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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.