Just this evening, I went to a work social club function at the Cairns Goldpin Lanes. It was the last chance I'd have to get to hang out with a mate who's heading off to Brisbane, so I thought I'd better bring something special.
What did I bring?
It was a pretty geeky weekend. Friday night saw some of The Forsaken Ones getting together for a training session. Karlos had found some neat cubbyholes in the geometries of the Halo 3 maps Guardian and Construct, so we spent a little time getting to know them before launching into a game of Team Oddball using the AussieXbox.net Team Rumble variant. I go into some more detail here, but suffice to say I found out a few things about how my fellow clan members play, especially those who reckon they despise the objective-based gametypes. I’m hoping we can get some more training in this coming Friday evening, and I want to try and give the session some more structure.
Saturday was busy. My former mentee got back in touch a couple of months ago, and Vickie and I have been hanging out with him and his family lately. Mid-last week he called and asked whether I’d like to go and play some laser tag at Crystal Cascades with him and his stepdad; unfortunately, when we got there for the early morning session no one else showed up, so I wound up driving back home a half an hour later. Kid and his stepdad are pretty cool, though, so I had a good chat with them in the meantime!
It’s been a great ten days off work. Vickie, thankfully, cracked the whip and got me cleaning and tidying up before the arrival of the Cazman and his lovely lady Linda, and we got the spare room looking great for them. Although we weren’t able to spend much time with them as we’d hoped, we just appreciated their company the more. I didn’t know, for example, that Linda was part Chinese, nor that she has a hilarious, trash-talking competitive streak, which came out during a few games of Uno! Speaking of which, I’m starting to think Uno is more fun than Chez Geek.
I fully intend to do a better job of keeping up with these two (ideally using Skype a lot to cut down on those pesky phone bills) and I’m sure Vickie does also. We also (yeah, yeah, I know, but it reads better than “in addition”) must get back in regular touch with Caz’s Mum and Dad. We got a great Christmas letter from them!
I’ve been asked recently whether I'm going to the first GenCon Australia next year. I have to say, it’s a tempting proposition. For those who don’t know, the original GenCon (which moved from Milwaukee to Indianaoplis, I think) and the already-established spin-offs in Southern California and the UK are major events in tabletop gaming geekdom. Having never been to one, I don’t know whether it’s “The Best Four Days In Gaming” as the advertising states, but the thought of finding out has definitely piqued my interest.
Now, the first version of this post was a long bitch and whinge about various things which no one cares about, basically making excuses. In the end, though, my position on GenCon is this: The investment in money and organisation would only be worth it if I went for all four days, and as Gencon isn't Vickie's thing (yes, I've checked) I'd be going on my own - which means I'd be spending a heap of money to leave my love alone at home for four days (plus a round-trip flight). That’s just not cool.
I've been meaning to post this for a few weeks now. It's kinda good news, but it's sort of not, you know?
So one day, I get this e-mail from the Steely Dan mailing list. They've already organised a 2007 tour of some US based venues, but now they've extended it: they're hitting Europe, Japan and - for the first time ever - Australia. They're playing a few venues for one night each, and they hit the closest venue to us, the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, on September 16th.
I'm not going without Vickie, so we'd be looking at two concert tickets (either $99 or $140 each), two return airfares and one hotel room; a pretty pricey endeavour, I'm sure you'll agree. After the recent splurging, I'm not sure we'll be able to cram this in.
But what arrives in my inbox a few days later? An e-mail from the Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds website: Jeff's sellout tour of the UK is ALSO coming to Australia, and it plays the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on September the fucking 13th.
So unless we can somehow swing a four-night holiday in Brisbane (two words: win Lotto ), it's one or the other - and given the choice, I'd be off to the Dan. But why did they have to be so close together? The bastards! The cruel, heartless bastards!
In the meantime, please consider this a heads up to any fans of either or both acts. Go and enjoy!
Well, as half the people I know in Cairns are doing it, I figured I maight as well jump on the bandwagon and get myself a MySpace. If you're reading this, Jonathan Geoffrey Hughes, Esq., the name is all your fault.
It's my intention to keep this web log as my main web log (i.e. all about me!), whereas My Space will be all about connections with friends and where (and when) I'm going / I've been out and about. I'll put a post a week up there, at the very least with links to the week's posts over here, ideally also with what I've been up to and what I'm getting up to. So "Events & Get-Togethers" will probably be over there instead of on here.
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! :-)
A few hours ago, Vickie and I got home from our second day of mentor training with the Cairns Youth Mentoring Scheme. Frankly, I think it’s the most honest-to-God challenging and exhausting training I’ve ever done, and for all the right reasons. I’ve read somewhere that the human brain actually uses no less than forty percent of the energy that the human body generates to power itself, and after this weekend I fully believe it; even though we didn’t do anything physically strenuous, Vickie and I were both knackered, last night and tonight.
I won’t go into too great a detail about the minutiae of the training course, but I will say that the most surprising thing was how much I learned about myself. The main goal of the mentoring course isn’t just to teach you techniques for communicating with your mentee, it’s about getting straight with yourself so that you can clear your junk out of the way when your mentee tries to communicate with you. Ladies and gentlemen, readers all, let me tell you that that can be a pretty scary thing.
Okay, now for some good news.
Today was the second Cairns Gamers’ Get-Together. You may remember that I organised the first in October last year. This one was also a success. Attendance wasn’t perfect; Vickie has unfortunately been under the weather for the past few days, Scott cancelled last night due to family commitments and I called Bruce half an hour into the get-together to discover he couldn’t come along (snowed under with school stuff). However, I was very glad to see that both Simon and Cristel, whose attendance was contingent on the availability of babysitters (which is why they couldn’t make it to the October meet), were indeed able to come – in fact, they arrived within a minute of myself, and I was a quarter of an hour early. They got to meet Tracey and Brett, and I was glad to see that everyone got along great. I took a camera, but forgot to make sure it had batteries, a fact that made Cristel and Tracey happy.
Happy New Year, everybody! Sorry about the peons crack earlier – well, okay, I’m not, really. I just get so few chances to gloat about living in the tropics! I assure you, the fact that your New Year’s Day is probably more comfortable than ours is revenge enough; I’m sitting here at my keyboard, sweat pouring off of me.
Saturday just gone was the company's Social Club's Christmas Party at the function rooms of the Shangri-La Hotel in Cairns. The Social Club tries to run an event for employees and families as an addition to the regular, employees-only event; there wasn't one last year, but they certainly made up for it this year. We had to put a little cash toward it, but consiudering the victuals, the view and the company were well worth it!
The theme was a masquerade ball, and as soonas Vickie saw the invitation (prizes for best costume), she asked, "What're we going as?" Being the punster she is; Vickie decided she'd go in a dark, starry cloak over a black dress with "December 24th" pinned to it - The Night Before Christmas, you see - while deciding on Jack Frost for myself (hey, I had no bloody idea what to go as). As I think I mentioned a while ago, we had to do some shopping for material and make-up; Vickie's original plan was to make her cloak and mask, plus a whole costume for me. She got as far as making a good pair of white, draw-string pants before chucking it in; the huimidity isn't exactly conducive to dressmaking. Around that time, she spotted some promotional stills for the upcoming seasonal kids' film, The Santa Clause 3 - The Escape Clause and promptly decided Martin Short's business-suited Jack Frost was the look for me. Thankfully, I already had a business suit; a trip to a charity shop nabbed a spiffy silver tie and a can or two of Santa's Snow took care of the rest!
I’ve had a few people asking me via IM how the gamers’ get-together at the Courthouse Hotel went. The simple answer: Very well. More complicated, you say? Hokay, let me list the high points:
High Point #1: Everyone Turned Up.
Yep, that’s a big deal considering the last get-together I tried to organise. Now, not everyone was there at the same time, and not everyone could stay for long, but everyone who said they were coming came – which made that afternoon a gratifying one in my book!
Everyone turned out to be five people: Bruce, the local RPGA supremo; Tracey, our Shadowrun GM; Shaun and Renee, whom I’d met a few weeks ago through Gerry Webb of Castaway Arts; and finally, Brett, who e-mailed me in April after seeing my RPGnet post looking for Cairns gamers. Renee, it turns out, used to be one of Bruce’s pupils at Trinity Bay High. She, Shaun and Bruce wound up talking a lot about the local gaming scene, which, it seems, is fairly transitory; people keep moving in and out.
Continue reading "The Jury's In: A Successful Get-Together!" »
The kitchen and dining room are almost entirely painted. Actually, the kitchen itself is done, aside from a couple of touch-ups. The dining room still needs a little work, though; the skirting boards need a thorough sanding-off before they can be painted. There’s also a vertical trim in each corner where the dining room walls meet that needs a good smoothing-over. I’ll get those jobs done this weekend; we want our dining room back soon!
Still, we’re going to be a little busy. Today at midday, Vickie and I are meeting some local gaming friends at the Courthouse Hotel for lunch and a few games of Chez Geek; Vickie once said that a few of the people coming will probably be glad that they'll just be meeting people without the expectation of having to play an RPG session. It’ll be just seven of us today, Vickie and I included, but I’d like to make it a regular, maybe monthly thing. Getting together with friends has become a tricky proposition lately, not just because of the renovations; I think people’s schedules are getting a little more crowded. Having something regular that you can plan for in advance would help people keep in touch.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen; thanks to some dilligent and hard work by Karl (with assistance from yours truly), we now have our main room back and looking far better than it did a couple of months ago! Our furniture is all back from Karl's and we're slowly re-assembling the entertainment appliances; I'll be spending this evening re-organising the cables behind the TV in order to prevent another rat's nest. Once we've put some decorations up on the walls, I'll take some photos for you folks.
The deadline pressure is off, although we wish it weren't. I got a call from Dad on the weekend; Heather had called him and told him that she'd just been in to see the doctor with eye problems, which turned out to be a burst blood vessel. She's in the public health service waiting queue to have it seen to, and until that happens she can't fly. It's a bugger, as we were all looking forward to Heather being here, but at least it ddn't happen midair. I've been meaning to give Heather a call; she's too old to go to pubs and tell the football supporters that they're all Southern pansies.
So the week of leave I was taking before she arrived, whch we were planning to spend frantically dusting and clearing up, will still be spent frantically dusting and clearing up, but in addition, we'll de-wallpaper and paint the kitchen and dining room (another long-overdue job).
Now that Reefcon’s over and done with, I want to review my experiences there, filter them through the lens of my tastes and learn as much as I can. I’ll break this up into two posts, a straight up report with my initial impressions and some general conclusions.
I wound up playing in two sessions. The first, on Friday night, was a Living Greyhawk module. I was one of seven players, most of whom were hormone fuelled teens (early to late) still in that phase where you’re always trying to verbally one-up everyone else (I know how that feels; I can think of several instances in my youth when I was right there). As an example, my character, the first-level half-elf sorcerer Horst Buholt (the Perrenland region has a distinct Northern European flavour, so I went with a Germanic name), likes travelling on foot (you have to pick a deity for Living Greyhawk characters, and of what I read from the two-hundred-plus page deity document for LG, the god Fharlanghn seemed the most interesting choice) and owns a pack donkey. Of course, once the other players found out, a good chunk of session time was occupied by tittering threats to the donkey’s life. Most of the session was pretty much occupied by that kind of sugar-buzz smack-talking. I took it with a smile and did my best to ignore it, but the session was slow and boring as a result. At the end, the DM said, “I hope everyone had fun; I did.” I couldn’t help thinking, “What - really? You seriously had fun? When?”
Looks as though the curse has been broken, folks - Rhys, Kev and I didn't get a single session of gaming in yesterday, we got two, and Kev's talking about running a Dungeons & Dragons campaign for Rhys and I! (He even borrowed my 3.5 Edition books!)
The lads got over here a little late. I figured it was a sure sign Rhys was becoming a gamer (see various prior comments re: herding cats), but later I discovered that Rhys had in fact tried a game out at one point, but was presumably bored to tears - as I was dropping Rhys off last night, Kev made a comment along the lines of, "See what I told you, it can be fun with the right people."
Per my last post, I decided to run InSpectres for the guys. Of the two games, InSpectres was easily the most fun. Our boys were Jim-Bob Smith (Kev) and Steven "The Shark" James (Rhys) of RPI (Randomly Precise Investigations), Sheridan Street, Cairns. Here are the things that really stick out in my mind:
In short, we definitely want to follow the progress of RPI, and I'm hoping the firm can hire Vickie, Simon and Cristel soon! It'll be interesting, as the firm, which started on six Franchise dice, wound up with only five after clean-up and vacation, even after a six was the high die on two Bank dice rolls (which nets the franchise an extra Bank die each time). Can the new blood turn a profit?
Well, well, well! Looks like I'm gonna have yet more game this coming Sunday!
I get a phone call from Vickie yesterday afternoon. She told me that we'd be having a couple of guests for dinner; Rhys, her first grandson, and his sales partner (Rhys is working for Austar as a salesperson), a gent from Canada by the name of Kevin. I say, okay, cool.
Then Vickie drops the bomb: Kev's a gamer, who's been out of the hobby so long that he's itching to game. Coming on the heels of a rather grinding day at work, this was bloody good news.
Yep, Gaming Night crashed and burned. One of the folks who was coming called at about half seven. He'd only just got home after working back. He even asked if something might be happening if he tried to make it out, but as it's an hour-and-a-half trip, I figured we'd probably be buggered by the time he arrived. (And an hour and a half back again if it doesn't pan out? That's a bit much to ask of him...)
I wound up calling the other guy at his home (found his number in the White Pages) - he and his friends tried to get out here and got lost, and he didn't think to write our phone numbers down; his friends said 'screw it', so they all went home. He was about to write me an e-mail when I called him. So, yeah, whatever back at you and your friends, other guy. At least the first guy had the good graces to call.
And you know what? He offered before and I was pretty non-committal (the dungeons and the dragons and all that), but if the first guy wants to do some Eberron sometime, I'd be up for it. He's got good manners, I'd like to play at his table.
Vickie suggested inviting Deena and her man Pete over; we might be able to get a little Chez Geek in after all.
I'm just damn glad I told Vickie she didn't need to cook for the party...
Remember the gaming night that I mentioned last year? (Shit, 2005 is "last year" already...) Well, it's January the 14th already, and three people have replied to the e-mail I sent confirming they'd be here. (Technically, it was five, but two had to pull out due to family commitments.)
Exactly what'll happen tonight, I'm not sure, but I'm hoping it involves some play of a roleplaying game. I'll let you know how things go.
What's been happening over the past few days? What's happening tonight, and again tomorrow?
Food, that's what.
Somehow, I don't think Vickie or I will need to eat at all until Christmas Day...
Following on from this post, here's the e-mail I sent out:
What games? Anything that can be picked up, learned, played and enjoyed in a short space of time. Now, I know you're thinking board or card games, and those are fine for Gaming Night. If you have one or some you enjoy, please bring 'em along.
But here's the thing: There are roleplaying games that can be picked up, learned, played and enjoyed in a short space of time. There are roleplaying games DESIGNED to go from blank character sheets and no GM prep to a completed, satisfying first session in four or five hours. (No, no pre-generated PCs.) Even with two players and a GM.
I have some. And I'd really like to play 'em with you.
So if you're interested, please get back to me on or before Saturday, January the 7th and let me know whether you're coming. If you have freinds who might be interested, please pass this on to them - better yet, just tell them to keep the night clear and drag them along with you!
You'll need your dice collection; a deck of playing cards would be a bonus. An item of food (bag of chips, a container of dip, whatever strikes your fancy) and a bottle of drink (alcoholic or otherwise) would be a good idea. Again, please bring along anything you'd like to play. I'd like to get a game going by eight o'clock at the latest, and while you're welcome as early as six, please aim to get here around seven.
So far, I've had one reply. Yes, it was positive, schedules pending.
So yeah, Vickie and I went and saw the Big Damn Movie on Thursday night, for her birthday.
Wow.
And, Oof.
And, bring on the next one!
Folks, if it’s not already toured in your area (which it might not have, given that it’s doing Far North Queensland and the Northern Territory at the moment) I wholeheartedly recommend you catch the Australian Shakespeare Company’s musical production of Much Ado About Nothing. Vickie and I went to see it last night at the Flecker Botanical Gardens up here in Cairns, and it was absolutely hilarious. They’ve turned most of the major soliloquies into musical numbers – specifically, country rock and roll numbers – and they work very well. Not only that, the cast had a great time, with Brendan O’Conner worth particular mention for his scene-stealing performance as the wicked bastard brother Don John (when he did his numbers, I couldn’t help but be reminded of Bon Scott).
It looks as though this production is coming to the end of its run up here in Cairns, but if it or another production makes its way to you, any other way you could use the cost of a ticket or two would only be a waste of money. If nothing else, it’s worth it for the song performed by the two roadies/gig security (formerly constables) Dogberry and Verges, “He Called Me An Ass”.
Joss Whedon recently got himself a sign-on over on the Serenity Oz forums, and just this morning made the following announcement:
I've already phoned Gav and Sim, and ICQed Boots. The rest of you Firefly fans out there - don't say I didn't try.
Let me direct you, gentle reader, to this web page about Walsh's Pyramid. This is a free-standing mountain situated to the West of Gordonvale. Not far west, mind you; it pretty much dominates the town. Make careful note of its height, and the estimated round-trip time for experienced hikers.
I had a chat with Dad on Thursday night. Nan's funeral is at 1 PM on Tuesday, and I'll be flying into Sydney on Tuesday morning and leaving on Tuesday evening. As things are a little tight up here money-wise right now, Dad offered to pay for the tickets.
I'll be arriving at ten past ten in the morning and flying out again at seven, so with the funeral and wake I doubt I'll have time to stop off anywhere to say hello to anyone. In case you're wondering, no, I can't stay any longer; my contract is pay-by-the-hour, and if I don't work I don't get paid. Vickie and I can't really afford for me to have a short week right now (we've already had a few unpaid public holidays recently).
Well, in a dual celebration of my attaining that glorious state known as Unemployment and our last Saturday in Sydney, Vickie and I invited some friends to dinner with us at the New Orleans Cafe last night. The food was fantastic (try their cajun cheese burger with the guacamole and bacon sometime, you won't regret it).
Continue reading "Last Sydney Party at the New Orleans Cafe" »
Today I finally got around to processing the photos I took at the party Vickie and I held the week before Christmas, making these photos a few weeks overdue.
Unfortunately, in an extreme bout of slack-bastarditis, especailly considering that this was pretty much the last time we'll have that gang together at our place the last time, I didn't get any group "Everyone say Cheese!" shots. My apologies to everyone who didn't get their face in a photo.
Ladies and genlemen, after careful deliberation over the entries received, the Judges are glad to announce the winners of the IMAGinES Halo 2 Caption Competition!
Our winner is Sim "SimLauren" Lauren, with the first place entry:
No no no, you dirty-minded Huns! Caption competitions! Everyone's doing caption competitions!
Okay, this one's not quite a caption competition, but it's close. Steve Jackson Games is working on a supplement to their Ninja Burger game, and Evil Stevie himself needs some help with a title. Enter, and if you submit the winning entry, you get free copies!
Oh, and speaking of caption competitions, the total of entries to the Halo 2 comp has gone up - to three! Ladies and Gentlemen of my reading public, I ask you, are you going to let these people walk away with a prize just for entering? You don't have to enter three captions, you know; one or two will do fine! You have just over a week left to go, so you'd better not let it slide, or else you might realise too late that the deadline, which is, I'll remind you, ten PM, Friday, December the Tenth, has slipped by!
That’s the theory – or maybe the blind hope – I’m operating on by establishing a Cairns Roleplayers Group over on Meetup.com. I found out about this service via The Forge, and it looks like a good way of organising a gathering of like-minded people.
In fact, here are some existing groups in Sydney that I think will appeal to a broad segment of my readership: Firefly, Roleplayers, Xbox and SciFi/Fantasy.
Oh, and here's one for a certain Melbourne reader: Buffy.
I just got back in from a quick after-work trip to Cammeray to meet with none other than Jared A. Sorensen, the demented genius behind Memento Mori Theatricks and his lovely wife Rebecca. They were out here to catch up with Rebecca's extended Australian family, and were able to spare an hour and a half to catch up with the RPGnet Forum Memento Mori Sydney Posse - which turned out to be just myself and Ken Finlayson.
On the general topic of selling stuff, Vickie and I are having a Garage - well, Carport - Sale on Sunday, December the twelfth, starting at 9 AM and ending at 5 PM or when all the items we have up for offer are sold (whichever is earliest). We'll have gardening books, clothes, craft books and materials, household items, cookery books, novels, magazines and the odd computer game. Please wander along with your cash and take away a bargain!
If you need our address or contact details, please send me an e-mail. We'll have signs posted in the area, so you shouldn't have much problem finding us!
[UPDATE 10:02PM December 10th:] The competition has been closed; winners will be announced in a separate posting at 8 PM Australian Eastern Daylight Time, Sunday December 12th, 2004.
After showing some friends the “Busted!” image I whipped up, I came up with another caption (specifically, the one in the heading) – and started wondering, “What could the IMAGinES community come up with?” Immedately, an idea popped into my head: Why not actually run a caption competition and give the best caption a prize? Heck, the Penny Arcade guys give stuff out all the time!
So here it is: The first ever IMAGinES Caption Competition! Tell us what the Master Chief, zealously guarding the IMAGinES Xbox, is telling the mysterious interloper bearing a sneakily-procured copy of Halo 2!
Continue reading "Put the Game Down and Step Away from the Xbox!" »
Well, as we’re now precisely two months away from the Big Event, I think it’s time to answer the queries (all one of them) we’ve had about this year’s Christmas party. As we’re buggering off to Cairns in mid-January, and are probably going to be busy with packing and sorting in the weeks in between, we figure on making the party a combined Christmas/going-away function (yes, we’ve had someone else ask us about a going away party, too).
So, as we know how long it takes you lot to get organised [ ;-) ], we’ve set the date of our Christmas party for Saturday, December the 18th. That puts it precisely a week after Macquariecon XX, so we won’t be conflicting with your gaming schedules. We’ll be sending official invitations a month beforehand, but please pencil it on your calendars.
Well, as the Battlestar Galactica and Pitch Black DVD Day suggestions didn’t go down well due to the lack of interest in/aversion to the subject matter, I’m having another shot – this time with some stuff that I’m pretty sure will keep people’s interest!
Well, Vickie and I got in about an hour ago from the Greengate. A fun night was most defintely had; I was well pleased with how smoothly things went.
Here are the photos:
The Early Crowd (around 6 PM)
From left to right: Joe, Juene, Dad, Mum, Nan, Trish, Gav, EvilHayama, Pirotess, SimLauren, Jason, Vickie
The Early Crowd, Plus Rob
From left to right: Joe, Me, Dad, Mum, Nan, Trish, Gav, EvilHayama, Pirotess, SimLauren, Jason, Vickie
The Late Crowd (around 9 PM)
From left to right: Gav, Boots, Jacinta, Dizzy, Deb, Charisse, Vickie, Notlih
The Late Crowd, Plus Rob
From left to right: Gav, Boots, Jacinta, Dizzy, Deb, Charisse, Vickie, Me
I’ve read several columns on the use of music in gaming, and for every RPGnet column that expounds on the incalculable enhancement that music is to the gaming session, there are at least two comments that the mechanics of including and managing music during an adventure, plus the potential for distraction, add up to a royal pain. Music is nice, but GM and players are here to game, first and foremost. Music should be an aid to roleplaying. As soon as the music or the management of it music intrudes on gameplay, you’re not gaming any more.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the best soundtrack to a session is one that supports the overall mood of the game and that can adapt to specific moods without requiring a significant break in the flow of the session. The problem is that, up until the past few years or so, such a goal has been difficult, if not impossible, to achieve.
Thankfully, the advent of the MP3, the ever-decreasing size of computers and the capability of ripping tracks from CDs have put the minimal-maintenance soundtrack within the grasp of Joe and Jane Gamemaster. In fact, the convergence of modern technology has given this goal a name – the playlist.
And why stop with just one? Take your CD collection and a few hours, and you can put together several playlists, each one suiting an individual mood within your campaign. All you have to do when the mood changes is swap between playlists and make sure the brick is still on the Track Shuffle button!
I’ve been talking a fair bit about DVD showings lately. There’s the instantly-popular Red Vs. Blue Day, of course, and then there’s the not-quite-so-popular Battlestar Galactica showings I keep doing. Recently, though, there’s been some talk of doing another DVD showing at my place.
Now, I think it’s a fair bet that you know how keen I am on the upcoming SF film, The Chronicles of Riddick. It’s come to my attention that some of you haven’t seen Pitch Black, the film that Chronicles is the sequel to. It’s also come to my attention that some of you would actually like to see Pitch Black before Chronicles hits the big screen.