reader of this web log you’ve probably noticed the sense of gnawing dissatisfaction in my posts about gaming as far back as the Black Talon campaign, especially those games that I’m GMing.

Continue reading "RPG Spring Cleaning" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 10:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Back in April, I posted about how I’d followed a link from the Bungie website and discovered a televised professional video gaming league in the states. I’ve been following the Halo 3 part of the Major League Gaming 2008 Pro Circuit on and off since; I’ve come to know the names of commentators Sundance diGiovanni and Chris Puckett, and I always look forward to the next ESPN/MLG Top 10 (one mistake I made in the last post; MLG isn’t a division of ESPN, it’s a company on it’s own which has a broadcast contract with ESPN). Scarier still, I now know the name Stride Gum about as well as I do that of Powdermilk Biscuits.

I came in at the tail end of the Meadowlands Championship, catching up via the website's online rebroadcasts of the event. Two more events were conducted, one in San Diego in June and another in Orlando in July. A few hours ago, though, the fourth Pro Circuit stop in Toronto came to an end. For the first time I found myself not only following the Halo 3 tournament (there were also Gears of War and Rainbow Six Vegas 2 tourneys) closely across the weekend (when my bloody connection would allow me to load the MLG website and, if I was lucky, stream video) but also barracking for a couple of teams.

Continue reading "MLG Toronto: Following the Coverage" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 02:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Since I got involved with the PMS Clan, I’ve been thinking about my web presence again; I’ve started getting a bit more active in various places and before Vickie hides my PC’s power cord because I’m spending too much time with it, I’d like to put some thought around my various web-presences and organise my various efforts.

So what are these web presences?

• The very blog you're reading now. I call this web log my notepad and idea-journal, so it’s home to my thinkings, rants and the rare bout of fiction.


• The Grin With Legs, my MySpace. I originally intended it as my “social calendar” blog, but after indoor soccer finished I pretty much left it alone. When I started courting the local divisions of the PMS / H2O Clan, I discovered that the clans and their members had MySpaces, so I started sending Friend requests, andmy blogging over there.


• The PMS / H2O Clan blog. When the PMS Clan implemented its site redesign this week, one of the new features they added was member blogs, and I’d like to set one up for myself.

Continue reading "My Three Blogs" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 01:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

" 'Do what millions of other men are doing today!' What, wanking?"

Posted by IMAGinES at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Around this time of year, people start thinking about things like resolutions and such. Like most, I have some trouble fulfilling my resolutions, so my first and main resolution for this year is to improve my skill at goal-setting. This has been a problem for me ever since the last year of primary school, especially when it came to assignments. I’d get told to make this big thing in this amount of time, and I got so intimidated that I just shut it out of my mind until it was too late. I need to get good at recognising how to break this huge thing into discrete, easy-to-accomplish chunks and then processing those chunks while still managing my overall progress.

There are a few goals I want to set myself to; paying off the mortgage, determining my ideal job, take Vickie on a trip to Cambodia, play more RPGs, etc. Those sorts of goals, though, are large, long term and / or require someone else to make an opportunity available (not the Vickie to Cambodia one, the job one). I want to get some practice at goal setting with something familiar (so I know whether the goal I’m setting for myself is achievable), something easy to measure, something that requires no additional investment beyond time and effort.

Continue reading "Goal-Setting and Planning: 4,000 Gamerscore" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 04:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As the year slowly draws to a close, I find myself in the mood for a little more navel-gazing. Today, I skimmed the posts I made during 2007 and made some notes on the trends I noticed, and I’d like to do a “state of the me” by summarising them and seeing what I can learn.

I’ll start the trend that was probably the most obvious to the most people: Transformers Mania. A good half of this year was spent in anticipation of the release of this film, and while it was good fun, I think I cost myself the opportunity to enjoy a good few other things in my life by spending time on the Intarwebs looking for pictures and nuggets of news. I knew I was probably spoiling the movie for myself, but I just – I dunno. It just felt good somehow. Now, I don’t think there’ll be a next time; I’m not hunting down rumours about Iron Man (or even the TF sequel) like I did with Transformers. But if it does happen, I’ll recognise it, take a deep breath and recognise the plenty around me.

Continue reading "Reflections on 2007" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 04:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Quite frankly, when I think over most of my teenage and adult years, it’s fair to say that I didn’t have much in the way of personal confidence. This might surprise you if you’re one of the folks who’s known me for a long while. I used to carry a lot of nicknames like, “Smiley”, “The Grin With Legs” and “Yoshi”, after the creature in the Mario games that was always happy (a lass at the post office in North Sydney named me that). The odd thing is, although I smiled a lot, I wasn’t ever really happy, especially not with myself. I think I was trying to convince everyone else I was just fine, mainly because, like pretty much everything else, I was doing it because it was what people expected of me – and, as such, I was almost always depressed. I mean, remember how I always used to insist on being called “Robert”? How could someone as easy-going as a Smiley be that uptight?

During that time, I think the one thing I most wanted was to organise and run an ongoing RPG campaign. It was the one idea that dominated my waking time (well, that and sex, I suppose). Vickie once said, maybe a year after we met, that I got into roleplaying games, and perhaps the game master’s role in particular, because the offered me a sense of control that was otherwise very fleeting. She was right on the money. Again, if you played in a game I was running, especially Black Talon or that Primetime Adventures Skype game I tried to set up, you knew how panic-prone I was about the campaign concept, my players’ ideas for characters, how I’d have GM’s Block about the next session, how it was all crap and not going to work. Some of it was because I don’t really think I had an idea of the sort of fun I wanted out of RPGs, but some of it was definitely that need for control asserting itself. Maybe the two problems were really one and the same?

Continue reading "Living Between Games" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 05:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I tried to get a bunch of people over my place at one PM last Saturday in the hope of running a roleplaying game session for them. Of my invitees, three people said they could make it. Knowing how hard it is to get gamers organised, I double-checked closer to time and discovered that one had forgotten about a favour she promised her parents, which meant she could only come after three, another couldn’t get out of work any earlier than five and the third had children’s birthday parties, locking his whole day out. On the actual day, the friend who was helping her folks wound up with a nasty illness and had forgotten all about coming over, so she didn’t call to let us know. Needless to say, no gaming happened that weekend.

Yesterday, I was at work, and the morning had turned into a rolling panic. Amid the flurry of booking slips and having my counterpart tied up organising invitations to a major event, I did a co-worker what seemed a simple favour that ended up in me splitting the seam of my trousers right along the seat. I had to hustle down to the nearest Lowes, a few blocks away, with my jacket tied about my waist (it was still a little drafty) and buy myself some replacements. I got back to work a little after half past eleven and got stuck back into keeping up, figuring I’d have no time for lunch.

Continue reading "Appointments, Expectations and Apologies" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

CLAIMER: In this post, I am a cussed bastard who elevates personal taste to objective truth. Keep that in mind when you feel your hackles raising or your gorge rising while reading.

You know, I was never much interested in going to see 300. Mainly it was because Sin City, when I finally saw it, didn't really do it for me. It's pretty much like Pulp Fiction was for me back in the mid-nineties; all the cool kids were talking about it and how brilliant it was, but when I finally got around to seeing it - well, I just couldn't see why such a big fuss was being made. I mean, it was sort of interesting, sure, and I liked the chopping-and-changing narrative, but when I saw all the bits everyone dubbed hilarious and/or shining examples of Quentin Tarantino's cinematic genius, I just went "Er... huh?"

Same with Sin City. The only Frank Miller work I know I've read is The Dark Knight Returns, which is pretty damned good, and I like Robert Rodriguez' Mariachi trilogy. But after seeing the film, I know know I'm pretty uninterested in reading any of the Sin City books. I didn't mind the camera style so much, but most of the rest of it was just so damned OTT that I didn't really enjoy it. Bruce's voice over was devoid of emotion, I wished Dwight would quit harping on about his valkyrie, and although the women were gorgeous I figured it'd be nice if some of them stopped sneering and left their clothes on (come to think of it, one did: Jessica Alba). I liked Mickey Rourke as Marv, but that was about it. (No, From Dusk 'Til Dawn didn't really do it for me either.)

Continue reading "If It's Good Enough For Will..." »

Posted by IMAGinES at 04:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

A little late night musing for you all, something that's been knocking around in my head for a little while. I find myself in the mood to write it out and see how it reads.

The world is big. It's a fact argued by few, but it took a while for the full implications to really settle for me. See, the world is everything, the weather, the landscape, the trees, the air, the plants, the houses, the traffic lights, the trains, the cars, the planes, the people. Everything. And each individual "thing" in the world (a plane, a tree, a person, a mountain, whatever) can be both subdivided into smaller things and also be seen as part of a larger thing. Basically, everything is part of everything else, even though it mightn't seem that way when you just use your eyes to look at the world and see the empty spaces in between everything.

Continue reading "On Trust" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 10:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The holiday is almost over. Seven hours ago, I dropped Jacqui and Kate, Vickie's eldest daughter and her grand-daughter, off at Cairns Airport for their flight back to Melbourne after spending the week here (we just had a phone call; they're home safe). Forty hours ago I went to bed after a party at our place. In a couple of hours I'll be off to bed and getting up at six tomorrow morning to prepare for work.

And I'm thirty. I've officially been on this Earth for thirty years.

It's odd. On one hand, being thirty doesn't mean much - although I'm a second closer to the septannual (is that a valid word?) rotation of the atoms that comprise my body, I'm still pretty much the same person that I was at ten to midnight on July the tenth. The centre of my being hasn't undergone some radical shift. My self identity is still composed of all the usual bits and pieces; I'm still in love with Vickie, I'm still an SF nut, I'm still more nervous than I'd prefer to be, I'd still like to pay in or run a tabletop roleplaying game sometime and I still have a slightly unhealthy fixation on Transformers.

Yet on the other hand, I find myself reaching for cliched terms like milestone. I mean, I'm thirty. Three zero. There's something there, not mid-life-crisis wise (someone shoot me if I ever get that bad), but something that invites a pause for reflection. I've lived through 262,800 hours. The actions I've taken and the things that have happened to me during those hours have made me the person sitting at this computer right now, and all that time needs some sort of, I don't know, processing so that the decisions I'll keep on making will lead to me being more sane, more able to take the world as it is without panic.

Continue reading "Navel-Gazing" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 09:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It's been an anticipatory couple of weeks, I have to say. Not only are we a couple of weeks away from the opening of Transformers, but not long ago, Channel Ten started running ads for the BBC TV series Torchwood, the spin-off series of Doctor Who (something of a surprise, as the source series is screening on the ABC). Brook seemed interested in Torchwood - most likely because of its strapping leading man, Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman - so I decided to bring her up to speed by introducing her to Season 1 of the new Doctor Who. On Friday night, I showed her the first couple of episodes, which she said were "weird", and I'd planned to skip ahead to "Dalek", but we were interrupted by the arrival of some of Brook's friends, and she wandered out with them for the rest of the evening.

Continue reading "Well, Who Could Blame Her?" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 07:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I popped into my Wiki today, fearing that it had become a haven for Wikispam in my absence, only to discover that it seems to have broken down. Every page is giving me an SQL database error message.

I’m not sure if I’ll ask Marcus whether he can fix it up. I think today was the first time in a good couple of months that I’d gone anywhere near it. Also, it’s not really being used as I hoped it would; the various campaigns mooted in the last six months have all tripped at the gate and I lost interest in the last Lexicon game I tried to organise, many moons ago. In that regard, I think I’ll just take it down to make room for more blog posts. (I still have to do some fix-ups on Vickie’s blog…)

Continue reading "Wiki Down; Gaming Down" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

UPDATE 24 May 07 8:30AM: If you're on a low-bandwidth connection and / or are sick of Yahoo's craphouse "Standard" version, the Transformers movie website now has a Flash version of the trailer. Revel in it! Revel, I say!

You may have seen Tycho’s recommendation to bask in the wonderment that is the newest trailer for the upcoming Transformers film. Me, I didn’t even need the encouragement; I was already there last week, waiting for twenty minutes for the 720p version to stream down via Quicktime. I wouldn’t have bothered, save that Yahoo’s “Standard Version” is a heap. But I tell you, that hi-def glory at 1280 x 1024 on a 19” screen is worth every second of the wait.

I mind me another trailer that got me going a couple of years ago. I will confess that Transformers inspires a different sort of anticipation than Superman Returns did, though; I know that Transformers is going to be less a character study and more a straight-up SF action film, and I’m happy with that; as I’ve written previously, as long as it gets the action right, I won’t mind if it has about as much plot as Independence Day or The Rock.

Continue reading "What Are The Transformers? Who Is Optimus Prime?" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 06:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

You know, I noticed that roleplaying games seem to be dominating my waking thoughts much less than they used to. I think my last post related to RPGs was, what, mid-March? Strange, only a month, but it seems a long time ago.

As Vickie recently observed, I tended to filter everything social through an RPG filter. If I were organising a get-together, it would be oriented around the local gamers, and although I liked them, it was our common interest in the hobby that I was organising the meet-up around. I’ve been turning that around recently; David dropped over last night for a good chat with Vickie and I (and, I’ll confess, I showed the 360 off), and tonight we’re off to a mentoring scheme get-together and a dinner with some friends whom I met through work. There’re still quite a few folks we haven’t seen in a while and would like to get together with, and some of them are gamers, but the shared interest is only part of why we want to keep in touch (and no longer the dominant part for me, either). Given half a chance, I’d still love to run a Burning Empires campaign, but I don’t, you know, need to. "Successful Gamer" isn't really tied into my self image any more.

Continue reading "Exchanging Addictions" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 02:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I just realised yesterday how clever Microsoft were when they introduced the Gamerscore to their Xbox Live profiles. It’s a neat little mechanism of addiction. If you’ve ever played in any game where you have an improvable ranking, you’ll likely know what I mean. The trick is, the Gamerscore is tied directly into each Xbox 360 game you play. Every game has a list of achievements that you can work toward, and each one you achieve bumps your Gamerscore up by ten-point increments. Nail down a particularly tricky achievement and you can find your Gamerscore has suddenly bumped up by thirty points!

The Gamerscore not only encourages you to play a given game, but it also rewards you for replaying it. Gears of War, for example, gives an achievement for completing each act in the campaign (I think there are somewhere between six and eight acts in total) on each level of difficulty, plus an achievement once you’ve completed the whole game on a given difficulty level. With three difficulty levels, this means that you could quite conceivably play the whole campaign through three times. On top of that, there are various achievements for feats, like five perfect reloads in a row, and high scores in multiplayer games.

Continue reading "Gamerscore Is The New EverCrack" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Vickie pointed something very interesting out to me earlier on. Every time I try and orginse a meeting with the folks whom I've met through a common interest in the roleplaying game hobby, it's always gotta be about the hobby. It's either one of the gaming get-togethers or an actual game session. And you know what? Once again, she's right. Outside of birthday parties I've not once organised a "let's hang out" get-together for any of my gaming friends.

The only reason I can come up with that fits with how I've been acting and my mindset at those times is because I've simply been fixated on gaming. The thought of just hanging out with these people hadn't really crossed my mind. It's odd, because I've been readng a lot lately about how the best gaming comes from gaming with friends and roleplaying as a typical, socially integrated practice and agreeing with what I'm reading, but somehow I've avoided comparing the content of those articles to my personal approach to the hobby. I'm trying too damn hard to get a game going; I'm so invested in my self-identity as a gamer that my lack of actual, you know, gaming is driving me up the wall!

The best thing to do about that, I think, is to set it aside for a while and do something else social. As such, I've cancelled my plan to get some fellow gamers together this coming Saturday and hash out campaign concepts for Heavy Gear. Instead, I'm going to try and get as many friends, including gaming friends, as I can over our place on the afternoon/evening of Saturday, March 24th for a barbecue. If interesting, involving discussion happens, fantastic; if it happens to involve the RPG hobby, gravy, but no big deal if it doesn't.

I'd just like to end this post by acknowledging something I don't realise enough - the amount of work Vickie does in helping me stay sane and stable. It's not easy, especially as I tend to over-react and clam up whenever I get criticised, no metter how constructively. But she keeps at it, and occasionally, she gets results! :-)

Posted by IMAGinES at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Now that I’m past yesterday’s minor bout of depression, let me have a look at what’s on my plate at the moment and how I want to organise it:

• First and foremost, as always, is Vickie. Our recent lack of readies means we’ve not been getting out much. This weekend we’re turning that around by going out to see Wild Hogs, as I mentioned. I don’t want that trip to be a flash in the pan, though, and after going over our income and budget again, we’ll be able to afford to go out more often. We have some friends who we’ve not seen in a little while, so it’s about time we made some phone calls.

My other priorities are, in no particular order:

Continue reading "Priorities and Scheduling" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 09:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Okay, utterly blowing past the obligatory Christmas post which I didn't write anyway, it's resolution time! Before we start on 2007's resolutions, let's just take a look back at the ones I set for 2006, shall we? Nope, didn't learn to cook. PERL and server maintenance? Excuse me while I overcome a fit of hysterical laughter. Finding and/or making more Cairns gamers I actually managed to pull off, although most of the ones I met last year had just moved into town. Xbox Live, yeah, but didn't use it that much and let the subscription die in favour of buying Christmas presents for, you know, other people. In fact, any spending money on game-related product didn't go anywhere near as planned; none of the games listed in that post I actually bought. System Link Xbox games? Nup.

Well, as my main New Year's Resolution is to clear as much credit card debt as I can, I have the feeling I won't be buying any new gaming product (outside of Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, which will come out of the Christmas money from Dad that doesn't go on four new tyres). But I do still have some gaming-specific resolutions:

Continue reading "Resolutions for 2007" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 01:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In a matter of three days, two "reality TV" contests draw to a close. Last night, the final of the fourth (for some odd reason, I thought it was the fifth) series of Australian Idol drew to a close, with Irishman Damien Leith pipping Territory lass Jessica Mauboy for the crown. This has been the first season where I've been interested enough in the talent to watch through since the Top Twelve was finalised (although I did miss an episode or two). The contestants were good all round, with, perhaps, the exception of Lisa Mitchell; I just couldn't quite hear what Mark, Marcia and Kyle heard when she sang. She had the kind of voice that would probably go over well with the alternative crowd who'd like Kasey Chambers if she weren't so country, but to my ear, she just jarred. On the other hand, I was sorry to see Bobby leave - <bitchiness>at least, before Lisa, anyway.</bitchiness>

My take on the winner? Frankly, I thought both of them deserved the nod, and I was definitely not unhappy to see Damien get the vote.

Continue reading "A Little Too Real for Reality TV?" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 09:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

WARNING: This article is still a work in progress. The writing isn't quite as plain-English as I'd prefer, and I think I need some feedback before I can get it there.

If the RPGnet Forums are any represenation of the hobby of roleplaying games, any body of theory that attempts to examine or address the activity of roleplaying is almost always savaged by people who believe that, because they don't understand it, it mustn't be of any utility to anyone with a brain. One of the most oft-attacked targets is a body of theory known as the Big Model, suggested by a gamer named Ron Edwards and hashed out on the RPG forum he manages, The Forge. Now, while I might agree that the model and the way it's presented have their weaknesses, I do believe that a) the model as a whole is sound and b) has helped identify what I want out of the hobby. I chalk the fact that my recent gaming hasn't been consistently successful up to a combination of conflicting schedules and my gaming skills being rusty.

The least understood, and most attacked, part of the model is the part known as "creative agenda", or more commonly, "GNS", the abbreviation of the three creative agendas the model posits - arguments over the utility of GNS have cemented a long-standing animosity between many denizens of RPGnet and The Forge. I read a recent thread over on RPGnet, where a poster attempted to explain her understanding of GNS, and while I had the feeling that she grasped the more readily-evident concepts, there was something fundamental to the three creative agendas that she'd missed - and that the main essays themselves hadn't explained to my satisfaction. That fundamental thing is: What the heck is a creative agenda anyway, and what makes them different to the other agendas or goals others suggest?

Here's my attempt to answer that question. I considered posting it on RPGnet, but thought better of it and put it up here instead. It's probably not complete or as thorough as I'd like, but I believe it's serviceable enough.

Continue reading "This Whole Creative Agenda Business" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 10:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, after getting all ambitious and posting about organising a non-RPGA con in Cairns, I've had a longer brew on the idea and the various points and suggestions made by helpful respondees - thank you, Leefe, Sim, Steve, and Tracey, by the way. I knew that a convention would involve a significant investment of time and money, and the respondees helped clarify what those investments would entail. While there's nothing wrong with the idea in principle, Vickie and I can't really afford to make those investments at the moment (said moment probably lasting for the next twelve to eighteen months). Due to our helping some people out we're in quite a bit of debt right now; one of our New Year's Resolutions is to clear it all by the end of 2007. Also, the practical matter of planning and organising a convention is simply too impractical right now.

However, there's something I'd still like to do, and that's organise and establish a regular gamers' get-together. It's an idea I've had for a year or so now, and after the rough success of the Courthouse meetup in October I think organising a monthly sit-down lunch is going to do more for the Cairns gaming community - or at least, for my getting to know the Cairns gaming community - okay, fine, for the odds of me putting a campaign together - than a roughshod convention.

So, I'm going to start e-mailing people sometime in early December to drum up some interest in another get-together for January or early February, and if that one pans out okay as well, I think we'll be able to make it a regular event.

Posted by IMAGinES at 01:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In my last post, I listed why I believe the fact that ReefCon is the only fixture in an otherwise fluid Cairns RPG scene presents problems for said scene. It's easy, though, to criticise an endeavour when you've never made or are unwilling to make a similar endeavour yourself. Which means that niggle I mentioned in the last post often takes the form of a little voice in my head which says, "Why not organise your own RPG convention?"

And I'm starting to seriously think about it.

Now I know I'd be going into it utterly blind. I also know that there's at least one subscriber to IMAGinewS who's been part of the organising team behind a con or two, which means I'll probably be pestering those people for advice. I'll especially need help with venue organisation and liability insurance.

Continue reading "ConStruction Blueprints" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 12:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Something that’s been niggling at me for a while bloomed into a full-fledged bother after the October gamers’ get-together. It was due to a comment that Bruce made; I can’t quote it verbatim, but the gist of it was that while there’s a lot of turnover in the membership of the Cairns RPG scene, ReefCon remains the one dependable fixture. On one had, that’s cool; there’s at least one event per year where gamers new to town have a chance to meet fellow gamers.

On the other hand, that presents two distinct problems.

Continue reading "My Whinge: ReefCon, The Cairns RPG Fulcrum" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 12:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Okay, folks, I've been naughty; I just spent some cash on Yet Another RPG. This one's Burning Empires, written by Luke Crane and using his Burning Wheel system. It's based on the Iron Empires comics by Christopher Moeller, known for his Star Wars comic book cover art and illustrations for Magic: The Gathering cards. A few years ago, Moeller was in discussions with Avalanche Press to do an RPG and setting guide for Iron Empires; it was even mentioned at the back of one of the Iron Empires issues. That didn't work out, allowing Crane, a fan of the comics, to pitch his own system to Moller. Several months of blood, sweat and tears later, Crane and Co. at Burning Wheel HQ put out an amazing product.

One of RPGnet's members was recently reading an old Iron Empires issue, read the note about the then-forthcoming Avalanche Press effort and started a thread asking for more info. A respondent wrote:

As much as I like BE, I wish there was a metric ton more setting info.

Continue reading "Setting Info and Playing Without Playing" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So I was watching Scrubs at 11.30 on Monday evening (yes, I get Mondayitis on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays). When I first saw bits of the show, I really didn't think I'd like it - it looked as though it was more of that "Trying Hard to be as Surreal as Monty Python and Failing" comedy that those American-type peoples produce now and again. Then I caught a little of it one day after an episode of Boston Legal - and found myself liking it (I think it was something to do with JD imagining a black Leprechaun). It's zany - but in that silly, not-willing-to-grow-up way I wish life could be like now and again - or, more accurately, it's as silly as I'd like to get away with being.

Oh, and Dr. Perry Cox is House's evil twin brother. Vickie and I love him.

Anyway, last episode, Carla's pregnant, and her husband Turk and his best friend JD are working on the nursery, including mural for the main wall. Carla walks in and asks what the hell they're doing. They turn with big grins and present the wall:

With thanks to TFormers.com

I broke up immediately. It wasn't that it was a kids' nursery wall with Optimus Prime and Megatron - okay, maybe it was, but it was also the sheer nerditude of JD and Turk. I mean, I know these guys, these theoretically adult people who just can't let go. They're me. I was laughing at myself. And I'm pretty sure Vickie was laughing at me though them too, but that was cool!

I'm also pretty sure she's glad that kids are out of the question for us.

Still, young Seth has a room of his own...

Posted by IMAGinES at 03:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Last Thursday evening, Vickie and I went to a wine and cheese night organised by a friend at work. We had dinner at the Courthouse, and I went to put my briefcase and her shopping bags in the car, which I'd left in the Casino car park as usual.

On my way back out of the Casino, I was looking nervously at the clouds coming in from offshore - heck, the whole sky was pretty much overcast. I'd forgotten to put the big umbrella in the car, so we were stuck with the smaller handbag-size umbrella Vickie had beought with her into town.

Then - I don't know exactly what it was, surely a combination of things - the clouds diffusing the half-light of evening, the wind lightly stirring the palms, the not warm but not cool either night air, the lights coming on around town - I found myself feeling good, and even the slowly commencing rain couldn't dampen the sensation. Now, I count my blessings for being able to live in Cairns on a fairly regular basis, but looking about me that Thursday night as I walked along the Esplanade, I really felt as though I was really here in the tropics, that I'd hit the jackpot.

This morning, I too advantage of morning tea to nip out of the office and get a quick trim at the nearby barber shop. Walking back after my haircut, I found myself minding that Thursday evening. I took another look about me; granted, I was a block-and-a-half away from the Esplanade, but in the bright, warm morning light, I found myself thinking with a mental shrug, "yeah, Cairns."

Isn't it odd that I need an evening with impending rain to really appreciate this place?

Posted by IMAGinES at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hmm.

Well, after I put that thread up over on the Forge's Actual Play forum about last Saturday's Dogs in the Vineyard session with Simon and Cristel, I received a lot of reads, but no responses. So I asked whether anyone could contribute some constructive criticism?

Ask and ye shall receive; a Forgite by the name of Belinda K. politely pointed a few things out about my postings that I hadn't seen when I wrote them.

Continue reading "Indicator of an Unhealthy Fixation" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

From: Farquhar, Rob
Sent: Friday, 24 February 2006 10:54 AM
To: Ad Reps, Driving Guys, Features Bunch, Writer-y Peoples
Cc: The Boss
Subject: Morning Tea

Okay, you horrible lot, I've been getting some whingeing lately about how you're getting bored with just sausage rolls every Friday and that you want some - what was the word again? - variety, that's it. Of course, if I try to accomodate you whingers, I'm going to get whingeing from those of you who never, ever, bloody ever want anything else but sausage rolls, aren't I?

Continue reading "Ya Gotta Keep 'Em In Their Place..." »

Posted by IMAGinES at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Of course, the one main downside to the Service Guarnatees Citizenship model in Starship Troopers is that it can create a minority of voters, and as there's no guarantee that you'll actually survive your service, especially if you're in the armed forces, the potential minority shrinks even further. Not only that, the uncertainty of battle may well mean that the people best fit to wield the vote or hold office after they complete their service may well wind up dead on the battlefield.

Elitism? Snobbery? Arrogance? Even more possibility for corruption as Those Who've Proved Their Worth ignore Those Who Haven't? (I imagine a ruling culture of ex-servicemen may differ significantly from the culture within the services.)

I'd hope not, and Heinlein seemed to think that the nature of the service itself plus the Easy Way Out would be more likely to promote patterns of behaviour that would run counter to those tendencies, even after the term of service is completed and citizenship is awarded.

Again, I suppose it's just one of things we won't know for sure until a nation tries it.

Posted by IMAGinES at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I read a line somewhere recently about how war is just young men fighting for old men's problems. While it's easy to get incensed and argue whether Hitler was an "old men's problem" (or an old man himself), it's not hard to be cynical in light of recent, flimsy-seeming and ultimately erroneous justifications for armed conflict.

Part of me is also cynical enough to believe that as long as one human being reckons he or she deserves something more than the other human being who has that thing, you're going to wind up with wars (which usually happen when you replace "he or she deserves" with "his or her people deserve"), and young people, being on average more physically capable than old people, are going to fight and die in them.

Continue reading "Old Men's Problems" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Okay, so it's the newly-elected President of Bolivia, one of the smaller South American nations, but boy, do I hope it sets a precedent: Evo Morales made an election promise that he would halve his pay cheque upon election, and when he was elected (as the first indigenous President of Bolivia) - he kept his promise.

(The interesting bit is, it's apparently Bolivian law that no public sector official can be paid more highly than the President, so now that he's taken his pay cut the rest of the government and branches of the public service will have their salaries reviewed.)

I've been reading about this President Evo Morales recently, and there seems to be a lot of hope surrounding him - if there's anywhere in the Americas with nowhere to go but up, it may well be Bolivia. He is a Socialist, for what that's worth, but as long as he is a humanist as well, I think Bolivia will be okay. He's also doing his darnedest to cast himself as a man of the people, even wearing llama-wool sweaters on the job.

Continue reading "President Halves Pay" »

Posted by IMAGinES at 09:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)