Ex-Teenage Rebel

This Blog in Temporary Stasis

2010-04-30T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've been updating this blog via ftp since I started it many years ago. Blogger, however, is disabling that functionality tomorrow. They want users to migrate their sites to blogspot URLs. Since I already pay for this domain name and for hosting, I'm not real keen to do that. At this point I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this site, as I'm not Mr. Technical.

I will continue blogging, however, so until I sort it out you can find me on Livejournal and on Facebook. In the meantime I will try to find out if I can stop using Blogger without losing my entire archive of posts here.

See you on the interweb, netpunks.

A Modest Proposal for Oklahoma

2010-04-29T18:54:00.000-07:00

A new Oklahoma law requires women to get sonograms before they can have abortions. Depending on the state of the pregnancy, the sonogram may be transvaginal. The doctor must turn the screen to the patient and describe the fetus: fingers, toes, heartbeat, etc. None of this is optional, even for victims of rape or incest. Proponents of the law say it is so patients are fully informed before going ahead with the procedure. An interesting position, since they just passed another law that makes it legal for doctors to lie to women about the health of fetus. A doctor can fail to mention a birth defect, for example, and cannot be sued for deceiving the patient.

Funny, isn't it, that the very same people screaming about tyranny from the Obama administration are fully behind mandating invasive medical procedures for others? I thought these stalwart conservatives were all about individual freedom and government staying out of their lives?

I therefore have a modest proposal for Oklahoma. I think their government should pass a new law to provide parity in their fine state. Once enacted, any man in Oklahoma who wants to buy a gun must first get a prostate exam. Furthermore, the doctor must turn a monitor towards the patient so he can watch a live feed of the whole procedure. Critics will say that I'm advocating controlling men's bodies but I assure that's not the case. I just think that before a man gets a deadly weapon, he should understand something about mortality. And what does a better job of that than having an old doctor stick his shaky finger up your ass for a few minutes?

So please, Oklahoma, consider this proposal. If women must endure an invasive medical procedure to do something that is fully legal in America, it's only fair that men do the same.

Thoughts on The Pacific

2010-04-19T16:24:00.000-07:00

As most of you likely know already, I'm a keen student of World War 2 (and even did a RPG on the topic, V for Victory). I think I've read more books about that conflict than any other topic. I'm sure it's no surprise then to learn that I was really looking forward to the new HBO mini-series, The Pacific. The idea was to do a show similar to Band of Brothers but set in the Pacific theater. The producers chose to focus on the classic island hopping match-up: US marines vs. the Japanese.

I've now watched six of the ten episodes and I'm finally fully bought in. I was worried for the first month because it did not suck me right in (unlike Treme, the other new HBO show, which had me in the first 10 minutes). I've been pondering why that is and I think I've figured it out.

Band of Brothers benefited from focusing on one small unit, Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. A challenge of any war movie is that most of the protagonists will be dressed in the same uniform. The film makers thus have to work a little harder to differentiate the characters, since visual cues are often minimal. Basically, one guy in fatigues wearing a helmet looks much like another, at least at first. Band of Brothers was better able to bring out its characters in part because the show was about only one company and there was a core of reoccurring characters.

The Pacific tells the story of the war through three men: Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge, and John Basilone. They were all in the 1st Marine Division but they weren't in the same company or even in the same battles necessarily. Basilone was on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima, Leckie on Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, and Peleliu, and Sledge on Peleliu and Okinawa. This means that each of them has a separate cast of supporting characters and that's been problematic. It's often difficult to keep the various background characters straight, especially when you might only hear their names once. I've ended up watching each episode twice. The first time I take in the overall story. The second time I watch for little details and try to make connections I may have missed.

Of the three main characters, two of them wrote books after the war. Robert Leckie wrote "Helmet for My Pillow" and Eugene Sledge penned "With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa." Last week I was the bookstore and I decided to pick up Sledge's book, since the show was shifting its focus onto him. I finished it before the latest episode aired last night and I'm really glad I read it. It was much easier for me pick out the support characters. Ah, there's the captain they called "Ack Ack," there's the crazy gunnery sergeant who scrubbed his scrotum with a steel-bristled brush, etc.

By the fifth episode I had already felt like it was cohering better, and that was cemented last night. It seems there will be a third episode on Peleliu and that will help as well. The early episodes did skip around a bit and the pacing was sometimes odd. With only four episodes left, I guess that means one more for Peleliu, one for Basilone on Iwo Jima, and then two for Sledge on Okinawa. I will be interested to see how the whole thing hangs together once I've seen it all and to see if it passes my "random flip" test. Basically, I know I really like something if I'll stop and watch it whenever I'm flipping TV channels and come across it. Band of Brothers passes that test, which is somewhat ridiculous since I own the series and can watch it anytime. We'll see if The Pacific measures up.

A Small Price to Pay

2010-04-06T10:52:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I was a guest at a convention that didn't really have its game stuff together. They planned a Q+A session for me, for example, but didn't put it in the con booklet so anyone would know about it. Surprise, surprise, only one guy wandered by and he had only a vague idea who I was. He half-heartedly asked me one question and while I was answering him, he rolled up his t-shirt and began picking lint out of his belly button.

As you might imagine, I needed a drink afterwards. At the nearly empty bar I discovered a couple of the other con guests. One of them was Dave Arneson. I had met Dave in passing but never had the chance to sit down and really talk to him. So Nicole and I joined Dave and his business partner Dustin and spent a couple of hours drinking and swapping stories. It was delightful and Dave was incredibly nice. When he passed away, I was glad I'd had the opportunity to spend a little time with a man who'd had a serious effect on my life. The ignominious belly lint incident was a small price to pay.

My Norwescon Schedule

2010-03-31T17:40:00.001-07:00

I'm a guest at Norwescon here in Seattle this weekend. "The Northwest's Premier Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention" is in its 33rd year and I'll be on hand to talk about all sorts of gaming goodness. You can find me on the following panels.

Wargaming 101
Friday, 11:00 a.m., Evergreen 3 & 4
What is miniatures wargaming? How does one get started? Do you really have to be a good painter? Do games last for hours? What is the difference between skirmish and battle? Is this a good hobby for women? Come learn more about miniatures wargaming, from historical to sci-fi/fantasy and steampunk. Our panelists will explain the attraction to the hobby and what types of games are available for everyone, from newbies to experienced players.
Dylan S. (M), Jason Bulmahn, Chris Pramas

What is D&D?
Friday, 3:00 p.m., Evergreen 2
D&D has been through a number of editions, each of which has changed the rules and the core setting around it. In the past few years, games like Pathfinder, Castles and Crusades, and Swords & Wizardry have emerged from the OGL to offer their take on traditional, D&D fantasy gaming. What is the core of D&D; and what allows it to remain so popular despite the rise of digital games?
Wolfgang Baur (M), Jason Bulmahn, Bruce R. Cordell, Chris Pramas

Family-Friendly Games
Saturday, 10:00 a.m., Cascade 10
Panel experts discuss what makes a family-friendly game and what options are out there for the family that wants to game together. Our panelists will discuss age- and family-appropriate games for all ages, covering everything from board and card games to video games.
Chris Pramas (M), James Ernest, Mike Selinker

The Publishing Revolution
Saturday, 5:00 p.m., Cascade 4
The future of publishing is a big question mark right now as traditional publishing houses shrink along with the economy. At the same time, multiple versions of community-driven new media publishing models are popping up all over the internet; and some of the best fiction being written today is showing up on the web out of small independent publishers. What's happening, what's the future of publishing, and how can you become part of the publishing revolution?
Jak Koke (M), Bob Kruger, Chris Pramas, Patrick Swenson

Hope to see some of you there!

Vegas and GTS

2010-03-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was in Las Vegas last week for GTS, the main trade show for the hobby game industry. This was the first time I've been able to go in 3-4 years, since it never seemed worth burning vacation days for when I was working at Flying Lab. We did the show lean and mean this year, with just Hal and I there to rep for Green Ronin. I wish Nicole could have come, but Kate isn't quite old enough to be left at home for four days alone.

GTS was handy for meetings and I had many throughout the week. Some of these may bear fruit and become interesting projects. The floor traffic was a little light. We actually brought too much stuff to give away to the retailers for once. The upside to that was the quality of conversion was better. In the years when GTS was overrun with swag hounds due to the Wizkids promo items, some retailers would only stop at our booth long enough to find out what was free and then drag their almost bursting bags to the next booth. The folks we talked to this year were actually interested in what we were up to and in letting us know what was working and not working for them. As you might imagine, that's a lot more useful. I was pleased to hear so much positive feedback about Dragon Age, particularly the stories about new gamers seeking it out in stores. Several folks told me about running Dragon Age for 8-10 year olds and that is awesome.

Overall, we did some good business and I'm glad we went. What really made the trip worthwhile was seeing old friends though. I got to touch base with many people I see but rarely and that's always nice. We were delighted to see Nabil, Simon, and Lisa from the Travelling Man stores in England for the first time in 6-7 years. Hal and I went out to dinner with them at Lotus of Siam, which served the best Thai food I've had. The next night we had dinner with John Kovalic at Bouchon and that was also terrific. Since John got off the convention express, I don't get to see him that often so it was great to catch up. The next day we walked down to Circus Circus for a 70s time warp, and then stopped in at the Peppermill for giant cocktails. The only thing that would have made it better was if John and I could have thrown down with a miniatures game. I guess I'm going to have to go to Madison for that.

Vegas remains equal parts amazing and horrifying. You've got billion dollar casinos where the rich go to play connected by bridges on which immigrants sell bottles of water out of coolers and homeless people beg for change. One guy had a sign that said, "Need money for beer." A group of drunken frat guys thought that was hilarious, so they start taking pictures and video. The sign holder's friends said, "Hey, you're going to be on YouTube." One of the frat guys replied, "I'm not giving you any money but you'll totally be on YouTube!" Viva Las Vegas?

The Travel Bug

2010-03-10T02:36:00.001-08:00

Since leaving Flying Lab I find that the thing I want to do most is travel. During the three years I was working two jobs, I had to plan my travel carefully and husband vacation days. I spent some every year on GenCon and then of course there was our epic trip to Finland for Ropecon. For the time being at least my schedule is more free, and I just want to go all over.

I will be at GAMA Trade Show in Vegas in a couple of weeks. This will be the first time I've been in years, so that should be fun.

In July I hope to be out of the country at another convention. I've received the invite and plan to go but visas must sorted and all that. I'll announce plans when I'm sure everything is a go. It's a country I've never been to before, so that's exciting.

That's all good but I want more. I want to visit my friend Jess in Shanghai. I want to finally take Nicole to Belize. I want to go to Salute in London one of these years. I want see Australia and New Zealand (I was invited to GenCon Australia last year, but after I said yes they stopped answering my e-mails, which was weird). I want to walk the beaches of Normandy. I want to visit Istanbul and see the city my grandmother got booted out of. I want to visit friends in LA, Boston, Montreal, and DC. I want to go to a punk rock festival in Chicago. I want to head east again and see Poland. And I always want to spend more time in my home away from home, NYC.

I want to, but reality intrudes. This year it's probably Vegas, the mystery trip, GenCon, and maybe some business up in Edmonton.

Road Trip

2010-02-22T14:51:00.001-08:00

We got back a few days ago from our first official family road trip. We decided to go on short notice because Kate's mid-winter break, Dundracon, and Nicole's mom's surgery all coincided in a workable way. So we spent a couple of days in Portland, the weekend in San Ramon for Dundracon, and then the final few days in San Francisco. Overall, the trip worked out well and we had a good time.

The Portland leg was potentially dicey. We were there to support Nik's mom and if her surgery did not go well, there was a chance we'd have to stay longer than we planned. As it turned out, the surgery went surprisingly well, they did less than they thought they'd have to, and she was released a couple of days early. While there we had a chance to hang out with Nik's brother Chad and his girlfriend Megan and it's always nice to see them. Alas for Kate, no Voodoo Doughnuts this trip.

We made it down to San Ramon on Friday night, but not before a thoroughly unpleasant cop pulled us over and gave us a speeding ticket. Everyone else on the freeway was also speeding but we had out of state plates and that made us a target. Fucking cops. It was all I could do to keep my mouth shut. We still don't know how much this is going to cost, but it's likely to be over $250 and we really can't afford that right now.

Dundracon was good fun though. We haven't been able to attend in something like 7 years, so it was nice to make it back. Dundracon is a convention that still puts roleplaying front and center and that's a rarity these days. The downside for me was that most RPG sessions were 6-8 hours long and I could not find a game I wanted to play that fit between the seminars I was doing. The only scheduled game I played was actually a minis game, a re-fight of Rorke's Drift using (heavily) modified Sword and the Flame rules. Also played four pick up games of Dominion with Bruce Harlick and a rotating cast of opponents. That is a damn fine game.

The seminars seemed to go well. Ken Hite was my co-panelist on many of them. Get Ken and I chatting about history and an hour goes by quickly. We got to be the youngsters on a seminar about the early days of gaming, but we had a support role there, as the focus was rightly on Steve Perrin and Ken St. Andre. I had never heard Steve talk about the creation and impact of the Perrin Conventions (an early set of house rules for OD&D popular on the West Coast), so that was quite interesting. We take the internet for granted now but it's fascinating how differently D&D was played in various regions back in the 70s.

One feature of Dundracon I have always loved is their flea market. Gamers can rent a table there by the hour and sell whatever they want. I've found some great deals there over the years and this year was exception. This year's score was two old Avalon Hill games. I got an unpunched copy of Napoleon at Bay and a beat up but complete copy of Midway. Total price: $5. Also found some interesting old stuff in the dealers room proper. I picked up Heart of Oak, the minis game companion to the Privateers and Gentlemen RPG. Also got an AD&D adventure that I totally missed when it came out: I8 Ravager of Time. It caught my eye because it came out of TSR UK and many of those guys went on to work on WFRP.

The rest of the con was spent catching up with old friends (some of whom, like Tim, came out because we were going to be there). Endgame was nice enough to sell our wares so we didn't have to man our own booth (which is really how I prefer to do smaller cons these days). Sunday night we went out for a nice steak dinner at Izzy's and then Bruce, Ken, Nicole, and I joined Chris and Brian to record the 50th episode of their 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction podcast. We recorded for nearly two hours but I imagine the final episode will edit out many of the boxed wine jokes and off color comments.

After DDC it was off to San Francisco proper. We had a chance to meet up with Derek Pearcy, who we hadn't seen in person in 10 years or so. It was great to catch up and meet his family. We had lunch in the Ferry Building and I got to make my pilgrimage to Boccalone. Then he showed us around North Beach/Russian Hill. Very nice. The next day Bruce picked us up and we jaunted off to Sonoma. We had a terrific lunch at Restaurant Charcuterie, did three wine tastings, and picked up a couple of bottles to take home. Kate enjoyed an old time candy store (Powells Sweet Shoppe), which had a cool collection of vintage candy boxes and boardgames on display. That night we went down to Fisherman's Wharf at Kate's request. It's normally the sort of tourist beacon I avoid, but it was much less crowded at night.

The drive back to Seattle was thankfully uneventful. We spent almost all of it listening to an audio book, Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith. The book brilliantly evokes what it's like to live in a Stalinist state. The ending was a little too tidy but it's definitely worth a read (or a listen).

Now it's back to too much e-mail and work. Hooray?

Hitsville US

2010-02-10T00:15:00.000-08:00

A few quick notes before I get back to packing.

1. The most exciting news is that the game I spent the last year plus working on, the Dragon Age RPG, is out in stores this week. It's a classic style boxed set and it looks like it's going to do really well for us. Look for it in a game store near you.

I must also tip my hat to our partners at BioWare, whose Dragon Age: Origins computer game has sold over 3.2 million copies to date. There's a company that knows how to launch a property and make a great game.

2. I will be at Dundracon in San Ramon, CA this weekend. We won't have a booth (Endgame, one of my favorite game stores in the world, will be selling our stuff there), but I'll be around doing some seminars and playing games. I believe I'll be on the panel at the following seminars: Alternate Histories for Gaming, What's Cool, and Where Is the Hobby Going. I may also be on one in which old timers reminisce about coloring our dice with crayons and the like, but I'm not sure if I'm old enough to qualify at 40. Maybe Ken St. Andre will call me a whippersnapper.

3. I had thought I might head home to the Boston area for PAX East. After I left Flying Lab, I had to reconsider in light of new financial realities. Now it turns out that Wil Wheaton is doing the keynote, so I wish I had kept to my original plan. I still hope Wil has a wicked pissah time.

4. The forecast says chilly with a high chance of feijoada, churrasco, caipirinha.

5. Winter is almost over. And yet, it's still coming.

6. A note for readers of chrispramas.com. I was recently informed by Blogger that they are disabling the ftp option for blog updates, which is what I use. It is unclear if I can continue using Blogger with this URL, and I'm not keen on having one of theirs. I mirror this blog on Livejournal and Facebook though. If this site seems moribund to you, look over at http://freeport-pirate.livejournal.com or find me on Facebook. If that's not enough, I'm also on Twitter as @Pramas.

Take 5, Star Wars

2010-01-29T00:48:00.000-08:00

Back in the 90s, when people asked me to recommend a good starter roleplaying game, I'd always give the same answer: West End's Star Wars. I said that because the game had a premise that new players could instantly understand and a setting they knew from the movies. "You are part of the Rebel Alliance." And you're off. The rules also featured simple character creation and were easy to pick up. Later West End even did a nice introductory boxed set, and you know how much I like those.

With today's announcement that the current license holder, Wizards of the Coast, is not going to renew, you'd think I might have some interest in who might pick up the rights. There's already speculation about which companies might have the desire and money to do so. I've got to say though that best thing Star Wars could do is go away for awhile. Say three to five years.

The interesting thing about the West End RPG is that it came out when basically nothing else was going on with Star Wars. There were no novels, no prequels, no cartoons--none of that. One of the cool things about it was that it was one of the few Star Wars things you could even get in 1987. Today the brand is just tired. Lucasfilm is just flogging it and flogging it and they show no signs of stopping. Star Wars is still everywhere and most of what passes for it is just crap (starting with the dreadful sequels).

So I think the RPG at least but really the brand as a whole needs a fallow period and then a reboot. Look at Star Trek. It had its time away and it came roaring back with the recent J.J. Abrams movie. Right now the only Star Wars thing that looks cool is the upcoming BioWare MMO, and that's because BioWare seems to understand the spirit of the original Star Wars movies better than George Lucas these days, as evinced by their excellent Knights of the Old Republic game from a few years ago.

It seems that Star Wars won't be going away anytime soon though. There's the upcoming TV show, which might have had promise if someone other than George Lucas was in charge. More toys, games, and novels get cranked out every year. What's funny is that the niche nature of the RPG business may actually turn out to be a boon in this situation. There are only a handful of companies that could hope to afford the license and launching a new game with all that WotC product on the shelf would be a challenge. So the RPG at least may have that fallow period but for the rest of the brand the flogging will continue until morale improves.

(Not) Very Metal

2010-01-15T03:26:00.000-08:00

I read a review today of a movie called Until the Light Takes Us. It's a documentary about black metal. I did some internet searches to find out more about it and so ran across a British documentary called Murder Music: A History of Black Metal. I ended up watching most of it on YouTube and it was interesting. It occurred to me midway through that I've watched several documentaries about the history of heavy metal. I've enjoyed them in an academic sense but here's the funny bit: I hate heavy metal.

I mean, sure, I dabbled a bit when I was a teenager. I used to like Iron Maiden and some bands who are sometimes (incorrectly, in my opinion) lumped into metal, like Blue Oyster Cult and Rush. Come on, BOC had a song about Elric, I had to check that out. There is that place where fantasy fiction, gaming, and metal meet and I could have gone there, but no. I would look at albums by bands like Cirith Ungol and Celtic Frost in the record store, but they were not for me.

My dislike of metal has two components: attitude and music. Regarding the former, I hated the machismo, the misogyny, and the idiots these things attracted. Nor did the music itself have any appeal. The endless songs, the wanky guitar solos, the high-pitched shrieking--not my thing. Kind of ironic when you consider I went through a brief progressive rock phase when I was 13 and 14 but that thankfully passed.

Then I found punk rock and it was exactly what I needed. It was angry, rebellious, and high-velocity. It was a music that spoke to my alienation and it was made by misfits like me. And as far as I was concerned, punk and metal were like oil and water. When punk bands starting "crossing over," I was appalled. I liked the FUs but not the Straw Dogs, dug early DRI but loathed their later material (in fact, I sold my copy of the first DRI album, which is worth a mint now). I laughed when the metal guys discovered thrash. Slayer? Anthrax? Fuck that shit. A pale imitation of the great hardcore bands of the early 80s (but too long and with the aforementioned wanky guitar solos). Hell, even stuff like Corrosion of Conformity and Amebix was too metal for me.

These days I'm not quite as dogmatic. I think that's why I can watch these documentaries. And I can even appreciate some aspects of sub-genres like black metal. One could argue that it's just a different form of rebel music, albeit one tied to nonsense like Satanism. But the worst part of these documentaries for me? Yep, still the music. When the interviews stop and the music swells, I check out until someone starts talking again. You bang your head; I'll flex mine.

Putting the RPG Back in Game Night

2010-01-05T19:12:00.000-08:00

We've had a weekly game night going at our place for a decade now. It started when Nik and I were living in an apartment in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle and has been at our house since we moved here in 2000. The three Ronins (Nicole, Evan, and I) have been constants and many other friends have cycled in and out. Those who leave inevitably do so because they move away for a new job. We have ex-members now living as far away as Shanghai.

When we started, it was specifically for RPG campaigns and that remained the case for a good 8 years. Keeping momentum going on a particular campaign got harder, as several members do a lot of business travel. Then Bruce Harlick moved back to California, earning the sobriquet "Bruce the Traitor." Jess and Tim followed him about a year later. Since then it's been the three Ronins plus Ray Winninger.

The four of us attempted to keep a campaign going but with me working two jobs and Ray flying all over the place for Microsoft, it just didn't work. For almost two years now we've been playing board games instead. And some nights we don't even do that. Nicole cooks and we drink and bitch about the world. I had a playtest game of Dragon Age going on the side, but that ended when I left Flying Lab.

This is why I find myself hankering to be part of a regular RPG campaign once again. I would like to play but the reality is that I'll need to GM if it's going to happen, so I've been pondering options. I need something I'm interested in and I can sell the group on. I've commented to Nicole several times that the Fables comic by Bill Willingham would make a great backdrop for a campaign. Last week when I mentioned again how I thought Fables was awesome, Nicole said, "You should run a Fables campaign on game night."

The question, of course, is what game would be suitable for Fables? I asked this of my Facebook friends yesterday and got a variety of responses. I didn't quantify what I was looking for, so let me do that now. Basically, I am looking for a more story oriented game. I'm not interested in anything rules heavy or featuring tactical combat. It should be able to handle a wide variety of character types easily, as Fables throws a very wide net. Creating NPCs should not be a bear.

Here's what's been suggested, as well as various games I've pulled from my collection for consideration.

Castle Falkenstein: I always admired this game but sadly never got to play it. The engine is looks workable but I think if I was going to run CF, I'd like to do it full on with the setting intact.

GURPS, Hero, M&M: These sorts of point based systems are great for many types of campaign, but not this one.

New World of Darkness: The core book doesn't feature vampires, werewolves, etc, but is more of a generic supernatural game. I have no play experience at all with NWoD, so it'd be interesting from that angle but it didn't seem well suited to making fairytale characters come to life.

Over the Edge: I played this a lot in college and it could work. Possible but I'd rather try something newer.

Prince Valiant: This game was really ahead of its time and there's a lot to admire about its design and approach. I'd need to mod it heavily for it to work for Fables though, as it really is designed for a medieval setting.

Savage Worlds: This is a game I want to try sometime anyway and I could probably make it do what I want, but the feel of the rules is not quite right. I'll save it for Solomon Kane.

Seven Leagues, Primetime Adventures, and HeroQuest: Interesting suggestions but I have none of these. If not for the final entry, I might have sought out one or more of them.

Spirit of the Century: I played in a SotC campaign for about a year and it was fun. It is more crunchy than you'd think though and that's not really what I'm looking for. I also found that in a longer campaign the whole aspect thing went from fun to humdrum, so I'd use SotC for one shots or short arcs but not a full on campaign.

True20, Faery's Tale, M&M again: I am always amused when people suggest games to me that Green Ronin publishes. I appreciate the sentiment, but game night is my time to be a hobbyist, so I try to play other people's games.

The Zorcerer of Zo: I had this on the shelf but it took Sophie's suggestion to remind me. After a re-read, I'd say this is the clear front runner. Character creation feels right for Fables and the rules seem substantial enough to be interesting but easy enough that I won't have to sink a lot of time into prep work. I also have Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies, another PDQ game which I could pull extra material from if needed.

If I can sell the group on the idea, the next step would be picking a time frame to set it. I think I might want to stay away from the modern day so the PCs can shine without being overshadowed by the plots of the comic. The early 60s might be a fun period to roll with. Rat Pack fables and Cold War spy stuff could be an interesting mix. We'll see how it goes.

Excalibur Keeps It in the Family

2010-01-04T22:26:00.000-08:00

Excalibur was the first R rated movie I saw in the theater. I guess I was 11 at the time. I think my father took pity on my brother and I because there were so few decent fantasy movies movies in that era. Sure, Hawk the Slayer was fun, but I wouldn't call it good. Anyway, I went on to see Excalibur dozens and dozens of times. When I was in college, we often would run movies in the background as we played Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Excalibur was a favorite.

One day I actually paid attention during the credits and noticed that the actress who played Igraine was named Katrine Boorman. As John Boorman directed the movie we thought it was probably his wife or daughter. She was young enough that daughter seemed the most likely and indeed that was the case.

As you may recall the siring of Arthur is graphically depicted in Excalibur, with Uther tearing off Igraine's dress and then mounting her while still wearing his armor (now that is a horny knight). So in that long ago college dorm, I joked to my friends about what that casting conversation must have been like for the Boormans. "Honey, would you like to have your tit sucked?"

So the other night I watched Excalibur for the first time in at least a decade. I had picked up the DVD cheap at some point but never watched it. When it was over, I noticed there was a commentary track by John Boorman, so I turned that on. I was curious what he would say during the infamous Uther/Igraine tryst.

I'm paraphrasing but his is more or less what he said. "People often ask me if it was difficult filming my daughter getting raped. First of all, Igraine doesn't think she's being raped because Merlin put a glamour on Uther. In any case, my daughter and I discussed it beforehand, we were both fine with it, so we did it and it was not a big deal. The bigger problem for Katrine was being so close to the fire in the background." He then spends the rest of the scene talking about the great job the set designer did on Tintagel castle!

I guess that means both Boormans are either incredibly professional or incredibly fucked up.

My Year in Books

2009-12-26T13:47:00.000-08:00

As near as I can figure, the books below are what I read in 2009. This list does not include graphic novels, game books, Osprey titles, or magazines. Looking it over, you'd never guess I'm a raging leftist. I guess I was in a bellicose mood in 2009.

11th Month, 11th Day, 11th Hour: Armistice Day 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax by Joseph E. Persico

1453 and Empires of the Sea by Roger Crowley

Blackbeard: America's Most Notorious Pirate by Angus Konstam

Camouflage by Joe Haldeman

The Civil War: A Narrative, Volume 1 by Shelby Foote

The Clash by the Clash

The Crimean War by Clive Ponting

A Distant Mirror by Barbara W. Tuchman

Dragon Age: The Stolen Throne by David Gaider

The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, The Clan Corporate, The Merchant's War, and The Revolution Business by Charles Stross

Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany 1942-1945

The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky

Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman

Gods and Heroes: Myths and Epics of Ancient Greece by Gustav Schwab

Greene, Revolutionary General by Steven E. Siry

Halting State by Charles Stross

Lives of Hitler's Jewish Soldiers by Bryan Mark Rigg

Mechanicum by Graham McNeill

The Napoleonic Wars by Gunther Rothenberg

Old Man's War, The Ghost Brigades, The Last Colony, and Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi

Passage at Arms by Glen Cook

Paths of Glory, The French Army 1914-1918 by Anthony Clayton

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War 1918-1920 by Robert L. Willett

A Separate War & Other Stories by Joe Haldeman

Soldier of the Mist and Soldier of Arete by Gene Wolfe

Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies That Make Them by G. Wayne Miller

Randomness in Dragon Age

2009-12-17T16:13:00.000-08:00

Last week Dragon Age, the game I've been working on for the last year, had its electronic debut. It's at print now (just got the printer proofs today, in fact) and will be in stores in January but you can buy the PDF version right now. This has naturally led to a lot of commentary on the usual gaming message boards.

So my biggest goal for this first Dragon Age release was to create an intro product like the industry hasn't seen since D&D's famed red box from the 80s. I was thus quite careful about what went into Set 1 and what didn't. I wanted this to be as attractive as possible to people who had never roleplayed. Thus it looks like a game (it comes in a box), it comes with the dice you need, and it includes two modest, 64 page books. I was simply not going to put a 300 page hardback in front of newbs and hope they'd read it. Nor did I want to create an intro product that was disposable. I didn't want to say, "Spend $30 on this and then you can spend $100 on the real game." So Set 1 is Dragon Age. It's the core of the game we'll be building on and it's designed to be approachable and easy to learn.

Some long time gamers have expressed surprise at seeing that there are a couple of random elements in the character creation process. Surely we've moved past such antiquity methods, they argue. The randomness largely shows up in two places: generating your abilities and gaining some background benefits. The latter is trivial so I'm going to concentrate my comments on abilities. So why is that I decided to go with a random method for generating abilities? Four reasons.

First, I wanted to make this process easy for new players. Generating abilities is the second step of the process. If you are a newb making your first character, your understanding of the game is shaky at best. I didn't want to ask them to assign stats at this stage. It is much faster and much easier to have them roll some dice.

Second, getting those dice out early in the process serves to engage people. You are making a character and rolling dice makes it feel like you are really doing something. Rolling 3d6 and adding the results together is the key mechanism of the game. This method begins drilling the importance of the 3d6 roll right at the start.

Third, when BioWare approached us about doing a pen & paper RPG for Dragon Age, one of their goals was to play up the old school nature of the Dragon Age property. It's no secret that the roots of Dragon Age: Origins lay in the earliest days of tabletop roleplaying. While I was not looking to design a retro clone, I did want Dragon Age to have a certain old school feel. To me rolling for abilities strikes the right chord. This is why many people still refer to "rolling up" new characters, even when playing systems that don't use random stat generation.

Fourth, rolling random abilities can actually lead to interesting characters in a way that other methods do not. You may not have planned for your warrior to be particularly smart, but if you roll a high Cunning, it may suggest a different and fun way to play the character.

Now all of that is fair enough, some folks say, but why not include an optional rule for non-random ability generation? Here's why. Early on I decided that I did not want Set 1 to include a bunch of optional rules. Every optional rule is another choice that has to be made, and again I did not feel this was friendly to the new players. I'm comfortable putting optional rules in follow-up products because anyone who buys them will have enough experience with the system to make more informed decisions.

Set 2 will include a non-random option, but to prove I'm not a big meanie who is going to make you have badwrongfun, here's a simple method you can use in the interim. Your abilities start at 0 and you get 10 points to buy them up. No ability can be greater than 3. Why not 4, you may ask, when the random table goes to 4? Well, on the table it's a rare result. You have a less than 1% chance to rolling an 18 on 3d6. If you could simply buy a 4, that would become the standard not the exception.

I hope that answers everyone's questions. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got proofs to get back to.

Tree Fluffers

2009-12-10T19:27:00.001-08:00

Kate, my always awesome step-daughter, is turning 14 this weekend. I remember how mature I thought I was at 14 and I can only ruefully laugh at myself. Now Kate has grown up plenty. It used to be that I could make double entendres and the like for Nicole's benefit and they'd go right over Kate's little head. Now Kate makes a point of saying, "I understood that," and glaring at me disapprovingly when I'm too saucy. It's very cute.

But Kate is not all the way grown up just yet. Yesterday she and Nicole went shopping for a Xmas tree. We opted for a wee tree this year, which suits our house well. When they got home, Nicole explained it took them a while to find a good one. Apparently many of the trees had been crushed or bent out of shape or crushed when stacked up in storage.

"It was so sad," Kate said. "They really need a tree fluffer to fix them."

I smiled at her like she was being cute, while desperately holding in a belly laugh. "A tree fluffer?" I queried, meeting Nicole's eye.

"Yeah, you know," she replied. "Someone who can fluff the trees and get them back into the right shape."

"Ah, yes," I said, "an important job. I guess that'd be seasonal work."

"Yup!" she agreed. "You wouldn't need a tree fluffer in any other part of the year."

I let it drop there and Nicole and I managed not to fall over laughing. I was not about to explain to my step-daughter what a fluffer was. Nicole and I had a good laugh about it after Kate went to bed though.

Cider Quest

2009-11-27T18:27:00.000-08:00

I have never liked beer. To me it always seemed like a giant bait and switch scam. When I was a kid, I saw all these TV commercials that told me how awesome and delicious beer was. When I was 12 some of my cousins sneaked some from the keg at my Uncle Mel's place and we found a corner away from the adults to try it. It tasted like boiled socks. What the hell? Where was the refreshment? Why did adults drink so much of this swill? Since then I've tried dozens of different beers of all sorts in countries around the world. I've found a few I can abide but Belgian lambics are the only ones I can say I actually like and that's because they don't taste much like beer. No, beer isn't for me. I later discovered hard cider, however, and that became my brew of choice.

About 11 years ago I was home in Massachusetts for Xmas. I think it was the first time I brought Nicole east to see my old stomping grounds. We were out getting some libations for the holiday and I saw something I'd never encountered before: a mulled hard cider. It was a seasonal special, I think by Cider Jack. I got a six pack and drank it all in a couple of days. It was delicious, and the mulling spices added a lovely flavor to the cider. I said to Nik, "We'll have to get some of that when we're back in Seattle."

The problem was it never made it Seattle. I don't know if that was a regional test that didn't sell well or what, but in fact I never found that mulled cider again. And oh, I have looked. For over a decade I have haunted liquor stores and specialty shops, scanning the ciders from brewers big and small. I never found anything close. The only things I searched for that long were the Witch Hunt RPG and the "Kill by Remote Control" album by Toxic Reasons, both of which I eventually tracked down.

The other night Nicole and I went to a cider tasting at Full Throttle Bottles in Georgetown. We tasted six ciders. Five of them were made here in Washington. The sixth was Scrumpy Jack, which I've had in England but isn't sold in the US. The woman running the tasting wanted to contrast a mainstream English cider with the local varieties. The tasting was fun and we got to try some different ciders. As we were browsing the store, it occurred to me to ask her about mulled cider. She seemed to know her business after all. So I told her my story and she said without missing a beat, "Try J.K.'s Solstice Hard Cider." I found it in the case (it's made by J.K. Scrumpy) and picked up a bottle to take home.

I am drinking said cider right now and it's delicious. It's the closest thing I've had to that mythical mulled cider of over a decade ago. It's spiced with cinnamon, vanilla, and maple syrup that enhance the apple taste and give it a very full flavor. The label has snow flakes which makes me wonder if it's also a seasonal variety. I think the only safe thing to do is go back to Full Throttle Bottles and stock up for the winter!

Pramas and the Olympians

2009-11-20T00:24:00.001-08:00

In my "free" time I've been boning up on my ancient Greek mythology. I had an idea for a skirmish miniatures game set in the Age of Heroes. The idea is that the captain of your warband is a hero like Achilles or Perseus. You play a series of battles with other heroes and monsters and try to win enough glory to become a demigod like Heracles. Not sure I'll do anything with the idea, but it's simmering on the back burner.

In my research I ran across a reference to some novels by Gene Wolfe set an ancient Greece. I'm reading the first one, Soldier of the Mist, right now. It's about a Roman mercenary named Latro who fought for the Persians during their invasion of Greece. He receives a head wound which causes the loss of his short term memory. By the morning he forgets the events of the previous day. He thus keeps a journal and that supposedly provides the text of the novel. The premise is reminiscent of the movie Memento, but the book came out long before the film (1986).

I'm about halfway through and enjoying the book quite a bit. Due to his head wound, Latro can see the spiritual world that lies hidden from most mortals, so he has many encounters with gods and spirits. Wolfe evokes the beliefs and superstitions of the ancient Greeks vividly and I'd recommend it to gamers looking for a good portrayal of day to day polytheism. He stresses the idea that gods are strange beings and hard to understand. Their actions may help you, but showing mercy to mortals is an alien idea to them.

My only complaint is that Wolfe chose to use the literal translations of all the place names in ancient Greece. This is certainly evocative and reads well, and it would not bother someone who doesn't know much about the history of the period. I have read a fair bit about the Persian invasion of Greece, however, and the naming conventions are throwing me. I had to figure out that the "Rope Makers" are Spartans and "Thought" is Athens, for example. I was overjoyed to discover a glossary in the back, but it was no help in that regard. It would have been nice if at least the glossary clued you in on the more common names. Overall though, this is good stuff and I look forward to finishing it and moving on to the sequel, Soldier of Arete. You can get both in one trade paperback called Latro in the Mist.

A Story for Veterans Day

2009-11-11T14:22:00.001-08:00

My middle name is William, which is my father's name. He was named after his uncle, a Greek immigrant who fought in the American army in World War 1. When I was home a couple of years ago, my dad showed me a folder of paperwork regarding my great uncle. There was very little family lore about him because he died young on the Western Front. My father said he always wanted to know more, particularly how he died. In the folder I found his unit information and his date of death. I said I'd take to the internet and see what I could find out. My dad scoffed (to say he's not Mr. Computer is an understatement). "What are you going to find there?" he asked.

My great uncle William had been a private first class in the 3rd Infantry Division. He died on July 15, 1918. Finding out what happened to him was not too difficult as it turned out. July 15 was the first day the Second Battle of the Marne, which was Germany's last major offensive of the war. The 3rd Division, including William's 38th Regiment, was posted on the Marne River and here the Germans tried to break through to finally capture Paris. The units on either side of the 3rd Division fell back under the assault of German stormtroopers. The 3rd's commander, Major General Joseph Dickman, said to his French allies, "Nous resterons la." "We shall remain here." The 3rd held the line and earned a name they still bear to this day: the Rock of the Marne Division.

That was the action and the day my great uncle was killed. I also discovered where he's buried: the Oise-Marne American Cemetery, Plot B, Row 25, Grave 33. No one from my family has ever visited his grave. Included in that folder were letters from the government offering his mother a free trip to France to do so. Apparently in the 1920s this offer was made to the mothers of soldiers who died in the war. She was too grief stricken to take the trip and the letters went unanswered.

So I printed out what I had found online and brought it down to show my dad. He was impressed with what I had been able to dig up in just an hour. "See," I said, "the internet is good for something." I was glad my dad could finally find something out about his uncle and how he died. He had been wondering his whole life, but the family didn't like to talk about PFC Pramas. Too much pain I guess and I can understand that. I've since tracked down a history of the 3rd Division in WW1, published by the unit in Germany in 1919. I'm trying to learn more about where William's company was on that fateful day. Some day I'd also like to visit his grave. I feel that someone from my family should, since over 90 years have passed since his death.

I think of my great uncle when I see the anti-immigration bigots wrapping themselves in the American flag. William was a recent immigrant to the United States. He likely spoke little English and army life couldn't have been easy for him. But he joined up and he gave his life, as did many immigrants before him and as have many since. His willingness to do so did not diminish America, it enhanced it because we are fundamentally a nation of immigrants. Lets remember that this Veterans Day.

Leaving the Lab

2009-10-31T01:02:00.000-07:00

Friday was my last day at Flying Lab. I worked there on Pirates of the Burning Sea for three years and three weeks. I had not been happy in my job for some time. For starters I was tired of working on pirate material. It's been nine years since I wrote Death in Freeport and I've been working on pirate oriented stuff off and on for most of that time. After Pirates of the Burning Sea launched, I hoped to move on to a new game and get a chance to lead the narrative design effort from the ground up (PotBS was several years into development before I came on board). There were many proposals and many meetings with potential publishers, but none of the big projects ever got a green light. So it was just week after week of grinding out new content for the game post-launch. Once you've written over five hundred missions that involve a ship combat or a sword fight, it gets a little old.

On top of all that, I had of course been continuing to run Green Ronin and for the last year design the Dragon Age RPG as well. I worked just about every weekend of the last three years on GR and most of my "vacations" were conventions or business trips. At the certain point the weeks just began to blur together. What day was it and did it even matter? And even when I would take a day off for mental health, I just thought about all the work I had to do and usually failed at relaxing anyway.

I hung on and hoped something would break my way. But at Flying Lab the content team was at half its original size a year after launch. Some people left the company and others moved over to work on the kids MMOs the company is doing. We also decided to make the missions less cookie cutter by designing each from scratch instead of using templates. The upshot was we had fewer missions designers creating fewer missions and that meant less and less writing for me to do. At the end of the summer the content team and the design team were combined into one team under a new lead. We finished Black Flags and Dread Saints, an eight month serial story line I had conceived, and then started working on an expansion. With the state of the game and nothing else in the offing, there just wasn't enough for me to do. So here we are.

In the short term it's not so bad. I can concentrate on Green Ronin as we launch Dragon Age. I can maybe relax a little and take some weekends off. Health insurance is going to be an issue though and Nicole and I still need to figure out how we can afford to fix the heating system in our house (see her blog for that story). There's also the larger question of where I want to go from here. There are other forms of writing I'd like to explore, such as fiction and comics, that I simply haven't had time to consider the last few years. It may be time for that or something else. I'm sure it's going to make 2010 interesting.

Fund My Hobby!

2009-10-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

I want to get my 28mm Norman army painted and I know I'll never find the time to do it. I'm also on a never ending quest to get stuff out of my house. The solution? You buy stuff I don't need any more and I use the money to get my army painted. So there's a big list of stuff below. If you are interested, drop me a line at pramas [at] greenronin [dot] com. I'll figure out shipping and then you pay me via Paypal. Here we go:

Mutants & Masterminds 2nd Edition, Limited Edition rulebook, $50
Mutants & Masterminds Annual #2, $40
Vampire: Damnation City (White Wolf), $20
Witch Hunter: The Invisible World (Paradigm Concepts), $20
Original Dark Sun boxed set for 2nd edition AD&D (TSR), $35
Forgotten Realms: Empire of the Shining Sea boxed set for 2nd Edition AD&D in the shrink, $40

Inquisitor miniatures game (GW), $20
Epic Armageddon miniatures game (GW), $25
The Hills Rise Wild minis game (Pagan Publishing), $25

Blitzkrieg General boardgame, unpunched (UGG), $20
Autumn Mist: The Battle of the Bulge boardgame, unpunched (Fiery Dragon), $15
Tide of Iron boardgame (FFG), $55 (shipping on this may be a bear because it's huge; if you live in Seattle we could meet for a handoff)

Flames of War 2nd Edition hardback rulebook, $35
FOW D Minus 1 book, $15
FOW D-Day book, $15
FOW Bloody Omaha book, $15
FOW Afrika book, $15
3 FOW American M3 Lee Tanks, $21
1 FOW American Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel Boxed Set, $30

Flames of War American Airborne Lot, $95
* 1 Parachute Rifle Company Boxed Set
* 1 Parachute Rifle Platoon
* 1 Parachute Mortar Platoon
* 1 M1 57mm Gun blister (for Glider anti-tank platoon; 2 guns)

Catachan Imperial Guard Force for Warhammer 40K, $200
The following are metal minis:
* 8 guardsmen with satchel charges
* 8 special weapon and officer minis, including Sly and Straken
* 7 heavy flamers
* 4 autocannon teams
* 3 seated heavy bolter teams
* 2 standing heavy bolter teams with “Ox” from Schaeffer’s Last Chancers
*2 missile launcher teams

Then I have over 60 assembled plastic guardsmen. About half are primed and half have a few colors put on. They are a mix of regular troopers, special/heavy weapon troopers, and sergeants.

Bushido Miniatures (True 25mm), Ral Partha, $40
* 5 blisters of Samurai with Sword (30 minis total)
* 1 blister of Samurai with Naginata (6 minis)

The GR Summit

2009-10-07T00:35:00.001-07:00

We had our annual Green Ronin Summit this past weekend. Hal, Steve, Jon, and Bill all flew into Seattle and met up Nicole, Evan, Sparky, and I for several days of meeting, planning, eating, and even a little bit of gaming. We did a debrief on the last year, talking about what went well and not so well. Then we reviewed our various lines, brainstormed new ideas, and banged out a schedule through the end of 2010. After we adjourned the summit proper, some of us recorded new material for the Green Ronin podcast. All in all it was a productive and enjoyable weekend and it's always nice tohang out with the other ronins away from a convention environment.

I have sometimes pondered handling this stuff via e-mail like we do most of our business, but it's really worth getting everyone in the same room at least once a year. There's a spontaneity you don't get in e-mail and sometimes it's the little asides that you wouldn't type that send the conversation off in a direction that proves fruitful. This year we had a particularly large knot to untangle and the solution we came up with was not something I had considered beforehand. It was the back and forth discussion during the brainstorming that led us to something I think will be really cool. That's the sort of result that makes the summit so worthwhile.

WFRP2 and the Storm of Chaos

2009-09-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

I did an interview earlier this week for the Open Design podcast and that’s up already at www.opendesignpodcast.com. One of the things we talked about was licensed games and the pitfalls of dealing with someone else’s property. Something that came up on an rpg.net thread is a case in point.

When I started designing the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, one of the biggest tasks was the presentation of the setting. The question was, what should the default era of the game be? My preference was for a period of time in between world changing events, so we could set a baseline of what the Empire and the Old World were like. However, Games Workshop was pushing one of their periodic big events for the miniatures game, Warhammer Fantasy Battle, at the time. It was called the Storm of Chaos and it was the story of a new Chaos incursion into the Empire. As far as GW was concerned, the Storm of Chaos was current events in the Warhammer world and it had to be reflected in the RPG.

So what would be the best way to use the Storm of Chaos in WFRP? What I wanted to do was set the game right before the incursion. Strange things are happening all over the Empire, there are grim portents of the future, etc. This would have allowed us to still establish the baseline of the setting. Nordland is like this, Averland is like this, and so on. We then could have provided material for playing through the Storm of the Chaos. Not in mass battles (that’s for the minis game) but certainly the disruptions of a major invasion and the sense that the End Times were here would have provided plenty of fodder for adventures. It would also have neatly separated that material out, so those not interested in using the Storm of Chaos in their campaign could build off the baseline their own way.

The snag was that by the time the RPG came out the Storm of Chaos was going to be over. GW thus wanted the RPG set in the post-invasion time period. I argued that doing so was like setting a WWII game in 1946 (by which I did not mean that WFRP was a war game, but that if such an event was to take place, you should give players a chance to experience it). That was the state of the property though so thus it had to be. So we forged ahead and I think the team did a good job and put out many excellent books. It just wasn’t an ideal starting point from my point of view. When we did the Empire sourcebook, Sigmar’s Heirs, for example, huge swathes of the northeast were described as being destroyed and depopulated. If you wanted to set your game in another period, the info provided about these areas wasn’t very useful.

Towards the end of our tenure on WFRP, Rob Schwalb and I spent some time kicking around ideas about a potential third edition of the game. We thought that a cool approach might be to present three different time periods in the core rulebook so GMs had options. I believe we suggested the Age of Three Emperors, the Enemy Within period, and then the post-Storm of Chaos era from second edition. With the end of our deal and then the dissolution of Black Industries though, that vision of third edition WFRP never moved ahead. The irony is that since then GW has stopped advancing their world timeline year to year, and now keeps the “official” year static. Such are the challenges of licensed games.

Hello, Georgetown

2009-09-21T23:21:00.001-07:00

Georgetown is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Seattle. It was originally a working class area near the railroad and Boeing Field, and was home to many saloons and the original Rainier Brewery. As urban decay set in, it became just the sort of place that attracted punks, artists, bikers, roller girls, and other counter culture types. Of all the neighborhoods in Seattle, it reminds me most of my beloved Lower East Side in New York. It’s home to the Fantagraphics store and Georgetown Records, cool bars like the 9 Lb. Hammer and Jules Maes, an underground punk club called the Morgue, and good eats like Stellar Pizza, Two Tarts Bakery, and the Hallava Falafel truck. Best of all, it’s quite close to my place, being down the hill and across the freeway.

The trouble with Georgetown was that it wasn’t well-served with public transit. When Nicole or Ray would drive, it was a snap to get down there. If I wanted to go on my own, it was a big pain that required taking the bus to a different neighborhood and then backtracking to Georgetown. I was therefore delighted to discover on Sunday that the new route for the 106 bus now goes through Georgetown instead of going on the I-5. This means I can hop on a bus a few blocks from my house and go directly to Airport Way, the heart of Georgetown. The timing is excellent too because this weekend Italian hardcore legends Raw Power are playing at the Morgue and now I know I can get down there easily. Thanks, Seattle Metro!

Summer's Over?

2009-09-10T23:42:00.001-07:00

Weeks continue to fly by. Last weekend was the Penny Arcade Expo, which by all accounts was a huge success. My PAX was more miss than hit. I woke up Saturday feeling crappy. I made it in to the con in the afternoon because I had a meeting and needed to touch base with a few people. I did what I had to do, spent maybe an hour in the exhibit hall, and then went home. Nicole and Kate stayed out for the Jonathan Coulton show and didn't get home until 3:30 am. Sunday was a bit better but let's just say it was no GenCon for me. Next year I need a better strategy for PAX (and not getting sick would also help). They are doing a PAX East in Boston in March and I'm considering going to that. My family is in the Boston area and I have a bunch of friends there I haven't seen in ages. Do some business, see some people; seems like a reasonable idea.

This weekend is GwenCon, which is basically a big weekend of gaming at my former co-workers Gwen Kestrel and Andy Collin's house. It's a good time and chance to catch up with people from the WotC diaspora, but I think I'm going to have to skip it this year. It's been incredibly difficult to get any good work done the past month and I really need to have a solid weekend of that if I'm going to get out from under my current task load. Three years of the two job thing is wearing me thin.

Oh, and I'm really behind on e-mail at the moment. If I owe you one, I apologize. I am trying to catch up.

I guess summer's officially over, though it doesn't really feel like I had one.