In the past 2 weeks of James going to Boys & Girls club he has come home and obsessed on 2 things: basketball & pool. And I view that as a serious success from a parenting perspective. He is dually interested in something athletic and cerebral.
He has been practicing pool at home the last couple of days and we even played a game this morning before I left for work. He needs that practice, and he needs to learn to slow down and focus. But I know that will come with time. From watching James play soccer and other sports there is little doubt that he knows how to focus when he plays. If anything in soccer he was thinking a little too much. So I know he will arrive at that place with pool.
And it was very instructive to watch him play basketball against a bigger kid at my Dad's the other night. Boy does he have quick hands! The poor kid had a real hard time dribbling against him.
I thought about posting this on the normal family blog, but decided that it belonged here as this site is partially dedicated to my raising my little freerangegeeks. Kids who are well rounded and interested in a multitude of activities. It's important to know (and teach) that life is not all Lego's and computer games.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Monday, June 8, 2009
Friday night Recap
This is the story of FBI Hostage Rescue Team 5
The team leader Sergeant Zim looked over team: Sparks, the radio and bomb disposal specialist (and also logistics when it applied), Red Shirt Duggan, the jack of all trades, Boo Radley, Sniper, Tweak, the team medic, and Hudson Hornet, his second in command and pilot. 'This is one motley group, but it's mine, and I hope we don't end up like my last command' he thought. He has just got word to take the helicopter to some place called the Georgia Guidestones east of Atlanta, the local Sheriff's had a real bad hostage situation and needed their help ASAP.
At first it seemed like a pretty standard situation. The Cult of Alkazari had kidnapped some hostages and taken up positions at the Guidestones, with the intention of performing some ritual where they were going to sacrifice the hostages. And Zim knew that that damn sure wasn't going to happen on his watch. So they did some scouting, found the bus the cult used to come to this place. Then put together a plan. It was a standard, simple plan, like most of his plans.
Sparks would launch a flash bang at the monument when it was dark. Radley would hole up and wait for a shot. Hudson would take the chopper and light up the monument with the spotlight. And he and Tweak would run in on the opposite side. Duggan would back up Sparks and Radley.
And the plan was going without a hitch, he took a few shots, 'thank god for kevlar!' But he had made it to the monument, with Tweak following him. Sparks had taken out 2 other groups of cultists with tear gas. When all hell broke loose. Out of no where some thing that could only be described as a Demon screamed out of the sky and landed on top of the monument. Everyone was just frozen, except Hudson who at least landed the chopper. Then something that could only be described as an Angel appeared from under the monument and flew up to the Demon, and a fight of biblical proportions took place. At the end of which there was an explosion a blinding flash of light and he passed out.
When he woke up the team was all exactly where they were, but everyone else: the cultists, hostages, sheriffs, were all gone. The team chimed in as OK, just shaken. Until Hudson emerged from the chopper and removed his helmet, he had gotten taller, dropped some weight and he could only be described as an elf. Although how the hell that could happen Zim had no idea. But then again nothing was normal after seeing a battle between and Angel and a Demon.
(The night went well, the group took the restrictions on character creation in stride. I liked the characters they came up with. Everyone got off a few zingers. Overall it was a good start, and I am looking forward to the next night. Only 1 person drew and Ace, but there were 3 Jokers, so we shall see where that takes them. I am looking forward to how they adjust and gel. My plan is 2 more nights through a ringer, with little choice of what they want to do, then I will open things up for them to dictate what they do.)
The team leader Sergeant Zim looked over team: Sparks, the radio and bomb disposal specialist (and also logistics when it applied), Red Shirt Duggan, the jack of all trades, Boo Radley, Sniper, Tweak, the team medic, and Hudson Hornet, his second in command and pilot. 'This is one motley group, but it's mine, and I hope we don't end up like my last command' he thought. He has just got word to take the helicopter to some place called the Georgia Guidestones east of Atlanta, the local Sheriff's had a real bad hostage situation and needed their help ASAP.
At first it seemed like a pretty standard situation. The Cult of Alkazari had kidnapped some hostages and taken up positions at the Guidestones, with the intention of performing some ritual where they were going to sacrifice the hostages. And Zim knew that that damn sure wasn't going to happen on his watch. So they did some scouting, found the bus the cult used to come to this place. Then put together a plan. It was a standard, simple plan, like most of his plans.
Sparks would launch a flash bang at the monument when it was dark. Radley would hole up and wait for a shot. Hudson would take the chopper and light up the monument with the spotlight. And he and Tweak would run in on the opposite side. Duggan would back up Sparks and Radley.
And the plan was going without a hitch, he took a few shots, 'thank god for kevlar!' But he had made it to the monument, with Tweak following him. Sparks had taken out 2 other groups of cultists with tear gas. When all hell broke loose. Out of no where some thing that could only be described as a Demon screamed out of the sky and landed on top of the monument. Everyone was just frozen, except Hudson who at least landed the chopper. Then something that could only be described as an Angel appeared from under the monument and flew up to the Demon, and a fight of biblical proportions took place. At the end of which there was an explosion a blinding flash of light and he passed out.
When he woke up the team was all exactly where they were, but everyone else: the cultists, hostages, sheriffs, were all gone. The team chimed in as OK, just shaken. Until Hudson emerged from the chopper and removed his helmet, he had gotten taller, dropped some weight and he could only be described as an elf. Although how the hell that could happen Zim had no idea. But then again nothing was normal after seeing a battle between and Angel and a Demon.
(The night went well, the group took the restrictions on character creation in stride. I liked the characters they came up with. Everyone got off a few zingers. Overall it was a good start, and I am looking forward to the next night. Only 1 person drew and Ace, but there were 3 Jokers, so we shall see where that takes them. I am looking forward to how they adjust and gel. My plan is 2 more nights through a ringer, with little choice of what they want to do, then I will open things up for them to dictate what they do.)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Am I ready?
Let's see if I have what I need for tomorrow night:
1. Listed rules for character creation with stat minimums and requirements for each role? Check, I have it all broken down, along with having memorized the basics of Savage Worlds character creation
2. Chart for random character creation events? Check, it's all written down, with a listing of what each potential change means
3. Initial adventure plan? Check, I have the setup, the bad guys, main stats for the bad buys, and a way for things to occur if they are more efficient than I expect (always a god idea with the group that once ended a potentially long drawn out sea battle with one characters dice roll and action).
4. Follow up adventure in case they want to keep going? Check, unlikely as that is with this group. It won't be the full second night, but I can give them a taste or prologue if they want.
All I have to do tonight is print everything out tonight before I go to bed. Throw it in my bag so I am ready to go. I am excited, and ready to get things rolling.
I hope/expect to write up what happens sometime on Saturday, so look forward to that.
1. Listed rules for character creation with stat minimums and requirements for each role? Check, I have it all broken down, along with having memorized the basics of Savage Worlds character creation
2. Chart for random character creation events? Check, it's all written down, with a listing of what each potential change means
3. Initial adventure plan? Check, I have the setup, the bad guys, main stats for the bad buys, and a way for things to occur if they are more efficient than I expect (always a god idea with the group that once ended a potentially long drawn out sea battle with one characters dice roll and action).
4. Follow up adventure in case they want to keep going? Check, unlikely as that is with this group. It won't be the full second night, but I can give them a taste or prologue if they want.
All I have to do tonight is print everything out tonight before I go to bed. Throw it in my bag so I am ready to go. I am excited, and ready to get things rolling.
I hope/expect to write up what happens sometime on Saturday, so look forward to that.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Getting Ready
Friday night I will start my Savage Worlds game for my gaming group. I am excited/apprehensive at the same time. I want this to go well, to have them enjoy themselves and keep wanting more. And I am looking forward to introducing this campaign.
When Stephan asked what type of game it would be I running all I would agree to saying was that it would be 'modern'. Partially because I want to keep things mysterious. I think that one of the things that this group needs to play well is to shake things up. Throw something new and unpredictable at them. When everyone keeps playing the same characters (more or less) over and over then it is time to push something new where those roles can't be played.
Everyone will make their characters together, and with a pretty rigid set of minimum requirements. So there won't be a lot of variation to start other than how players play things. And then I will introduce an element of randomness to things, which should challenge people, make them do something different for a change. We'll see how they react. Worst case scenario is they hate it and don't want to play a second time. In which case I get this load off my shoulders of running the game.
One question I have asked myself today is how do I handle the language problem? Because they will be dropped into an entirely different world how do I want to handle the language issue? There are some pretty clear ends of the spectrum:
Super Easy (or the Star Trek solution):
Everyone just magically speaks the same language as the players, kind of like running into just another Class M planet.
Easy (the Hitchhikers Guide solution):
A magical or technological device is available that automatically translates everything i.e. the Babelfish.
Moderate:
The locals have access to a magical or technological device that allows for easy translations, but only on demand.
Hard:
Everyone speaks a different language on the new world, and there might be someone capable of translating, but the characters will have to take the time to learn the new language.
Super Hard:
There is no translation capability, all language has to be learned by pidgin and pointing and pictures. Only the bravest of GM's and most dedicated role playing group would want to undertake this.
My inclination will be something along the line of easy to moderate. I won't have to make a decision for at least the first 2 nights anyway and by then I should have a better idea of how the group is handling their characters.
When Stephan asked what type of game it would be I running all I would agree to saying was that it would be 'modern'. Partially because I want to keep things mysterious. I think that one of the things that this group needs to play well is to shake things up. Throw something new and unpredictable at them. When everyone keeps playing the same characters (more or less) over and over then it is time to push something new where those roles can't be played.
Everyone will make their characters together, and with a pretty rigid set of minimum requirements. So there won't be a lot of variation to start other than how players play things. And then I will introduce an element of randomness to things, which should challenge people, make them do something different for a change. We'll see how they react. Worst case scenario is they hate it and don't want to play a second time. In which case I get this load off my shoulders of running the game.
One question I have asked myself today is how do I handle the language problem? Because they will be dropped into an entirely different world how do I want to handle the language issue? There are some pretty clear ends of the spectrum:
Super Easy (or the Star Trek solution):
Everyone just magically speaks the same language as the players, kind of like running into just another Class M planet.
Easy (the Hitchhikers Guide solution):
A magical or technological device is available that automatically translates everything i.e. the Babelfish.
Moderate:
The locals have access to a magical or technological device that allows for easy translations, but only on demand.
Hard:
Everyone speaks a different language on the new world, and there might be someone capable of translating, but the characters will have to take the time to learn the new language.
Super Hard:
There is no translation capability, all language has to be learned by pidgin and pointing and pictures. Only the bravest of GM's and most dedicated role playing group would want to undertake this.
My inclination will be something along the line of easy to moderate. I won't have to make a decision for at least the first 2 nights anyway and by then I should have a better idea of how the group is handling their characters.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Good progress
Yesterday I sat down and finished off the second leg of the Savage Worlds adventure. I am pretty happy with it, I left some elbow room for the group to role play and have some fun, but I also concocted what I think is a decent scenario for keeping them moving and focused. I hope it works out.
I can't go into as much detail as before because with the group about to start playing I want things to remain a surprise. Now the next chore is charting out what comes next. I ended this scenario with the characters having to pick one of 2 directions. I have a rough idea of what I want one of them to be. But I am not sure about the other.
The goal is one more scenario where they have to 'fight' their way through a problem. Once that one is done they will finally reach the city where they can decide what they want to do next. I figure 3 sessions worth of scenarios will be enough to get the players hooked or not on the world and campaign setting. If it works, and the group wants to keep playing I have a number of ideas on what do once they get to the city.
I can't go into as much detail as before because with the group about to start playing I want things to remain a surprise. Now the next chore is charting out what comes next. I ended this scenario with the characters having to pick one of 2 directions. I have a rough idea of what I want one of them to be. But I am not sure about the other.
The goal is one more scenario where they have to 'fight' their way through a problem. Once that one is done they will finally reach the city where they can decide what they want to do next. I figure 3 sessions worth of scenarios will be enough to get the players hooked or not on the world and campaign setting. If it works, and the group wants to keep playing I have a number of ideas on what do once they get to the city.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Well it's on now
We had a fun session last night, wound up Forrest's game. Wasn't our finest moment of role playing, but we pushed through, killed all the bad guys in suitably gory fashion. And we had a good time getting back together for the first time in over a month.
After the game we had some discussion about what to do next I piped up and said I was ready. And that was what we decided to do. It's on me now, for better or worse. I got the creative juices flowing yesterday and cranked out a very good start to the second night gaming session. I have to say I am really looking forward to this.
They really pressed me on what type of game we would be playing but I held firm to my plan of not revealing much of anything. Because I want it be a surprise because I think that will make the game more enjoyable. The game itself will be pretty much hack and slash, lots of action. But getting there will be what sets it apart. It will make it different from anything we have ever done before.
After the game we had some discussion about what to do next I piped up and said I was ready. And that was what we decided to do. It's on me now, for better or worse. I got the creative juices flowing yesterday and cranked out a very good start to the second night gaming session. I have to say I am really looking forward to this.
They really pressed me on what type of game we would be playing but I held firm to my plan of not revealing much of anything. Because I want it be a surprise because I think that will make the game more enjoyable. The game itself will be pretty much hack and slash, lots of action. But getting there will be what sets it apart. It will make it different from anything we have ever done before.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Tell Scholastic to go back to selling books only
I just took action on this issue and thought you might be interested too:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26599
For many of us, Scholastic's in-school book clubs -- the monthly flyers distributed in classrooms -- played an important role in our childhood by providing the opportunity to purchase low-cost, high-quality literature.
But something has changed. Scholastic's book clubs have become a Trojan horse for marketing toys, trinkets, and electronic media—many of which promote popular brands. A review of Scholastic's elementary and middle school book clubs by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that one-third of the items for sale are either not books or are books packaged with other items such as jewelry and toys. Items sold by Scholastic in 2008 included the M&M's Kart Racing Wii videogame, the Princess Room Alarm, the Monopoly® SpongeBob SquarePants™ Edition computer game, lip gloss and a Hannah Montana bracelet.
Please take a moment to visit http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26599 and tell Scholastic to start selling books – and only books – in their in-school book clubs.
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26599
For many of us, Scholastic's in-school book clubs -- the monthly flyers distributed in classrooms -- played an important role in our childhood by providing the opportunity to purchase low-cost, high-quality literature.
But something has changed. Scholastic's book clubs have become a Trojan horse for marketing toys, trinkets, and electronic media—many of which promote popular brands. A review of Scholastic's elementary and middle school book clubs by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood found that one-third of the items for sale are either not books or are books packaged with other items such as jewelry and toys. Items sold by Scholastic in 2008 included the M&M's Kart Racing Wii videogame, the Princess Room Alarm, the Monopoly® SpongeBob SquarePants™ Edition computer game, lip gloss and a Hannah Montana bracelet.
Please take a moment to visit http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/621/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26599 and tell Scholastic to start selling books – and only books – in their in-school book clubs.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Good article on Star Trek
Although I often find people ascribing this much value to a TV show to be annoying and pretentious this article does bring home some interesting points. And nails some great lines as well.
And somehow finds a way to address the always interesting conflict of Star Wars versus Star Trek. This line really captures the difference between the two:
Which explains the point I usually try to deliver when discussing the 2 and fail to make nearly as well. Star Wars is B-movie action, the original Star Trek is theater and drama (no matter how clumsily delivered).
One other interesting point:
This is an important point to realize with the new movie coming out with a full range of all the best special effects money can buy. At it's heart Star Trek is about the characters, and the story. A point that several of the movies failed to grasp (and which Wrath of Khan did grasp).
And somehow finds a way to address the always interesting conflict of Star Wars versus Star Trek. This line really captures the difference between the two:
If Lucas is defiantly pop-cultural in orientation, delivering archetypal structure and fast-paced action rather than plot and conversation, Roddenberry skews much closer to traditional high or middlebrow culture.
Which explains the point I usually try to deliver when discussing the 2 and fail to make nearly as well. Star Wars is B-movie action, the original Star Trek is theater and drama (no matter how clumsily delivered).
One other interesting point:
the original "Star Trek" still has a passion and vitality that partly stem from its cheapness; the threadbare sets and effects created a coherent, suggestive atmosphere, and forced your attention onto the storytelling and the characters.
This is an important point to realize with the new movie coming out with a full range of all the best special effects money can buy. At it's heart Star Trek is about the characters, and the story. A point that several of the movies failed to grasp (and which Wrath of Khan did grasp).
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Star Trek
So last night I used the kitchen pass I would normally have used for a role playing night to go see the new movie. (Apparently I either missed or misunderstood Forrest's announcement that we wouldn't play in 4 weeks meant 6 weeks). While I normally love our game, and the camaraderie of playing, I think watching this movie was well worth the disappointment I felt about missing the game.
The Movie
It Rocked! I loved it. I agree with all of the reviewers who thought this was just a great Star Wars movie. I put it right up there, just a notch below Wrath of Khan but ahead of all of the others. If you were a fan of the original series first then this movie is 100% for you. I had absolutely no problem slipping right into the story and no problem with the interesting idea for serving up a 'reboot'.
Things I Loved:
The action and Pace were awesome. At no point was I forced to sit and think: gee does this have any impact on the movie at all?
The concept for the reboot. I think the idea of jumping to an alternate reality time line really gives the creators freedom to do whatever they want, including returning the familiar and loved characters from the original series and movies. Because while the overall Trek universe is interesting, what brings most people to the series is the characters, especially the original crew.
The effects were awesome. I like the fact that they just made the decision to say: 'we realize the original sets were made on a shoe string TV budget from the 60's, that doesn't mean all spaceships should look analog.' Everything looked and felt right, none of the technology was out of place or jumped out at me.
The eventual camaraderie of the characters. It wasn't forced, you believed the way it worked. One of the results of the alternate reality is that now all of the characters are the same age, which makes some of the relationships more believable. And while some of the acting was a little forced (I liked McCoy but the acting was the closest to being an over the top impression of the original) for the most part it was great, and fit in the idea of how those characters always felt to those of us who grew up with the series.
The few things I didn't like
Uhuru: First, the whole idea of Spock engaging in a P.D.A. with anyone is wrong. And to have it be Uhuru makes it doubly wrong. Second, why did they pick the female crew members uniforms to be the one thing they wanted to retain faith with? Why did the poor girl have to run around in a uniform mini skirt and Go Go boots? It was the one thing that felt jarringly out of place.
The Enterprise was not the fleet Flagship, and if it was they wouldn't allow some freshly minted Captain to command it. I'm just saying is all.
Battle scenes were filmed a little too herky jerky. It got pretty annoying to be unable to focus on the action when the camera never stayed on it.
Overall though, I loved it, and would encourage anyone who enjoys Star Trek to see it. It was just fun. With lots of cool little nods to the adventures of the original cast. A great time was had by all.
The Movie
It Rocked! I loved it. I agree with all of the reviewers who thought this was just a great Star Wars movie. I put it right up there, just a notch below Wrath of Khan but ahead of all of the others. If you were a fan of the original series first then this movie is 100% for you. I had absolutely no problem slipping right into the story and no problem with the interesting idea for serving up a 'reboot'.
Things I Loved:
The action and Pace were awesome. At no point was I forced to sit and think: gee does this have any impact on the movie at all?
The concept for the reboot. I think the idea of jumping to an alternate reality time line really gives the creators freedom to do whatever they want, including returning the familiar and loved characters from the original series and movies. Because while the overall Trek universe is interesting, what brings most people to the series is the characters, especially the original crew.
The effects were awesome. I like the fact that they just made the decision to say: 'we realize the original sets were made on a shoe string TV budget from the 60's, that doesn't mean all spaceships should look analog.' Everything looked and felt right, none of the technology was out of place or jumped out at me.
The eventual camaraderie of the characters. It wasn't forced, you believed the way it worked. One of the results of the alternate reality is that now all of the characters are the same age, which makes some of the relationships more believable. And while some of the acting was a little forced (I liked McCoy but the acting was the closest to being an over the top impression of the original) for the most part it was great, and fit in the idea of how those characters always felt to those of us who grew up with the series.
The few things I didn't like
Uhuru: First, the whole idea of Spock engaging in a P.D.A. with anyone is wrong. And to have it be Uhuru makes it doubly wrong. Second, why did they pick the female crew members uniforms to be the one thing they wanted to retain faith with? Why did the poor girl have to run around in a uniform mini skirt and Go Go boots? It was the one thing that felt jarringly out of place.
The Enterprise was not the fleet Flagship, and if it was they wouldn't allow some freshly minted Captain to command it. I'm just saying is all.
Battle scenes were filmed a little too herky jerky. It got pretty annoying to be unable to focus on the action when the camera never stayed on it.
Overall though, I loved it, and would encourage anyone who enjoys Star Trek to see it. It was just fun. With lots of cool little nods to the adventures of the original cast. A great time was had by all.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Trek v. Wars
I will come right out and say that I have always been a Star Wars fan, from seeing it for the first time in a tiny theater in the Citadel Mall up until seeing the Clone Wars movie in the theater with my sons and wife. I love everything about the Star Wars universe, even though I don't read the novels. It's such a rich universe and the stories are so cool to me.
And I have engaged in a couple of Forum wars over Star Wars versus Star Trek. Always taking the side of Star Wars. I grew up watching the original Star Trek series, liked the first couple of movies. Read and reread the novelization of the original series episodes. And I watched the Next Generation regularly at first.
Then my interest waned, and I have not regained it. The only movie I have liked recently was the first Next Generation movie. Other than that I have had no interest. My friends tried to convince me to watch DS:9 and Voyager, but I never liked them much.
So recently I started following Wil Wheaton, both on his web site and his Twitter feed. And both are very cool. Pretty much off the charts cool as far as his willingness to embrace his geekiness, claiming to play miniature games, playing RPG's (real role playing, not computer games) etc.
And his complete embrace of the new Star Trek movie has me thinking it might be time to give it another shot. Wheaton can be pretty brutal about the Next Generation, and for him to give an unflinching endorsement forces me to consider seeing the movie myself. And if I see it with James I might have to consider introducing him to the rest of Star Trek (or not, that's a lot of Star Trek for me to handle, maybe way too much).
And I have engaged in a couple of Forum wars over Star Wars versus Star Trek. Always taking the side of Star Wars. I grew up watching the original Star Trek series, liked the first couple of movies. Read and reread the novelization of the original series episodes. And I watched the Next Generation regularly at first.
Then my interest waned, and I have not regained it. The only movie I have liked recently was the first Next Generation movie. Other than that I have had no interest. My friends tried to convince me to watch DS:9 and Voyager, but I never liked them much.
So recently I started following Wil Wheaton, both on his web site and his Twitter feed. And both are very cool. Pretty much off the charts cool as far as his willingness to embrace his geekiness, claiming to play miniature games, playing RPG's (real role playing, not computer games) etc.
And his complete embrace of the new Star Trek movie has me thinking it might be time to give it another shot. Wheaton can be pretty brutal about the Next Generation, and for him to give an unflinching endorsement forces me to consider seeing the movie myself. And if I see it with James I might have to consider introducing him to the rest of Star Trek (or not, that's a lot of Star Trek for me to handle, maybe way too much).
Friday, May 1, 2009
This is so cool I have to figure a way to work it in
This article details something so cool it just screams out that it be used in a role playing game. My mind is just whirling with possibilities. I just read the article on my lunch break and all the way back from work all I could think about was ways to incorporate this into my game.
I don't know exactly how I plan to do it, but I will make it a centerpiece of the game, oh yes I will...
I don't know exactly how I plan to do it, but I will make it a centerpiece of the game, oh yes I will...
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Lego Challenge
James has taken the challenge seriously, working dilligently for a couple of days now on the pool table. He has come up with a couple of cool new additions so far, the little battle scene was awfully creative. But nothing really monumental so far. So he need to keep working on it, he gets to keep working until Sunday afternoon, and then he has to take it all down.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Weekend plans for Kids, esp. J
Weekends are pretty busy these days for the kids. Swim lessons for Daniel, soccer for James. Sprinkle in some cleaning, prepping for a spelling test, we don't necessarily always give them a lot of time to do something new.
But I think it is high time I did something new with James. He has been bugging me about posting pictures of his Lego creations to the Lego club. Well I think it is time to teach him some basics about pictures and loading things to the web.
The week before Easter Kim & I came across 2 Clone Wars photo kits at Goodwill, fully sealed. These are basically toy digital cameras with a 90 picture memory. In addition they come with photo editing software that is designed around Clone Wars. So tonight I plan to challenge James to build or put together a Star Wars set for Lego. Be it a spaceship, or a space battle or ground battle, something like that. I will let him use the pool table and he can leave his creation up.
Then tomorrow night I will give him and Daniel their camera kits. And have James take his own pictures of his creation. Then I will show him how to load the pictures to the computer and edit them. Once he is done I will post the finished shots here, and show him how to send them to the Lego web site. It's a weekend long project.
My goal is to demonstrate what I do with pictures. And the joys of doing something with a computer other than playing a game. This won't take the place of soccer, and I still intend to take the kids on a long walk on Sunday (weather permitting). But I think James is ready to take the next step with technology.
But I think it is high time I did something new with James. He has been bugging me about posting pictures of his Lego creations to the Lego club. Well I think it is time to teach him some basics about pictures and loading things to the web.
The week before Easter Kim & I came across 2 Clone Wars photo kits at Goodwill, fully sealed. These are basically toy digital cameras with a 90 picture memory. In addition they come with photo editing software that is designed around Clone Wars. So tonight I plan to challenge James to build or put together a Star Wars set for Lego. Be it a spaceship, or a space battle or ground battle, something like that. I will let him use the pool table and he can leave his creation up.
Then tomorrow night I will give him and Daniel their camera kits. And have James take his own pictures of his creation. Then I will show him how to load the pictures to the computer and edit them. Once he is done I will post the finished shots here, and show him how to send them to the Lego web site. It's a weekend long project.
My goal is to demonstrate what I do with pictures. And the joys of doing something with a computer other than playing a game. This won't take the place of soccer, and I still intend to take the kids on a long walk on Sunday (weather permitting). But I think James is ready to take the next step with technology.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Character Creation Guidelines
Here is a listing of what I will lay out for the players when we do the character creation night:
You are all members of the LA County Sheriff SWAT team. You all know each other, and have worked together. You are currently flying a police helicopter to Las Vegas for a training session. Here are the minimums and skill requirements:
Forbidden Hindrances:
Blind, Bloodthirsty, Death Wish, major delusion, Deaf, Lame, Obese, One Arm, leg, eye etc., Wanted, Elderly/Young
Attributes:
Agility D8
Vigor, Strength D6
Skills
Shooting D8 (only requires 2 points D4 is free), Fighting D6, Knowledge-Law Enforcement D6 (this is a freebie no points have to spent), Driving D4 (also a freebie)
(An aside here, Forrest has an approach to the Shooting skill that I agree with in concept but do not agree within the spirit of the game. He said that shooting should not cover all guns, that shooting a pistol is different from a rifle, or a machine gun, or bow etc. so we had to pay different skills for each of those. I agree with the concept, but having redone a character with these rules it just doesn't make sense, you have to give up too many points in character creation to what should be only 1 skill. So I will keep to the way the rules are written.)
In addition there will be 4 specialists on the team, and each specialist will have a backup: Sergeant, Sniper, Driver/Pilot, Comm/demolitions, Medic. The person who wants that slot will have to meet certain skill requirements, and their backup will have minimums as well.
Sergeant: Leadership, Knowledge-tactics D8 (Backup has both skills at D6)
Sniper: Marksman Edge (there is no backup for this, only 1 player can have this edge.)
Driver/pilot: Driver, Pilot D8 (backup has both skills at D6)
Comm/Demolitions: Knowledge-Explosives, Knowledge-Electronics D8 (backup has both skills at D6)
Medic: Healing D8, Knowledge-Medicine D6 (Backup has Healing D6)
That's 5 specialists, and 6 players, which means everyone will be pretty heavily cross trained. And that may mean that there's not a lot of room for personal skills, edges, hindrances, but these are things the players can still role play and eventually acquire.
You are all members of the LA County Sheriff SWAT team. You all know each other, and have worked together. You are currently flying a police helicopter to Las Vegas for a training session. Here are the minimums and skill requirements:
Forbidden Hindrances:
Blind, Bloodthirsty, Death Wish, major delusion, Deaf, Lame, Obese, One Arm, leg, eye etc., Wanted, Elderly/Young
Attributes:
Agility D8
Vigor, Strength D6
Skills
Shooting D8 (only requires 2 points D4 is free), Fighting D6, Knowledge-Law Enforcement D6 (this is a freebie no points have to spent), Driving D4 (also a freebie)
(An aside here, Forrest has an approach to the Shooting skill that I agree with in concept but do not agree within the spirit of the game. He said that shooting should not cover all guns, that shooting a pistol is different from a rifle, or a machine gun, or bow etc. so we had to pay different skills for each of those. I agree with the concept, but having redone a character with these rules it just doesn't make sense, you have to give up too many points in character creation to what should be only 1 skill. So I will keep to the way the rules are written.)
In addition there will be 4 specialists on the team, and each specialist will have a backup: Sergeant, Sniper, Driver/Pilot, Comm/demolitions, Medic. The person who wants that slot will have to meet certain skill requirements, and their backup will have minimums as well.
Sergeant: Leadership, Knowledge-tactics D8 (Backup has both skills at D6)
Sniper: Marksman Edge (there is no backup for this, only 1 player can have this edge.)
Driver/pilot: Driver, Pilot D8 (backup has both skills at D6)
Comm/Demolitions: Knowledge-Explosives, Knowledge-Electronics D8 (backup has both skills at D6)
Medic: Healing D8, Knowledge-Medicine D6 (Backup has Healing D6)
That's 5 specialists, and 6 players, which means everyone will be pretty heavily cross trained. And that may mean that there's not a lot of room for personal skills, edges, hindrances, but these are things the players can still role play and eventually acquire.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Is it ready yet?
Is my adventure ready for the group? That's the question I need to ask. I know I can easily paralyze myself with analysis. On the other hand this group can be pretty rough on a GM who isn't ready.
I have roughly 3 nights of playing sketched out:
1. Intro night: getting their characters created (I am actually planning on devoting part of a session to this in order to accomplish my goal of having people really know each others characters). Then getting them transported to the world and transforming (if that happens). This should actually be a pretty fun night because there won't be that much playing, so there could, and should, be lots of table talk. My original plan to have the players learn about their new world in this session has changed. I think it will take some time to create the characters. And I might even do a real quick training exercise as well. Then I plan to cliff hanger it as they wake up in this strange new land.
2. Learning about their new world: Picking up from the cliff hanger. This will be the night they meet the people of the new world, and depending on which group they meet up with, getting acclimated to that group. Lots of story telling on my part. Potentially some action, but not a lot to start.
3. Haunted Valley: Exploring, and then surviving the valley of the Dinosaurs. Lots of action in this one, dealing with squatters/survivors. Then trying to beat/survive the encounters with the dinosaurs.
I think that if Forrest asks me in a couple of weeks if I am ready I will answer yes. I think I can get this group moving in a new direction. And I think that maybe part of the problem is that Rippers has just been a little too sedate for this group. We kind of crave action here. Not big on subtle role playing interaction.
I have roughly 3 nights of playing sketched out:
1. Intro night: getting their characters created (I am actually planning on devoting part of a session to this in order to accomplish my goal of having people really know each others characters). Then getting them transported to the world and transforming (if that happens). This should actually be a pretty fun night because there won't be that much playing, so there could, and should, be lots of table talk. My original plan to have the players learn about their new world in this session has changed. I think it will take some time to create the characters. And I might even do a real quick training exercise as well. Then I plan to cliff hanger it as they wake up in this strange new land.
2. Learning about their new world: Picking up from the cliff hanger. This will be the night they meet the people of the new world, and depending on which group they meet up with, getting acclimated to that group. Lots of story telling on my part. Potentially some action, but not a lot to start.
3. Haunted Valley: Exploring, and then surviving the valley of the Dinosaurs. Lots of action in this one, dealing with squatters/survivors. Then trying to beat/survive the encounters with the dinosaurs.
I think that if Forrest asks me in a couple of weeks if I am ready I will answer yes. I think I can get this group moving in a new direction. And I think that maybe part of the problem is that Rippers has just been a little too sedate for this group. We kind of crave action here. Not big on subtle role playing interaction.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Keeping James Eclectic
The other night I was talking to Forrest and I got to explaining what my still loose knit policy has been regarding teaching the kids, especially James so far, how to play games.
It hasn't been intentional but I have been avoiding focusing on any 1 game so far. Instead I have taught him the basics of a lot of games. And then let him decide if he wants to play one more.
So far we have played the Star Wars collectible cardboard miniatures game, The Star Wars miniature game, Warhammer 40K, Risk, War, Crazy 8's and finally Uno. The only one of those he reliably wants to play over and over is Uno, going so far as to get my Dad (who doesn't really play games at all that don't involve a ball) to play. Normally every week when my mom comes over for dinner we play a game or 2 of Uno. And Daniel actually tries to play Uno as well, doing pretty well on the basics actually.
While it hasn't been intentional I have decided I will continue this process of teaching the basics of games, and only occasionally repeating games. I think at this point the idea is to teach him all the many great things out there, and when he gets older if he wants to he can narrow his focus.
Of course in the course of playing these the main focus is sportsmanship. Teaching him how to lose and win with equal grace. This last part is no easy task, he is so competitive that he gets pretty upset when he loses anything. Which puts me on the razors edge of teaching without demolishing. Which is another reason I keep teaching him different games as that way he can learn general ideas of strategy that he can apply universally, and also so I can keep my own competitive nature from rising to the top.
It hasn't been intentional but I have been avoiding focusing on any 1 game so far. Instead I have taught him the basics of a lot of games. And then let him decide if he wants to play one more.
So far we have played the Star Wars collectible cardboard miniatures game, The Star Wars miniature game, Warhammer 40K, Risk, War, Crazy 8's and finally Uno. The only one of those he reliably wants to play over and over is Uno, going so far as to get my Dad (who doesn't really play games at all that don't involve a ball) to play. Normally every week when my mom comes over for dinner we play a game or 2 of Uno. And Daniel actually tries to play Uno as well, doing pretty well on the basics actually.
While it hasn't been intentional I have decided I will continue this process of teaching the basics of games, and only occasionally repeating games. I think at this point the idea is to teach him all the many great things out there, and when he gets older if he wants to he can narrow his focus.
Of course in the course of playing these the main focus is sportsmanship. Teaching him how to lose and win with equal grace. This last part is no easy task, he is so competitive that he gets pretty upset when he loses anything. Which puts me on the razors edge of teaching without demolishing. Which is another reason I keep teaching him different games as that way he can learn general ideas of strategy that he can apply universally, and also so I can keep my own competitive nature from rising to the top.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Our long national nightmare is over
Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles is over (unofficially)
This show had sooo much potential. But it was wasted, over and over and over again. And I vehemently disagree with whoever wrote that article that the show went out on top. That last episode was horrid. There was so much they could have done, and laid groundwork for after the second to last week. And then they went and wasted it.
And who knows (or cares) where the show would have gone next? There was just so much wrong with the time line that it was a complete mess. I think this is a mercy kill on the part of the network. And the only people who really wanted it to keep going were Summer Glau fans.
This show had sooo much potential. But it was wasted, over and over and over again. And I vehemently disagree with whoever wrote that article that the show went out on top. That last episode was horrid. There was so much they could have done, and laid groundwork for after the second to last week. And then they went and wasted it.
And who knows (or cares) where the show would have gone next? There was just so much wrong with the time line that it was a complete mess. I think this is a mercy kill on the part of the network. And the only people who really wanted it to keep going were Summer Glau fans.
Crisis Mode
We're in a little bit of a crisis mode in our group right now. For quite some time just about everyone in the group saw each other multiple times between gaming sessions. So there was not a lot of need to devote the gaming sessions to catching up and socializing, we could focus on gaming.
That has changed apparently. Only Dale and Forrest have the time to spend at the store multiple times a week so they can socialize. But the others don't have the same opportunities. And since we are all good friends outside of the games we understandably want to share things, events etc. Which leads to talking and chatting and catching up.
The problem is that our game sessions are no longer game sessions, they are get togethers, which means we never really make any progress on the gaming. And those of us who really want to game are getting frustrated. So Forrest is going to lay down the law next time we play: please focus on the game, or we will stop playing.
Again I think part of the problem is we all want to catch up and socialize. But I also wonder if the group needs a change, a dramatically different game. Forrest had asked me if I was ready to run my game, my reply was soon. But that might be what is required: a change. Time will tell.
That has changed apparently. Only Dale and Forrest have the time to spend at the store multiple times a week so they can socialize. But the others don't have the same opportunities. And since we are all good friends outside of the games we understandably want to share things, events etc. Which leads to talking and chatting and catching up.
The problem is that our game sessions are no longer game sessions, they are get togethers, which means we never really make any progress on the gaming. And those of us who really want to game are getting frustrated. So Forrest is going to lay down the law next time we play: please focus on the game, or we will stop playing.
Again I think part of the problem is we all want to catch up and socialize. But I also wonder if the group needs a change, a dramatically different game. Forrest had asked me if I was ready to run my game, my reply was soon. But that might be what is required: a change. Time will tell.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Different Approach
I decided on a different route for my character in Rippers. I gave up on my current character, which I was having such a hard time with. I decided that while I like the character, if I wanted to stay true to him, he couldn't fit with the group and the way this group plays. There just isn't room for a cerebral character who doesn't fight and is very passive.
Rather than continue having frustrating experiences like last time I came up with a new character. Than got the OK from Forrest. This one is far more action oriented and geared towards what the party will be doing. So I won't worry about being useless in combat situations. Plus there can now be a leader in the party as far as someone taking charge and keeping things moving. Which is a necessity as far as this group is concerned.
We'll see how it goes but I am pretty excited to play this week. Should be fun to throw the group off.
Rather than continue having frustrating experiences like last time I came up with a new character. Than got the OK from Forrest. This one is far more action oriented and geared towards what the party will be doing. So I won't worry about being useless in combat situations. Plus there can now be a leader in the party as far as someone taking charge and keeping things moving. Which is a necessity as far as this group is concerned.
We'll see how it goes but I am pretty excited to play this week. Should be fun to throw the group off.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
I am not pleased
Came across this article this morning while checking out that Friday Night Lights review. And I am not happy with it. This writer seems to have forgotten 2 things: how to think like a kid, and that there are far worse things her child could be stuck on.
I admit that there are times that James' obsession with Star Wars can be a little overwhelming. But honestly it doesn't hurt him. The stories are a big morality play, just as much as any other popular fable. He has learned some basics like be kind to others, respectful of other living things etc. from watching the shows.
The way she writes about the show also shows to me that she doesn't have the child like attitude to truly appreciate the kids shows like Clone Wars. For me it is something we share. Yes I know in some respects that is more telling about me, but I am proud of the fact that I can still watch and appreciate 'kid's shows'. It strengthens the bond between me and my kids.
Last of course is her snobbish attitude about the prequels. I find it annoying that she can complain about the commercialism and violence, and then turn around and apply this grown up snobbish attitude towards the rest of the series. Star Wars is to me first and foremost a story. A fun story, with lots of really cool stuff. And there is some morality in there, but not as heavy handed as the Disney movies, which are ostensibly okay for kids. Heck there is far worse violence in the reading of Wizard of Oz where the Cowardly Lion decapitates creatures, then in most of the Star Wars movies.
I am not saying that she is wrong in her general review, but that she needs a better perspective. And that the other side has to be spoken for.
I admit that there are times that James' obsession with Star Wars can be a little overwhelming. But honestly it doesn't hurt him. The stories are a big morality play, just as much as any other popular fable. He has learned some basics like be kind to others, respectful of other living things etc. from watching the shows.
The way she writes about the show also shows to me that she doesn't have the child like attitude to truly appreciate the kids shows like Clone Wars. For me it is something we share. Yes I know in some respects that is more telling about me, but I am proud of the fact that I can still watch and appreciate 'kid's shows'. It strengthens the bond between me and my kids.
Last of course is her snobbish attitude about the prequels. I find it annoying that she can complain about the commercialism and violence, and then turn around and apply this grown up snobbish attitude towards the rest of the series. Star Wars is to me first and foremost a story. A fun story, with lots of really cool stuff. And there is some morality in there, but not as heavy handed as the Disney movies, which are ostensibly okay for kids. Heck there is far worse violence in the reading of Wizard of Oz where the Cowardly Lion decapitates creatures, then in most of the Star Wars movies.
I am not saying that she is wrong in her general review, but that she needs a better perspective. And that the other side has to be spoken for.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Clone Wars recordings
So I got it done, at least the first test run. I found a nice little shareware application that converts the .tivo files to MPEG. Then I spent a stressful day trying to find a decent application for converting the MPEG to DVD.
And yesterday I was finally able to get the first episode to DVD, tested it out and it played just fine. So next week I should be able to get the rest of the season converted. These will still contain the commercials so they won't be a picture perfect recording. But they will suffice, and allow us to avoid rushing out to buy the episodes when they start getting released bit by bit.
It is pretty cool to be able to do this. And next week I plan to write out the step by step for everyone so those people out there with Tivo will be able to replicate it. I definitely takes off the pressure to upgrade the Tivo box for now.
And yesterday I was finally able to get the first episode to DVD, tested it out and it played just fine. So next week I should be able to get the rest of the season converted. These will still contain the commercials so they won't be a picture perfect recording. But they will suffice, and allow us to avoid rushing out to buy the episodes when they start getting released bit by bit.
It is pretty cool to be able to do this. And next week I plan to write out the step by step for everyone so those people out there with Tivo will be able to replicate it. I definitely takes off the pressure to upgrade the Tivo box for now.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Last night
We had an interesting session last night. And it had 2 things that were a classic example of why this group is both so much fun and also so frustrating.
First, once we started we were going quite well, everyone was into the game. We were crawling through sewers then up some stairs, open a locked door and BAM! We walk into a horrendous cult butcher shop: blood all over the walls, body parts etc. the whole 9 yards. 4 of us fail our Guts check and start throwing up. And then everyone else just recovers and start walking lad de da, ooh these3 are bad guys we need to kill them, and how can we just blow the whole place up. Here was an opportunity for a classic role playing chance, and everybody just blows it off. I love this group but it is scenes like this that make me wonder how into the role playing they really are.
Soon after that things sort of degenerated, one player brought up some commercial he saw, and the focus was pretty much gone. We kept trying the rest of the night but it just never completely returned to the focus of the first 20 or so minutes, damn! Again I love this group, but they have the attention span of a bunch of sugared up pre-schoolers. I know I really want to run a game for these guys, but nights like that make me wonder how I am going to ever keep them focused to get through a decent session. And will they really care about their characters development?
But I shall endeavor to persevere when the time comes.
First, once we started we were going quite well, everyone was into the game. We were crawling through sewers then up some stairs, open a locked door and BAM! We walk into a horrendous cult butcher shop: blood all over the walls, body parts etc. the whole 9 yards. 4 of us fail our Guts check and start throwing up. And then everyone else just recovers and start walking lad de da, ooh these3 are bad guys we need to kill them, and how can we just blow the whole place up. Here was an opportunity for a classic role playing chance, and everybody just blows it off. I love this group but it is scenes like this that make me wonder how into the role playing they really are.
Soon after that things sort of degenerated, one player brought up some commercial he saw, and the focus was pretty much gone. We kept trying the rest of the night but it just never completely returned to the focus of the first 20 or so minutes, damn! Again I love this group, but they have the attention span of a bunch of sugared up pre-schoolers. I know I really want to run a game for these guys, but nights like that make me wonder how I am going to ever keep them focused to get through a decent session. And will they really care about their characters development?
But I shall endeavor to persevere when the time comes.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Drawing the Cards
How do I plan to randomize the chances of characters transforming and/or gaining powers? Here is my plan:
Draw the Cards
Each player will Draw up to 7 cards, stopping only if they get second Ace or they reach 7 cards, they then show what they drew to the GM. The meaning of the cards they draw are as follows:
1. Jokers Arcane powers, draw an extra card
Red card means Spell Caster (Heart means Shaman, Diamond means Mage)
Black card means Wild Card (Roll D20 to see what power they get)
2. Drawing the Ace (Aces mean transforming)
Spades: Elf (Agility increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Low Light vision)
Hearts: Dwarf (Vigor increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Low Light vision, Slow Pace)
Diamond: Ork (Strength increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Infra Red vision)
Club: Ogre (Strength increase of 1 dice type up to 12, Toughness +2, Smarts drops 1 Dice Type, Ugly)
This means there is a decent chance multiple members of the party will either transform or gain a power or both. I prefer doing it this way for 2 reasons: role playing chances and because the world I will be running isn't like anything else they know so letting them pick a character type or race before hand wouldn't be fair.
I think it will be fun and interesting to see some of the members of this group to be forced to deal with their character waking up and finding out they are a Troll or Dwarf or one of the other races. How they and the other party members deal with that should be interesting.
One of the reasons I am putting all this work into this world is because I want to do something different. And one of my goals is to have the group slowly learn and react to this new world as strangers rather than knowing what is going on. So if I gave them the chance ahead of time to be an Ork with the Super power to become invisible would negate the novelty factor.
Draw the Cards
Each player will Draw up to 7 cards, stopping only if they get second Ace or they reach 7 cards, they then show what they drew to the GM. The meaning of the cards they draw are as follows:
1. Jokers Arcane powers, draw an extra card
Red card means Spell Caster (Heart means Shaman, Diamond means Mage)
Black card means Wild Card (Roll D20 to see what power they get)
2. Drawing the Ace (Aces mean transforming)
Spades: Elf (Agility increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Low Light vision)
Hearts: Dwarf (Vigor increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Low Light vision, Slow Pace)
Diamond: Ork (Strength increase of 1 Dice type up to 10, Infra Red vision)
Club: Ogre (Strength increase of 1 dice type up to 12, Toughness +2, Smarts drops 1 Dice Type, Ugly)
This means there is a decent chance multiple members of the party will either transform or gain a power or both. I prefer doing it this way for 2 reasons: role playing chances and because the world I will be running isn't like anything else they know so letting them pick a character type or race before hand wouldn't be fair.
I think it will be fun and interesting to see some of the members of this group to be forced to deal with their character waking up and finding out they are a Troll or Dwarf or one of the other races. How they and the other party members deal with that should be interesting.
One of the reasons I am putting all this work into this world is because I want to do something different. And one of my goals is to have the group slowly learn and react to this new world as strangers rather than knowing what is going on. So if I gave them the chance ahead of time to be an Ork with the Super power to become invisible would negate the novelty factor.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Cool little trick
So with our switch to Comcast Digital voice our Tivo lost the phone line connection. So I had to scramble a little bit to get the wireless connection going again. Which actually went quite smoothly.
So this morning I thought I would play with the Transfer show feature to transfer the recorded shows from the Tivo box to my PC. And it worked quite well. The quality is pretty decent. So now I will have the entire season of Clone Wars on the PC so it can be viewed there using Windows Media Player.
The coolest part of this is that if James wants to watch those now, but we want to watch TV at the same time I can just set him up on the PC downstairs and voila! I imagine I could put the .wmv files on a CD as well so he could watch them on another PC, and if I was clever I could figure out a way to transfer them to a format so they could be viewed through a DVD player. Something to investigate.
So this morning I thought I would play with the Transfer show feature to transfer the recorded shows from the Tivo box to my PC. And it worked quite well. The quality is pretty decent. So now I will have the entire season of Clone Wars on the PC so it can be viewed there using Windows Media Player.
The coolest part of this is that if James wants to watch those now, but we want to watch TV at the same time I can just set him up on the PC downstairs and voila! I imagine I could put the .wmv files on a CD as well so he could watch them on another PC, and if I was clever I could figure out a way to transfer them to a format so they could be viewed through a DVD player. Something to investigate.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Funny stuff
The Top 107 Things I'd Do If I Joined a Sci-Fi Special Ops Team
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
1. I would refuse to go into the underground research facility.
2. I would refuse to go into the deep-space research facility.
3. I would refuse to go into the deep-sea research facility.
4. I would refuse to go into the radio-blacked out colony.
5. I would refuse to go into the derelict alien ship.
6. I would refuse to go into the abandoned ghost ship.
7. If I was then forced into attempting any of the above six missions, I would attempt to go AWOL. Prison showers are almost certainly preferable to what awaits.
8. When going on a mission, I would certainly carry more than one gun. I would carry as many as humanly possible.
9. In line with #8, I would carry more than one clip per gun. I have a belt, and I intend to fill it.
10. If the hallways of the operations area are big enough to allow it, I intend to bring along a small field artillery piece as well.
11. No matter what my commanding officer says, if my job is to plant a nuclear device to destroy the facility/ship, it is not necessary for me to endanger my life by traveling to the center of the structure to plant the bomb, I'm sure the entrance will prove just as effective.
12. If my job is to disable the A/I system that runs the facility/ship, and this would require me to go to the center of the structure, I will just plant a small nuclear device at the entrance. If the blast doesn't get it, the EMP will.
13. If I am equipped with body armor, and it proves ineffective against whatever killed everyone in the facility/ship, I will ditch it and use the saved weight to carry more guns.
14. Along the same lines, if the body armor is ineffective and so are the guns, I will ditch both and set a new track record on my way out of the ops area.
15. I will refuse to wear any helmet that restricts my peripheral vision and does not allow me to see something rising up/dropping down right beside me.
16. I will request to be equipped with a helmet that has a small HUD linked to a camera on the back of my helmet. An additional HUD linked to a upward-pointing top mounted camera would be nice as well.
17. If I am going into some top secret facility that has lost radio communication with the outside world, I will make damn sure that I am in possession of a high quality, up to date map in a form that will not be rendered unreadable by contact with liquid.
18. If I could not obtain a map, and found myself lost/trapped in the facility, I would not rely on the unstable, homicidal central A/I to provide me with escape routes.
19. If I am inside a facility/ship after the stuff has hit the fan, and find myself without a map, I will head to the nearest computer terminal and consult Yahoo! Maps. The facility was built by a corporation or the government, and they can certainly afford an internet connection.
20. If there is a self-destruct mechanism or impenetrable blast doors set on a running timer within the building/ship I am ordered to enter, I will guard the entrances until the timer runs out, then leave. The problem will take care of itself eventually, so there is no need to risk myself.
21. If mine is not the first team to be sent into the area, I will take a little time off to wonder why.
22. If the music suddenly gets really creepy, start spinning around with your finger on the trigger. Whoever was guarding your back is probably gone by this point anyway.
23. Before I go on each mission, I will rent Aliens, Resident Evil, Event Horizon, and other similar movies for pointers. I will defer the costs to my employer as "training expenses".
24. If there is something dripping from the ceiling up ahead, I won't bother to check if it's just water. I will leave the area immediately by the quickest available route.
25. If I hear odd noises, I will not be foolish enough to investigate it alone. I will take a friend. Or two. With big guns.
26. If I am ordered to investigate the noise by my commanding officer, I will take everyone else in the squad with me. By the time we return to where the CO was waiting, the problem will probably have solved itself.
27. If I am forced to walk underneath a hole in the ceiling, I will be cautious. I will investigate it thoroughly with high explosives.
28. Likewise, If I hear odd noises coming from the ceiling, I will not lift up a panel and stick my head up to have a look around. I will lift up the panel and shove a grenade up there.
29. Similarly, if I am forced to pass a hole/grate in the walls or floor, I will throw a grenade in to make sure its clear now, and set proximity mines to make sure it is clear later.
30. Unless it is my last chance for survival, I will never go into any type of ventilation shaft. I know that whatever chased me up there will almost certainly be able to move faster than me in an enclosed space.
31. I will always take some sort of sword with me in addition to a multitude of projectile weapons. That way, when I run out of ammunition, and I will, I won't have to ineffectually slap at an opponent before being killed.
31a. Along similar lines, if I am issued only laser/particle beam/mag-accelerated weapons, I will acquire and carry a gunpowder slugthrower. Thus, if something nullifies electronics, I can still shoot whatever wants to eat me.
32. Knowingly entering a facility where illegal genetic research is being performed would be consigning myself to death by stupidity. Therefore, I wouldn't enter, even if this entailed killing the rest of my team to avoid it.
33. I would never enter a dark room. I would throw in a handful of grenades and move on, assured that if anything is still alive in there, it isn't happy.
34. I wont make the mistake of shooting something with my smallest gun first, and then working my way up through the larger firearms. I would start with my biggest gun, and if that didn't work, run like hell.
35. If I was sent off with only one companion, I would make sure it is someone I could outrun. That way, I can get away while whatever was chasing us chews on him.
36. If there are women on the team, I will never sleep with them right before a mission. One or the other of us will almost certainly not make it back, and I don't like 50/50 odds.
37. If a team-member disappears mysteriously for a long period of time and the just as mysteriously reappears, I will shoot them immediately and save myself a lot of trouble.
38. I will periodically look up. The importance of this can never be overstated.
39. If I am in a genetic research lab and there are lots of cages whose steel doors have been torn out, I will think about how much punishment those doors could take. Then I will think about how much punishment my frail human body can take. Then I will start thinking about where those exits were.
40. No matter how tempted I am, I will never deactivate the main power grid in a research facility. I know there is a reason that those doors are magnetically locked and electrified.
41. I will also never deactivate the main computer in a facility. Even though its automated defenses may be slaughtering the rest of the team, they are still holding back whatever killed the original occupants.
42. I will stay away from any elevators. Nothing good ever comes from an elevator in these situations.
43. I will never negotiate with whatever is trying to kill my team. The dialogue will almost certainly be along the lines of "Me hungry, you food".
44. If one of my team-members gets bitten, cut, sprayed with, or otherwise exposed to a bio-agent, I will kill them immediately. They will only turn on me, and the antidote never works anyway.
45. The sexiest female will always make it out, mainly because she is surrounded by men who willingly throw themselves in the path of anything that attempts to harm her. I will stay close to that female, and when I am the last male left, I will throw her in the path of whatever is attempting to harm us.
46. I will make sure that when I finally make my exit from the ops area, I have conserved a decent amount of ammunition. Something always goes wrong during the escape.
47. If I find only one survivor from among 500 or so people, I will not trust them. They had to do something to survive the carnage that killed 500 people, and I don't think it was just run really fast.
48. I will make sure the team will under no circumstances split up. It never helps.
49. If upon arriving in the ops area I hear a lot of screams from inside or see a lot of obviously mutilated dead bodies, I will leave the ops area and come back later. With more people. And bigger guns.
50. I will train myself to keep my cool under pressure well enough to hit a head sized target at a range of 10 feet.
51. I will request that any ops team I am a part of be issued body armor with environmental resistance, which provides protection from things like fire, airborne viruses, and acid.
52. I will also request that aforementioned armor have a reflective mirrored surface, to help with those pesky automated laser defenses.
53. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance does not appear human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead.
54. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance appears vaguely human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead.
55. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance appears human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead. Better safe than sorry.
55a. If I see something in the shadows up ahead I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead. Better safe than sorry.
56. If multiple survivors are found during the course of the mission, they will be given a gun and told to make themselves useful.
57. However, if these survivors created or want to study whatever depopulated the facility/ship, they will not be given guns as they cannot be trusted to use them at the crucial moment, due to their conflict of interests.
58. Between missions I will lobby for legislature to require all secret research facilities to have heavily stocked ammo dumps in easily accessible, well marked locations.
59. If my team is required to use motion detectors, they better be able to scan 360 degrees, not merely 90.
60. If the body count is currently over 500, I will politely inform my superiors that an 8-man operations team isn't going to cut it.
61. If any member of the team is prone to claustrophobia, diver's high, space-mania, or panic attacks, I will deliver a request to the CO that they be left behind, instead of just being given a pep talk.
62. If any member of the team proves to be a corporate/government spy, I will shoot them before anyone else can react, saving the trouble of taking them prisoner only so they can escape later and sabotage the mission.
62a. If there is a sudden illness with any member of my team and a new member is added at the last minute, I will shoot them before anyone else can react.
63. I will recommend that any form of transportation we have be parked well away from the trouble spot, and that the operator stays in it and keeps the doors sealed until the team is standing outside and ready to leave.
63a. If my escape vehicle was on the ground the entire time I was fighting the monster/alien/genetic abombination/etc. I will destroy it. Whatever I thought I killed was on board.
64. If we have a spare transport I will recommend that we have a spare pilot as well, to save having to remote control fly the transport in if something happens to the first.
65. If any member of the team takes a revolver on the mission, I will take it from them, hand them an automatic, and then slap them silly for being so stupid.
66. I will ensure that all guns have perfectly calibrated laser sights, even if I must pay for them myself, so that missing a headshot is inexcusable.
67. If the team gets out of an operations area and find we are missing a man, I will recommend we leave his ***. He should have kept up in the first place.
68. If our mission is to shut down a rogue A/I, I will not discuss our plans in any room with a visible camera and/or audio pickup.
69. Screw shoulder-mounted flashlights, I'll carry a pair of night vision goggles even if the cost has to come out of my paycheck.
70. The same goes for little pen-lights. I will carry a 3 foot mag-lite with a halogen bulb. That way, not only do I get a huge flashlight range, it can double as a club in tight situations.
70a. I will remember that if the monsterous creature is within clubbing range, it is a tight situation, and start clubbing. This is true even if my firearm still works. No reason not to club and shoot at the same time.
71. If I am low on ammunition, I won't hesitate to roll the bodies of my teammates for ammo. They certainly don't need it anymore.
72. If I learn that the beings we are fighting have acid for blood or that their blood contains some sort of bio-agent, I will make damn sure I am at least 15 feet away from any I shoot.
73. If my team possesses an APC, but it won't fit into the corridors of the ops area, I'll rectify the situation with explosives instead of going in on foot.
74. Just in case my opponents will be using cloaking devices that short out upon contact with water, I will always carry a small super-soaker pistol with me on missions.
75. If I am forced to pick a position within a facility from which to make a last stand, it will not be a room which can easily be breached by going above the ceiling or under the floor.
76. If I hear a low hissing or moaning directly behind me, I will take off running without thinking. Whatever it is, its first bite of me is going to be ***.
77. If anyone in the squad has a flamethrower, I will make sure everyone else is trained to instinctively duck whenever he even begins to turn around.
78. When the team's mission is to plant a bomb I will make sure we have more than one bomb, and more than one person who knows how to plant it.
79. If I am going into an area in where research in biological warfare was occurring, I will not remove my gas mask before entering the facility.
80. If there is a countdown to an explosion or the sealing off of the facility, I will set my watch timer 10 minutes ahead of that to give myself a margin of safety.
81. If any of the people we've rescued or one of my team members starts to convulse and scream, ill have the guy with the flamethrower hose them down and then move on. If it is the napalm guy I'll just shoot the tank. Whatever made them do it, I seriously doubt it was a cramp.
82. If my team has heavy weaponry with us, I will not wait until there are only a few people left and we are surrounded and in dire straits to use them. I will use them as early and as often as possible.
83. Similarly, if I have a large ship in orbit over the planet, and find out that there are no survivors in a heavily infested area, I will call for an orbital bombardment of the hot zone.
84. If I hear odd noises coming from a grate nearby, I won't stare quizzically at it and shine a weak flashlight beam through the grate, I will immediately empty my current clip into the grate then kick it in and send a grenade into the tunnel.
85. If we have prisoners, and one of them is talking to me steadily in a calm voice while staring behind me, I will immediately dive to the side and roll to hose whatever was about to attack me. I will show the same response if a team-member looks behind me with an expression of horror.
86. If I address a query to the guy that should be behind me, and receive no immediate response, I will immediately break into a dead run, dropping grenades along the way.
87. If I find that rooms marked on my map as dining halls turn out to be full of stasis chambers and odd piping instead, I will immediately leave the ops area and refuse to enter until I get a damn good explanation.
88. If we manage to ambush whatever was killing us, and I hear a high pitched beeping and it starts laughing, I will be smart enough to just start running, instead of searching it for the timer.
89. I will never walk through water any deeper than I can see down into. I won't walk in the water period if there is electric cabling nearby.
90. Any transports that we bring into the ops area and intend to use to escape will have cameras on the outside to allow us to scan for unwanted guests.
91. Along the same line, the landing bay/pad we return to will have several large turrets to take care of any stowaways we miss.
92. I will point out to my superiors that if the corporation/government has enough money to fund an 8 man black ops team, they have enough damn money to buy us a remote controlled robot with cameras that we can send in to scout the area first.
93. My favored method of advance down a dark corridor will be with a five-man team, the first man hosing down the corridor in front, the second throwing a grenade, the third hauling the huge cart of ammo and explosives, the fourth throwing a grenade behind us, and the fifth hosing down the corridor behind. Take ten steps, repeat.
94. My favored method of advance down a well-lit corridor will be with a five man team, the first man hosing down the corridor in front, the second throwing a grenade, the third hauling the huge cart of ammo and explosives, the fourth throwing a grenade behind us, and the fifth hosing down the corridor behind. Take ten steps, repeat.
95. If a cat comes flying out of a vent, scaring the crap out of me, I will unload a clip into the vent. *Something* scared the cat.
95a. I will shoot any cat encountered during the mission.
96. I will hold the belief that heavy breathing from the nearby darkness is not to be investigated. It is to be used for target practice.
97. Warning shots are for wusses. Fire for effect, that's my motto.
98. If the other people with me have all disappeared, I won't bother wandering around the immediate area looking for them and yelling their names, peering into dark rooms.
99. When any member of my squad dies, I will have them hosed down with the flamethrower or plant a proximity mine on them. No use feeding or increasing the numbers of whatever is trying to kill us.
100. If I die on a mission, it will be because I snapped my neck trying to look everywhere at once.
101. I will never show any members of the mission pictures of my fiancée/wife/kids who I can't wait to get back to after the mission is over.
102. I will never discuss with anyone the length of my enlistment and brag how "short" I am.
103. I will never discuss with anyone the fact that this is my last mission before retirement.
104. I will kill every new life form I encounter. A dead life form is just as valuable to the scientist back home as a live one is.
105. I will kill every one I encounter in suspended animation. They won't feel it anyway.
106. I will obey orders, not be overly comical or friendly with civilians present, I will not swear and I will not be immoral. I do not wish to die first as an example of how bad our enemies are.
106a. I will not be ethnic.
106b. I will not be English.
106c. I will not be a relative to anyone else on the team.
107. I will nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com/
1. I would refuse to go into the underground research facility.
2. I would refuse to go into the deep-space research facility.
3. I would refuse to go into the deep-sea research facility.
4. I would refuse to go into the radio-blacked out colony.
5. I would refuse to go into the derelict alien ship.
6. I would refuse to go into the abandoned ghost ship.
7. If I was then forced into attempting any of the above six missions, I would attempt to go AWOL. Prison showers are almost certainly preferable to what awaits.
8. When going on a mission, I would certainly carry more than one gun. I would carry as many as humanly possible.
9. In line with #8, I would carry more than one clip per gun. I have a belt, and I intend to fill it.
10. If the hallways of the operations area are big enough to allow it, I intend to bring along a small field artillery piece as well.
11. No matter what my commanding officer says, if my job is to plant a nuclear device to destroy the facility/ship, it is not necessary for me to endanger my life by traveling to the center of the structure to plant the bomb, I'm sure the entrance will prove just as effective.
12. If my job is to disable the A/I system that runs the facility/ship, and this would require me to go to the center of the structure, I will just plant a small nuclear device at the entrance. If the blast doesn't get it, the EMP will.
13. If I am equipped with body armor, and it proves ineffective against whatever killed everyone in the facility/ship, I will ditch it and use the saved weight to carry more guns.
14. Along the same lines, if the body armor is ineffective and so are the guns, I will ditch both and set a new track record on my way out of the ops area.
15. I will refuse to wear any helmet that restricts my peripheral vision and does not allow me to see something rising up/dropping down right beside me.
16. I will request to be equipped with a helmet that has a small HUD linked to a camera on the back of my helmet. An additional HUD linked to a upward-pointing top mounted camera would be nice as well.
17. If I am going into some top secret facility that has lost radio communication with the outside world, I will make damn sure that I am in possession of a high quality, up to date map in a form that will not be rendered unreadable by contact with liquid.
18. If I could not obtain a map, and found myself lost/trapped in the facility, I would not rely on the unstable, homicidal central A/I to provide me with escape routes.
19. If I am inside a facility/ship after the stuff has hit the fan, and find myself without a map, I will head to the nearest computer terminal and consult Yahoo! Maps. The facility was built by a corporation or the government, and they can certainly afford an internet connection.
20. If there is a self-destruct mechanism or impenetrable blast doors set on a running timer within the building/ship I am ordered to enter, I will guard the entrances until the timer runs out, then leave. The problem will take care of itself eventually, so there is no need to risk myself.
21. If mine is not the first team to be sent into the area, I will take a little time off to wonder why.
22. If the music suddenly gets really creepy, start spinning around with your finger on the trigger. Whoever was guarding your back is probably gone by this point anyway.
23. Before I go on each mission, I will rent Aliens, Resident Evil, Event Horizon, and other similar movies for pointers. I will defer the costs to my employer as "training expenses".
24. If there is something dripping from the ceiling up ahead, I won't bother to check if it's just water. I will leave the area immediately by the quickest available route.
25. If I hear odd noises, I will not be foolish enough to investigate it alone. I will take a friend. Or two. With big guns.
26. If I am ordered to investigate the noise by my commanding officer, I will take everyone else in the squad with me. By the time we return to where the CO was waiting, the problem will probably have solved itself.
27. If I am forced to walk underneath a hole in the ceiling, I will be cautious. I will investigate it thoroughly with high explosives.
28. Likewise, If I hear odd noises coming from the ceiling, I will not lift up a panel and stick my head up to have a look around. I will lift up the panel and shove a grenade up there.
29. Similarly, if I am forced to pass a hole/grate in the walls or floor, I will throw a grenade in to make sure its clear now, and set proximity mines to make sure it is clear later.
30. Unless it is my last chance for survival, I will never go into any type of ventilation shaft. I know that whatever chased me up there will almost certainly be able to move faster than me in an enclosed space.
31. I will always take some sort of sword with me in addition to a multitude of projectile weapons. That way, when I run out of ammunition, and I will, I won't have to ineffectually slap at an opponent before being killed.
31a. Along similar lines, if I am issued only laser/particle beam/mag-accelerated weapons, I will acquire and carry a gunpowder slugthrower. Thus, if something nullifies electronics, I can still shoot whatever wants to eat me.
32. Knowingly entering a facility where illegal genetic research is being performed would be consigning myself to death by stupidity. Therefore, I wouldn't enter, even if this entailed killing the rest of my team to avoid it.
33. I would never enter a dark room. I would throw in a handful of grenades and move on, assured that if anything is still alive in there, it isn't happy.
34. I wont make the mistake of shooting something with my smallest gun first, and then working my way up through the larger firearms. I would start with my biggest gun, and if that didn't work, run like hell.
35. If I was sent off with only one companion, I would make sure it is someone I could outrun. That way, I can get away while whatever was chasing us chews on him.
36. If there are women on the team, I will never sleep with them right before a mission. One or the other of us will almost certainly not make it back, and I don't like 50/50 odds.
37. If a team-member disappears mysteriously for a long period of time and the just as mysteriously reappears, I will shoot them immediately and save myself a lot of trouble.
38. I will periodically look up. The importance of this can never be overstated.
39. If I am in a genetic research lab and there are lots of cages whose steel doors have been torn out, I will think about how much punishment those doors could take. Then I will think about how much punishment my frail human body can take. Then I will start thinking about where those exits were.
40. No matter how tempted I am, I will never deactivate the main power grid in a research facility. I know there is a reason that those doors are magnetically locked and electrified.
41. I will also never deactivate the main computer in a facility. Even though its automated defenses may be slaughtering the rest of the team, they are still holding back whatever killed the original occupants.
42. I will stay away from any elevators. Nothing good ever comes from an elevator in these situations.
43. I will never negotiate with whatever is trying to kill my team. The dialogue will almost certainly be along the lines of "Me hungry, you food".
44. If one of my team-members gets bitten, cut, sprayed with, or otherwise exposed to a bio-agent, I will kill them immediately. They will only turn on me, and the antidote never works anyway.
45. The sexiest female will always make it out, mainly because she is surrounded by men who willingly throw themselves in the path of anything that attempts to harm her. I will stay close to that female, and when I am the last male left, I will throw her in the path of whatever is attempting to harm us.
46. I will make sure that when I finally make my exit from the ops area, I have conserved a decent amount of ammunition. Something always goes wrong during the escape.
47. If I find only one survivor from among 500 or so people, I will not trust them. They had to do something to survive the carnage that killed 500 people, and I don't think it was just run really fast.
48. I will make sure the team will under no circumstances split up. It never helps.
49. If upon arriving in the ops area I hear a lot of screams from inside or see a lot of obviously mutilated dead bodies, I will leave the ops area and come back later. With more people. And bigger guns.
50. I will train myself to keep my cool under pressure well enough to hit a head sized target at a range of 10 feet.
51. I will request that any ops team I am a part of be issued body armor with environmental resistance, which provides protection from things like fire, airborne viruses, and acid.
52. I will also request that aforementioned armor have a reflective mirrored surface, to help with those pesky automated laser defenses.
53. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance does not appear human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead.
54. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance appears vaguely human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead.
55. If I see something in the shadows up ahead that at first glance appears human, I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead. Better safe than sorry.
55a. If I see something in the shadows up ahead I will forgo taking the time for a second look and lob a grenade at it instead. Better safe than sorry.
56. If multiple survivors are found during the course of the mission, they will be given a gun and told to make themselves useful.
57. However, if these survivors created or want to study whatever depopulated the facility/ship, they will not be given guns as they cannot be trusted to use them at the crucial moment, due to their conflict of interests.
58. Between missions I will lobby for legislature to require all secret research facilities to have heavily stocked ammo dumps in easily accessible, well marked locations.
59. If my team is required to use motion detectors, they better be able to scan 360 degrees, not merely 90.
60. If the body count is currently over 500, I will politely inform my superiors that an 8-man operations team isn't going to cut it.
61. If any member of the team is prone to claustrophobia, diver's high, space-mania, or panic attacks, I will deliver a request to the CO that they be left behind, instead of just being given a pep talk.
62. If any member of the team proves to be a corporate/government spy, I will shoot them before anyone else can react, saving the trouble of taking them prisoner only so they can escape later and sabotage the mission.
62a. If there is a sudden illness with any member of my team and a new member is added at the last minute, I will shoot them before anyone else can react.
63. I will recommend that any form of transportation we have be parked well away from the trouble spot, and that the operator stays in it and keeps the doors sealed until the team is standing outside and ready to leave.
63a. If my escape vehicle was on the ground the entire time I was fighting the monster/alien/genetic abombination/etc. I will destroy it. Whatever I thought I killed was on board.
64. If we have a spare transport I will recommend that we have a spare pilot as well, to save having to remote control fly the transport in if something happens to the first.
65. If any member of the team takes a revolver on the mission, I will take it from them, hand them an automatic, and then slap them silly for being so stupid.
66. I will ensure that all guns have perfectly calibrated laser sights, even if I must pay for them myself, so that missing a headshot is inexcusable.
67. If the team gets out of an operations area and find we are missing a man, I will recommend we leave his ***. He should have kept up in the first place.
68. If our mission is to shut down a rogue A/I, I will not discuss our plans in any room with a visible camera and/or audio pickup.
69. Screw shoulder-mounted flashlights, I'll carry a pair of night vision goggles even if the cost has to come out of my paycheck.
70. The same goes for little pen-lights. I will carry a 3 foot mag-lite with a halogen bulb. That way, not only do I get a huge flashlight range, it can double as a club in tight situations.
70a. I will remember that if the monsterous creature is within clubbing range, it is a tight situation, and start clubbing. This is true even if my firearm still works. No reason not to club and shoot at the same time.
71. If I am low on ammunition, I won't hesitate to roll the bodies of my teammates for ammo. They certainly don't need it anymore.
72. If I learn that the beings we are fighting have acid for blood or that their blood contains some sort of bio-agent, I will make damn sure I am at least 15 feet away from any I shoot.
73. If my team possesses an APC, but it won't fit into the corridors of the ops area, I'll rectify the situation with explosives instead of going in on foot.
74. Just in case my opponents will be using cloaking devices that short out upon contact with water, I will always carry a small super-soaker pistol with me on missions.
75. If I am forced to pick a position within a facility from which to make a last stand, it will not be a room which can easily be breached by going above the ceiling or under the floor.
76. If I hear a low hissing or moaning directly behind me, I will take off running without thinking. Whatever it is, its first bite of me is going to be ***.
77. If anyone in the squad has a flamethrower, I will make sure everyone else is trained to instinctively duck whenever he even begins to turn around.
78. When the team's mission is to plant a bomb I will make sure we have more than one bomb, and more than one person who knows how to plant it.
79. If I am going into an area in where research in biological warfare was occurring, I will not remove my gas mask before entering the facility.
80. If there is a countdown to an explosion or the sealing off of the facility, I will set my watch timer 10 minutes ahead of that to give myself a margin of safety.
81. If any of the people we've rescued or one of my team members starts to convulse and scream, ill have the guy with the flamethrower hose them down and then move on. If it is the napalm guy I'll just shoot the tank. Whatever made them do it, I seriously doubt it was a cramp.
82. If my team has heavy weaponry with us, I will not wait until there are only a few people left and we are surrounded and in dire straits to use them. I will use them as early and as often as possible.
83. Similarly, if I have a large ship in orbit over the planet, and find out that there are no survivors in a heavily infested area, I will call for an orbital bombardment of the hot zone.
84. If I hear odd noises coming from a grate nearby, I won't stare quizzically at it and shine a weak flashlight beam through the grate, I will immediately empty my current clip into the grate then kick it in and send a grenade into the tunnel.
85. If we have prisoners, and one of them is talking to me steadily in a calm voice while staring behind me, I will immediately dive to the side and roll to hose whatever was about to attack me. I will show the same response if a team-member looks behind me with an expression of horror.
86. If I address a query to the guy that should be behind me, and receive no immediate response, I will immediately break into a dead run, dropping grenades along the way.
87. If I find that rooms marked on my map as dining halls turn out to be full of stasis chambers and odd piping instead, I will immediately leave the ops area and refuse to enter until I get a damn good explanation.
88. If we manage to ambush whatever was killing us, and I hear a high pitched beeping and it starts laughing, I will be smart enough to just start running, instead of searching it for the timer.
89. I will never walk through water any deeper than I can see down into. I won't walk in the water period if there is electric cabling nearby.
90. Any transports that we bring into the ops area and intend to use to escape will have cameras on the outside to allow us to scan for unwanted guests.
91. Along the same line, the landing bay/pad we return to will have several large turrets to take care of any stowaways we miss.
92. I will point out to my superiors that if the corporation/government has enough money to fund an 8 man black ops team, they have enough damn money to buy us a remote controlled robot with cameras that we can send in to scout the area first.
93. My favored method of advance down a dark corridor will be with a five-man team, the first man hosing down the corridor in front, the second throwing a grenade, the third hauling the huge cart of ammo and explosives, the fourth throwing a grenade behind us, and the fifth hosing down the corridor behind. Take ten steps, repeat.
94. My favored method of advance down a well-lit corridor will be with a five man team, the first man hosing down the corridor in front, the second throwing a grenade, the third hauling the huge cart of ammo and explosives, the fourth throwing a grenade behind us, and the fifth hosing down the corridor behind. Take ten steps, repeat.
95. If a cat comes flying out of a vent, scaring the crap out of me, I will unload a clip into the vent. *Something* scared the cat.
95a. I will shoot any cat encountered during the mission.
96. I will hold the belief that heavy breathing from the nearby darkness is not to be investigated. It is to be used for target practice.
97. Warning shots are for wusses. Fire for effect, that's my motto.
98. If the other people with me have all disappeared, I won't bother wandering around the immediate area looking for them and yelling their names, peering into dark rooms.
99. When any member of my squad dies, I will have them hosed down with the flamethrower or plant a proximity mine on them. No use feeding or increasing the numbers of whatever is trying to kill us.
100. If I die on a mission, it will be because I snapped my neck trying to look everywhere at once.
101. I will never show any members of the mission pictures of my fiancée/wife/kids who I can't wait to get back to after the mission is over.
102. I will never discuss with anyone the length of my enlistment and brag how "short" I am.
103. I will never discuss with anyone the fact that this is my last mission before retirement.
104. I will kill every new life form I encounter. A dead life form is just as valuable to the scientist back home as a live one is.
105. I will kill every one I encounter in suspended animation. They won't feel it anyway.
106. I will obey orders, not be overly comical or friendly with civilians present, I will not swear and I will not be immoral. I do not wish to die first as an example of how bad our enemies are.
106a. I will not be ethnic.
106b. I will not be English.
106c. I will not be a relative to anyone else on the team.
107. I will nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
First adventure
I actually have this one already semi-fleshed out. After getting the group safely into one of the 3 possible groups (free lance corporate runners, military special ops, Nomads) I plan to run them through this as an introduction to the variety of threats they can run into and also see the plan to make this a high action game.
Just south of the City there is a small valley. At one time this valley was populated by a suburban gated community. However it was abandoned in the flight from the Zombie invasion. So there are lots of nice houses with a lot of random household items still there.
The reason they are there is because it hasn't been hit by looters or made free for re-population because of the rumors. THe rumors are that there are monsters in the hills. The last group to go in (nomad looters or police team depnding on what the characters are) was slaughtered save for one incoherent survivor who can only babble about the monsters.
What with the recent Zombie war and continuing threats from the dark mages of the eastern penninsula any talk of monsters has to be dealt with and respected. So the group has to go in. In the valley they will find deserted overrun McMansions, with their valuables still there in some cases. However, when darkness comes (and it comes quickly in the mountains) they will hear the roars of at least 2 large creatures in the darkness, hunting.
That is where I will leave off but suffice to say the party will have to fight the creatures, and it won't be easy. There will actually be multiple creatures to fight. I want them to spend most their time running and fighting. There will be a decent reward but the overall goal of this campaign is to get the group back to basics of worrying about survival and things like who do we get food and ammunition again.
Just south of the City there is a small valley. At one time this valley was populated by a suburban gated community. However it was abandoned in the flight from the Zombie invasion. So there are lots of nice houses with a lot of random household items still there.
The reason they are there is because it hasn't been hit by looters or made free for re-population because of the rumors. THe rumors are that there are monsters in the hills. The last group to go in (nomad looters or police team depnding on what the characters are) was slaughtered save for one incoherent survivor who can only babble about the monsters.
What with the recent Zombie war and continuing threats from the dark mages of the eastern penninsula any talk of monsters has to be dealt with and respected. So the group has to go in. In the valley they will find deserted overrun McMansions, with their valuables still there in some cases. However, when darkness comes (and it comes quickly in the mountains) they will hear the roars of at least 2 large creatures in the darkness, hunting.
That is where I will leave off but suffice to say the party will have to fight the creatures, and it won't be easy. There will actually be multiple creatures to fight. I want them to spend most their time running and fighting. There will be a decent reward but the overall goal of this campaign is to get the group back to basics of worrying about survival and things like who do we get food and ammunition again.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Powers
So here is the list of powers that the characters could possibly get:
Armor
Barrier
Blast
Boost/Lower Trait
Burst
Deflection
Elemental manipulation
Entangle
Fear
Fly
Greater Healing
Invisibility
Light
Quickness
Shape Change
Smite
Speed
Stun
Telekinesis
Teleport
I think that these are a good representation of 20 "super" powers that players might end up with. Now to be honest the chances of the players getting any of these isn't that good, but I wanted to be ready for that eventuality and make it ineteresting to them.
I should be able to come up with a decent trigger depending on the powers that causes the powers to manifest. I want them to manifest in an interesting way, leaving me a GM wild card if necessary to save the groups butt if I need to.
So all I really need to do now is come up with some little adventure outlines to run the group through once we start playing. One thing about playing last night reminded me was that this is not a sit around and plan type of group, they tend to charge full force into situations. So any scenarios I come up need to shape themselves around that tendency.
Armor
Barrier
Blast
Boost/Lower Trait
Burst
Deflection
Elemental manipulation
Entangle
Fear
Fly
Greater Healing
Invisibility
Light
Quickness
Shape Change
Smite
Speed
Stun
Telekinesis
Teleport
I think that these are a good representation of 20 "super" powers that players might end up with. Now to be honest the chances of the players getting any of these isn't that good, but I wanted to be ready for that eventuality and make it ineteresting to them.
I should be able to come up with a decent trigger depending on the powers that causes the powers to manifest. I want them to manifest in an interesting way, leaving me a GM wild card if necessary to save the groups butt if I need to.
So all I really need to do now is come up with some little adventure outlines to run the group through once we start playing. One thing about playing last night reminded me was that this is not a sit around and plan type of group, they tend to charge full force into situations. So any scenarios I come up need to shape themselves around that tendency.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Solving a problem
So I have been pondering the way that the characters in the game will determine their powers if they draw the Ace for an Adept. Because the way I want to handle that is that means these characters will get 1 power, but have lots of power points to use it, so they will like the 1 dimensional supers in Hero's or Wild Cards.
I thought about just letting them pick what they want, but that drops the randomness. And I want that element in the game. I want them to have that hidden possibility, and then when the situation is right, the ability pops up. And who knows what that ability is.
So I sat down with the main Savage Worlds book and determined there are 30 powers/spells. And that's a tough number to randomize. There aren't any 30 sided dice. And there are more than 30 cards in a deck of cards. So short of drawing a number from a hat it's going to be tough.
I think the only reasonable solution will be to trim the choices down to 20, dropping similar abilities etc. Then I can simply leave it to the roll of the dice. So we'll see how that works. Hopefully with the week off I will get a chance to do that work.
An Aside
When we got together finally this last week the game went quite well. Dale and Stephan weren't there but we moved on. We know that Stephan might not be able to be there on a consistent basis so I came up with a reasonable excuse for his absence. I don't know what the story with Dale was, he was apparently discussing going to a different game so that might be what he has done, if so, we will survive. Since we are just now getting back into the game I figured I would hold off on suggesting we move to my game for a while.
I thought about just letting them pick what they want, but that drops the randomness. And I want that element in the game. I want them to have that hidden possibility, and then when the situation is right, the ability pops up. And who knows what that ability is.
So I sat down with the main Savage Worlds book and determined there are 30 powers/spells. And that's a tough number to randomize. There aren't any 30 sided dice. And there are more than 30 cards in a deck of cards. So short of drawing a number from a hat it's going to be tough.
I think the only reasonable solution will be to trim the choices down to 20, dropping similar abilities etc. Then I can simply leave it to the roll of the dice. So we'll see how that works. Hopefully with the week off I will get a chance to do that work.
An Aside
When we got together finally this last week the game went quite well. Dale and Stephan weren't there but we moved on. We know that Stephan might not be able to be there on a consistent basis so I came up with a reasonable excuse for his absence. I don't know what the story with Dale was, he was apparently discussing going to a different game so that might be what he has done, if so, we will survive. Since we are just now getting back into the game I figured I would hold off on suggesting we move to my game for a while.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
The brainwashing takes hold
On Sunday we did a family shopping trip, primarily to price materials at Home Depot, but we stopped at Target as well. While we were at Target James picked up the Starter pack for the Star Wars miniature game. I casually mentioned to him that these were the same miniatures he had noticed in our most recent venture to the game store.
So later on as we drove through town on our way home James piped up: "can we stop at the game store?"
And Kim turned to me and asked:
"What have you turned out son into?"
All I could do was smile to myself...
So later on as we drove through town on our way home James piped up: "can we stop at the game store?"
And Kim turned to me and asked:
"What have you turned out son into?"
All I could do was smile to myself...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Imagine a city
To build this campaign from the ground up, the first step is to start with a city. A city not unlike the Denver Metro area. A relatively dense inner core, but surrounded on 3 sides by a vast amount of modern suburbia.
To the west of the city is a large mountain range, semi-populated, with only 1 major travelling route up into the mountains. To the south is some foothills, littered with some formerly exclusive gated suburbs, then some smaller bedroom communities, with a major highway to travel on. To the East is plains, lots of ranch land and some small farming communities. To the North is a mix of ranch land and foothills.
There is a major semi-elevated highway travelling east. Along with a variety of county roads connecting ranches and farms. It will all seem familiar to a group from El Paso County waking up near that major highway. However, as they begin to travel west they will being to notice the subtle differences.
The road signs will be in a familiar language that they will determine to be Latin. The architecture of the farm building they first see will be different from what they are used to. When they hear the first communication from the natives it will be in Latin, not any modern language the characters will know.
They will discover the city name is Mons Montis Porta, or Mons Montis as it's citizens call it. The city is a major gateway for the locals into the mountains, and on the other side of the large range is a lush land leading to the sea. But that is a discovery for another day.
Unlike our cities built on grids, this city design was originally a wheel and spokes, then gradually more wheels of varying sizes, getting connected. There is no linear design, save for a few major elevated highways. There is a major river bisecting the city north to south, with creeks and canals leading off it.
Most citizens live, work and play within their Affinitas (the wheels mentioned above). Each of the seeming suburbs will be found to be separate areas.
However, the outlying areas, including the ranches and most of the outer suburbs, are abandoned. Emptied in the face of some major disaster. So there is a swath of these empty houses and communities, left to decay, and in some cases populated by squatters.
These are the main features the characters will encounter as they make their way into the city core. My goal is to establish an atmosphere and theme for what the characters will see. It is not to map everything out, there is no reason to do that. The players will get their chance to develop in their own mind how it all looks and feels.
To the west of the city is a large mountain range, semi-populated, with only 1 major travelling route up into the mountains. To the south is some foothills, littered with some formerly exclusive gated suburbs, then some smaller bedroom communities, with a major highway to travel on. To the East is plains, lots of ranch land and some small farming communities. To the North is a mix of ranch land and foothills.
There is a major semi-elevated highway travelling east. Along with a variety of county roads connecting ranches and farms. It will all seem familiar to a group from El Paso County waking up near that major highway. However, as they begin to travel west they will being to notice the subtle differences.
The road signs will be in a familiar language that they will determine to be Latin. The architecture of the farm building they first see will be different from what they are used to. When they hear the first communication from the natives it will be in Latin, not any modern language the characters will know.
They will discover the city name is Mons Montis Porta, or Mons Montis as it's citizens call it. The city is a major gateway for the locals into the mountains, and on the other side of the large range is a lush land leading to the sea. But that is a discovery for another day.
Unlike our cities built on grids, this city design was originally a wheel and spokes, then gradually more wheels of varying sizes, getting connected. There is no linear design, save for a few major elevated highways. There is a major river bisecting the city north to south, with creeks and canals leading off it.
Most citizens live, work and play within their Affinitas (the wheels mentioned above). Each of the seeming suburbs will be found to be separate areas.
However, the outlying areas, including the ranches and most of the outer suburbs, are abandoned. Emptied in the face of some major disaster. So there is a swath of these empty houses and communities, left to decay, and in some cases populated by squatters.
These are the main features the characters will encounter as they make their way into the city core. My goal is to establish an atmosphere and theme for what the characters will see. It is not to map everything out, there is no reason to do that. The players will get their chance to develop in their own mind how it all looks and feels.
Friday, February 13, 2009
How to create a game world
One of my biggest obstacles I run into in designing a campaign is getting bogged down in the details. Now with Savage Shadows, my original intention was to use a post apocalyptic earth as a starting point. Which frees me up for the problems of languages, maps, currency etc. Which is nice. But every once in a while I think to myself: 'self, aren't you bored with earth?'
And then something comes along like the map I referenced in my last post. And this really spurs my imagination to do something really different, challenge myself and my players. And then 'reality' starts to seep in. What languages do these people speak? Where are they? How does their monetary system work? Basically all of the social and cultural anthropological questions. And then I start to feel overwhelmed, because I just have no idea how to answer those questions.
But then I harken back to the primary motivation of Savage Worlds: Fast! Furious! and Fun! And it struck me, I don't have to create the whole world! I still plan to keep the skeleton of the scenario that I already wrote: how the characters start, and the idea of a post-apocalyptic society. And there is no reason I can't do that in another world. I can drop this group into a new world, and have them discover the world at my own pace. So the initial adventures will all take place in a small area where I can keep the focus simple. Then as they get comfortable I can have them travel. But to start, there is no reason to force travel.
So I basically have to create a geographic area roughly the size of a county, with a large urban center. And since I will be working with an area everyone is a stranger to I won't have to worry about the problem of player knowledge v. character knowledge.
In order to keep it simple and fun, I will subscribe to the Star Trek theory of everyone speaking the same language, even alien like creatures. And the technology level will follow our own, because that was my original goal. The overarching theme of the campaign is roughly Shadowrun meets World War Z meets Wild Cards. And I can still pull that off in a different world.
And then something comes along like the map I referenced in my last post. And this really spurs my imagination to do something really different, challenge myself and my players. And then 'reality' starts to seep in. What languages do these people speak? Where are they? How does their monetary system work? Basically all of the social and cultural anthropological questions. And then I start to feel overwhelmed, because I just have no idea how to answer those questions.
But then I harken back to the primary motivation of Savage Worlds: Fast! Furious! and Fun! And it struck me, I don't have to create the whole world! I still plan to keep the skeleton of the scenario that I already wrote: how the characters start, and the idea of a post-apocalyptic society. And there is no reason I can't do that in another world. I can drop this group into a new world, and have them discover the world at my own pace. So the initial adventures will all take place in a small area where I can keep the focus simple. Then as they get comfortable I can have them travel. But to start, there is no reason to force travel.
So I basically have to create a geographic area roughly the size of a county, with a large urban center. And since I will be working with an area everyone is a stranger to I won't have to worry about the problem of player knowledge v. character knowledge.
In order to keep it simple and fun, I will subscribe to the Star Trek theory of everyone speaking the same language, even alien like creatures. And the technology level will follow our own, because that was my original goal. The overarching theme of the campaign is roughly Shadowrun meets World War Z meets Wild Cards. And I can still pull that off in a different world.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Great Map - spurs great ideas
So I came across this on the Gamers Haven web site yesterday and I can't get it out of my mind. I'm not a 'world builder' when it comes to my role playing plans. And my plans for Savage Worlds so far have been built around a near future version of our world. But, this map just gets my mind and creative juices flowing.
I think I could craft a similar campaign style to what I already have, and in fact could make it even more chaotic, if I wanted. And it would free me up to get more exotic as far as cities etc.
It would mean considerably more work for me, but I think it could be a lot more fun.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
More things for Savage Shadows
More things for Savage Shadows
1. Money, resources and experience
One of the characteristics of most of my current role playing group is that the players are not overly concerned with advancing their characters. Either as far as acquiring 'stuff' (money, new weapons, gear etc.) or gaining the new skills etc. that come from advancing their characters experience. Which makes life fairly easy for the GM, because the group becomes fairly easy to guide, as they just flow with whatever story the GM wants to tell, instead of worrying about what they will get from this mission, adventure, etc.
But I am not like that, I like to advance my character, get new things etc. One of my fondest role playing games was when I ran a Shadowrun character for so long that he was maxing out his capabilities in amazing ways, which allowed the GM to keep escalating the adventures.
One of my goals with this game is to force this group start to think about their characters. I want them to realize that there can be a lot of fun, and new horizons that come from increasing skills, and acquiring new 'stuff'.
I will implement this in 2 ways. First, by dropping the characters into what amounts to a new world, with nothing but the clothes on their back, they will be forced to think about things like "how do I get my next meal" or "how can I afford more ammunition for my gun". Second, because there is a very real chance that some, if not most, of the party will have the potential to wield cool new powers and/or belong to a different race, they will have to apply some time to learning these new things.
And I will gear my sessions around missions or runs where there is a defined goal, be it monetary or loot or both. And there will be a defined (for me at least) number of 'experience points' to be gained for completing the missions. So there will be a regular reward for each mission, making it fairly easy to advance. Of course as the players advance the toughness of the missions will escalate, but that's part of the fun.
2. Our group has become rather inconsistent in attendance of late, so much so that we haven't actually played in 2 months, and probably won't return to doing so for another month. This is because some players have had things come up, and the GM doesn't want the group to go on without everyone there. Which is understandable. However, one of the things I will make a priority is to write each weeks adventure so it is not dependent on everyone being there. And while I dearly love 'cliff hangers' I won't write them into an adventure unless I am 100% sure everyone can be there 2 sessions in a row, which is unlikely based on recent experience. Because I want to play, and I know other people want to play as well, even if circumstances keep 1 person from showing up.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
James & his legos
James has become quite the Lego builder recently. I had turned over the use of the pool table to him for a couple of weeks and this is what he created. He constructed a base, and then set up a big battle between Droids and the defenders of the base, a mix of rebel troops and clone troopers.
It is actually quite clever how he arranged the battle very symmetrically, with 3 troops versus 3 droids, or big droid versus the walker. It is fascinating to watch how he develops his building skills, and then combines that with his Star Wars obsession.
Monday, January 26, 2009
LEGO Batman: Kid-Friendly Video Game or Dastardly Commercial Plot?
So I have to completely agree with this comment
James' interest in Lego, especially Star Wars Lego features, really takes off with the playing of Leg Star Wars. He loves to recreate the scenes and figures in the games in 'real life' so he can set up similar sets
Monday, January 19, 2009
Learning Risk
So Sunday, before football, I sat down and taught James to play Risk. He did a pretty good job of following along, and had little problem with basic play. Obviously strategy and the little nuances are not there. And of course we had one major breakdown when James realized at one point the he was in a losing position. But I just let him sit and cry for a couple of minutes, asked if he was ready, then told him what he needed to do next.
It was a teaching game, plus I was managing 2 colors (Daniel doing the rolling for one). So I took the time initially to help show James what to do, then had to repeat the lesson a couple of times. We didn't finish the game, it had reached the insane point where people are turning in for 25 or more armies, and every color is stretched to the limit so no one would really be safe.
James enjoyed it overall though. I think that with some work he will learn to enjoy it. The key will be finding times to play and get more people involved. Because Risk is infinitely more fun the more players you have.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Some excitement for the weekend
So I just found out that some members of the 501st Legion will be at the library tomorrow afternoon. So I get to combine a trip to the library with a chance for the boys to see Storm Troopers! Yay!
It turns out an old CSS class mate is part of the Legion, so he can keep me informed when they do appearances. Which is cool for James especially. I will try to make sure to take the camera and get some pictures and post them.
It turns out an old CSS class mate is part of the Legion, so he can keep me informed when they do appearances. Which is cool for James especially. I will try to make sure to take the camera and get some pictures and post them.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Risk
We have taught James some games, primarily card games, although he understood the main concepts behind the Star Wars Pocket model game. So I have decided that he is ready to learn how to play Risk.
I love Risk, some of my fondest childhood memories involve massive family games of Risk. With lots of deal making, table talk, more than a little ruthless diplomacy. Who can forget the immortal stands made in Quebec? Or Dave's infamous Yellow Horde?
Like most table top 'family' games it can be loads of fun, and it can also be brutal and no fun, depending on how it is played. I learned the good and the bad sides of sportmanship playing Risk with my family (the infamous flick of the finger to your last army when it is unceremoniously swept from the board, or the horrible imitations of the Chris Schenkel laugh). And I think it is time for James to learn. We have played some games of Uno (which can be particularly brutal) and I think I have taught James how to have fun even when you are being crushed.
And one of the side effects of playing Risk is learning geography. If someone is talking about a country and I am not sure where it is, all I need is to associate it with a region from Risk and voila, I can point to it on a map. And since geography is one of those things that kids seem to falter in nowadays I think it behooves me to give James a boost whenever I can. So that's my intellectual plan for the coming extended weekend: teach James to play. Now I know Daniel will want to play, and since he is only 3 he really isn't able to play I have a cunning idea. I will play myself, and play Daniel, letting him roll the dice when it is time. I think it will work, I have played enough solitaire games that I can be pretty honest about not taking advantage of the situation and hammering James.
I love Risk, some of my fondest childhood memories involve massive family games of Risk. With lots of deal making, table talk, more than a little ruthless diplomacy. Who can forget the immortal stands made in Quebec? Or Dave's infamous Yellow Horde?
Like most table top 'family' games it can be loads of fun, and it can also be brutal and no fun, depending on how it is played. I learned the good and the bad sides of sportmanship playing Risk with my family (the infamous flick of the finger to your last army when it is unceremoniously swept from the board, or the horrible imitations of the Chris Schenkel laugh). And I think it is time for James to learn. We have played some games of Uno (which can be particularly brutal) and I think I have taught James how to have fun even when you are being crushed.
And one of the side effects of playing Risk is learning geography. If someone is talking about a country and I am not sure where it is, all I need is to associate it with a region from Risk and voila, I can point to it on a map. And since geography is one of those things that kids seem to falter in nowadays I think it behooves me to give James a boost whenever I can. So that's my intellectual plan for the coming extended weekend: teach James to play. Now I know Daniel will want to play, and since he is only 3 he really isn't able to play I have a cunning idea. I will play myself, and play Daniel, letting him roll the dice when it is time. I think it will work, I have played enough solitaire games that I can be pretty honest about not taking advantage of the situation and hammering James.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Why Savage Worlds?
People who know me and are also gamers know I have been a proponent of GURPS since I first came across it in my gaming renaissance in the early 90's. I like GURPS, it is a wonderful, powerful system that you can do just about anything with, recreate virtually any game world or fictional setting. And in the hands of experienced players it usually just flows very smoothly.
However, my current gaming group, while made up of some very experienced gamers, do not approach their games with an overly critical eye. The emphasis over the years has become almost purely role playing, with less and less reliance on rules and a set of rules. Our primary GM has never been one to be overburdened with rules where they slowed down the story. Which is entirely different from some other groups I have been in, where knowledge of the rules was almost a prerequisite.
When Forrest introduced Savage Worlds I was familiar with it from reading about it's creation on the web site, as well as having played Deadlands for a very long time. But I was leery of it's ability to model pretty much any setting. Until I bought a copy, sat down and read it cover to cover. That was when I realized that Savage Worlds was the perfect tool for me to create the setting I wanted for this group. I couldn't use the same rule set for other groups I have played with, it wouldn't be beefy enough or detailed enough.
But with this group I don't need the game details, I just need to create the proper setting. And since my setting is a conglomeration of many other settings, picking a little from here, a little from here, I needed a generic rules set. Plus, I am creating a setting where I can throw in all kinds of different scenarios, and this rules set allows me to do just that. So if I want to throw the group into a Jurassic Park scenario I can. The basic rules won't change, I just need to have a reasonable story line, which is much easier to come up with.
So for people who emphasize the story telling aspect of Role Playing Savage Worlds is a great system. If your group wants to know and cares about how many Hit Dice that monster was, and how many damage dice this particular rifle does when fired from the hip while running across a swamp, this is not the right system.
However, my current gaming group, while made up of some very experienced gamers, do not approach their games with an overly critical eye. The emphasis over the years has become almost purely role playing, with less and less reliance on rules and a set of rules. Our primary GM has never been one to be overburdened with rules where they slowed down the story. Which is entirely different from some other groups I have been in, where knowledge of the rules was almost a prerequisite.
When Forrest introduced Savage Worlds I was familiar with it from reading about it's creation on the web site, as well as having played Deadlands for a very long time. But I was leery of it's ability to model pretty much any setting. Until I bought a copy, sat down and read it cover to cover. That was when I realized that Savage Worlds was the perfect tool for me to create the setting I wanted for this group. I couldn't use the same rule set for other groups I have played with, it wouldn't be beefy enough or detailed enough.
But with this group I don't need the game details, I just need to create the proper setting. And since my setting is a conglomeration of many other settings, picking a little from here, a little from here, I needed a generic rules set. Plus, I am creating a setting where I can throw in all kinds of different scenarios, and this rules set allows me to do just that. So if I want to throw the group into a Jurassic Park scenario I can. The basic rules won't change, I just need to have a reasonable story line, which is much easier to come up with.
So for people who emphasize the story telling aspect of Role Playing Savage Worlds is a great system. If your group wants to know and cares about how many Hit Dice that monster was, and how many damage dice this particular rifle does when fired from the hip while running across a swamp, this is not the right system.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Savage Shadows Description
Savage Shadows is the setting for the role playing campaign I am planning on running for my role playing group. The title is derived from the fact that it is using the Savage Worlds rules set and that it is in a similar setting to Shadowrun. I am putting a significant amount of work into this campaign, more so than I usually do. My campaigns are normally short run affairs, 1-2 night runs. But I want this one to actually last a while. Because I want to prove that I can create a sustaining campaign. And I want to give our normal GM an extended rest.
The Set Up
The characters will all start as a working SWAT team in our current day & age etc. This gives them all a base line for skills and attributes. They are piloting their police helicopter to a training session when they run into a freak microburst storm. This leads to a crash, with all of the players going unconscious. This is an intentional maneuver on my part to get the group into the proper setting.
Often players and GM's have a hard time getting things started. In particular our group, because we have players who will stretch the backgrounds of the players in order to create interesting characters. Which is ordinarily good, but can be extremely hard for the GM to find an excuse for everyone to be in the same place at the same time, and get them to cooperate. Because it is one thing for a bunch of human fighters and thieves to all be in the stereotypical bar at the same time. But why would the Priest or studious Mage or Paladin be there? And once a fight starts what motivates a disparate group to stay together?
In our current game this problem was solved by forcing us all to be members of a university club, with at least one common skill. Which works in a setting which everyone is more or less familiar with, like our Victorian Horror setting. However, I am putting together a setting that is a patchwork of a number of other game worlds, but not enough like any one so that players can really create something that is native. So I have to set them up. Have them create characters with a similar purpose and common skill set, then drop them into this game world. It's a little contrived, and after they have been playing long enough, if a player wants, then they might create a character native to the setting, but that is far into the future.
One thing I will do, just before they start is have each player draw some cards, this will represent the chance that their character has of transforming or gaining special abilities once they awaken in the new world. This is something Forrest did in a game a long long time ago. And we never really got a chance to role play the transformation. But I think it makes for an interesting element of randomness and will encourage some better on the fly role playing. It could be all kinds of fun to have the player who is normally known for playing the straight laced super smart characters wake up to realize he has been transformed into a Troll. Or have the player who normally just plays the dumb brute wake up to find they are forced to play an Elf.
The Setting
The players characters will wake up on the eastern plains, with no transportation other than their feet. Although they will have their basic equipment (providing it fits). As they make their way west they will come across some deserted farms and ranches, in some places they might even find signs of destruction and fighting, although any bodies will have been picked clean. Eventually they will be picked up by one of 3 groups: Metro Police, UCAS military or Nomads. Each of the groups will give a slightly different version of the history and current situation.
To sum up what happened: The Awakening was starting, people were transforming into Elves, Dwarves, Orks or Trolls. The world was having a hard time adjusting but it was doing so, up until the Zombie invasion occurred. For a description of the Zombie war read World War Z, which is as good a description of the events in this setting, minus the Awakened Races. However the ending was not quite as final. There were more stories of the zombies being around, and being under control of Wizards from Aztlan (formerly Mexico). And Magic came into play as a weapon at the end of the war.
Soon after the end of the War the first Randoms appeared. Randoms are beings or people from other worlds or time frames that appear in the world in seemingly random places and times. The player characters are Randoms. The first recorded appearance of Randoms was the arrival of the Great Dragons. Huge flying creatures out of legend, filled with awesome power and magical talent.
When the players appear it will have been a few years after the conclusion of the Zombie war. Life is sort of settling down. Although most third world nations are still in chaos. The United States and Canada have merged their governments as the populations of the 2 countries became completely mixed together in the chaos of the initial invasion. The combined populations is roughly 25% of what it was pre-war. Although exact numbers are not known yet as there are a numbers of undocumented people living in the open areas between the urban centers, as well as who knows how many squatters in the deserted suburban areas. The majority of the population lives in semi-fortified urban areas with heavily patrolled security areas around them.
Agriculture and farming in general is mostly handled through automation in vast corporate farms. Transportation between the cities is either handled via aircraft or heavy armored bullet trains. The Interstate highway system has fallen into despair in most areas and is really only used within the metro areas. Most areas between the cities are lawless outlaw territories. Controlled by gangs in the eastern half of the country, with some of them being given near legal entity status. The parts of Texas that haven't been swallowed back up by Aztlan is patrolled by the Texas Rangers. The Southwest has fallen under the control of a resurrected Native American Nation, comprised of many tribal councils. The NAN patrols the area and handles most of the border patrols with Aztlan, in exchange for extended sovereignty. The NAN forces are rumored to be heavy users of combat magic.
The South is mostly controlled by the government however the coastal areas were hit very hard by the zombie invasion which was followed by 3 years of record breaking Hurricane seasons. Florida is a war zone between the UCAS forces and the Aztlan-Carribean League. Louisiana, and especially New Orleans, is essentially a swampy Necropolis, ostensibly governed by a shadowy warlord who plays the Aztlan league against the UCAS.
So the world the players will be dropped in has very much of a wild west atmosphere. With a wild and woolly ethos ruling the areas between the cities. And the cities themselves are still sorting out the chaos of post war, emerging races, and new and frightening powers being wielded by all manner of people and beings.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Star Wars
So I have written about this before, and argued it in many different arenas, I really like Star Wars. I like the old movies, the new movies, the cartoons, the new Clone Wars, some of the books, I like it all. And this is something that I have passed along to my kids at least James and kind of with Daniel.
We have really been enjoying the new Clone Wars series on Sci-Fi network. It has been good, with interesting little moral puzzles each week, or lessons. It is not written with some serious depth to it. But it is fun, diverting entertainment, which is all I ask.
Because that is the point I get to in most of my discussions of Star Wars: it is fun, diverting entertainment. I don't expect Epic Drama or Shakespearean level writing from a movie abut guys in outer space running around with laser swords and spaceships. I want to be entertained, and Star Wars accomplishes that.
So I will write more about it on a regular basis, generally more specific things, like a particular episode, but I wanted to establish that anything I write will be from the perspective of a fan, not a real objective critique.
We have really been enjoying the new Clone Wars series on Sci-Fi network. It has been good, with interesting little moral puzzles each week, or lessons. It is not written with some serious depth to it. But it is fun, diverting entertainment, which is all I ask.
Because that is the point I get to in most of my discussions of Star Wars: it is fun, diverting entertainment. I don't expect Epic Drama or Shakespearean level writing from a movie abut guys in outer space running around with laser swords and spaceships. I want to be entertained, and Star Wars accomplishes that.
So I will write more about it on a regular basis, generally more specific things, like a particular episode, but I wanted to establish that anything I write will be from the perspective of a fan, not a real objective critique.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
My Role playing
To start let me make 1 point perfectly clear. I do not consider video games to be role playing games. To me role playing games are a shared experience of people sitting around a room or table, interacting personally, face to face. Playing a video game with other people, even if those other people are thousands of miles away, is cool, but it ain't role playing.
I have been playing role playing games since the summer between my 6th and 7th grades when my then cousins (my aunt's 2nd husbands kids) introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons at a family reunion. I have been playing these games in some fashion or another for almost the entire time since then.
I have been in the same core role playing group now for something like 10 years. The core of the group is myself, Forrest and Carl. Over the years we have added Stephan, Dale, Justin, Nancy and occasionally Jennifer. Other people have come and gone but this is the core. Traditionally Forrest runs the games. We have played Deadlands, 7th Seas, a Firefly variation of Deadlands, D&D, Shadowrun, and various other games. It is a very good group, very tight and very friendly. We normally play every 2 weeks, although that varies depending on the seasons (we play less during the holidays).
Since we have been playing so long as a group we generally feel free to stretch our limits when we want to with our characters. As a long standing veteran I feel very comfortable with the rules for most systems, and usually I am Forrest's back up when he doesn't know a rule.
Overall it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of table talk and just normal interaction between the players, both as part of the game and outside the game. In fact, if we have missed a couple of sessions we often will end up talking more than playing during a normal session.
I have been playing role playing games since the summer between my 6th and 7th grades when my then cousins (my aunt's 2nd husbands kids) introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons at a family reunion. I have been playing these games in some fashion or another for almost the entire time since then.
I have been in the same core role playing group now for something like 10 years. The core of the group is myself, Forrest and Carl. Over the years we have added Stephan, Dale, Justin, Nancy and occasionally Jennifer. Other people have come and gone but this is the core. Traditionally Forrest runs the games. We have played Deadlands, 7th Seas, a Firefly variation of Deadlands, D&D, Shadowrun, and various other games. It is a very good group, very tight and very friendly. We normally play every 2 weeks, although that varies depending on the seasons (we play less during the holidays).
Since we have been playing so long as a group we generally feel free to stretch our limits when we want to with our characters. As a long standing veteran I feel very comfortable with the rules for most systems, and usually I am Forrest's back up when he doesn't know a rule.
Overall it's a lot of fun. There's a lot of table talk and just normal interaction between the players, both as part of the game and outside the game. In fact, if we have missed a couple of sessions we often will end up talking more than playing during a normal session.
Free Range Geek
A blog dedicated to my various 'geek' interests, and the ways I get my kids involved.
Post types
1. The Savage Shadows campaign: creation, new ideas, eventual chronicle of the game.
2. Star Wars: reviews of the Clone Wars TV show, new toys for the kids, Lego items
3. Role playing: ideas & thoughts on role playing in general
4. Board games: the games I like, and teaching the kids to play
5. TTMG: Table Top Miniature games that I have played, and my eventual return to them.
Post types
1. The Savage Shadows campaign: creation, new ideas, eventual chronicle of the game.
2. Star Wars: reviews of the Clone Wars TV show, new toys for the kids, Lego items
3. Role playing: ideas & thoughts on role playing in general
4. Board games: the games I like, and teaching the kids to play
5. TTMG: Table Top Miniature games that I have played, and my eventual return to them.
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