A couple of years ago I joined my “other” game group. Tim had decided to start a D&D; campaign after a year of planning. As I was keen to get out the GM’s chair for awhile and the game was only twice a month, I added another game to the rotation. About six months ago the D&D; game fizzled and it seemed like that group may be on a long (perhaps permanent) hiatus. One of the other players, Dean, had gotten Spirit of the Century though and he wanted to give it a spin. Another stint as a player and a chance to try out a new game? Sold.

We’ve played a couple of sessions so far and it’s been a good time. We’re all pulp fans, so it’s been easy to get into the proper mindset. The core of the game is FUDGE, which is easy enough, but it has been customized nicely to give it that pulp feel. I think the best part of the game is the aspects, which are reminiscent of Pendragon’s personality traits but are wider in scope and even more useful in play. I also liked the way you could use aspects to build out your character background and reap mechanical rewards for doing so. A normal character has 10 aspects. The first eight for my character, Tristan Leclerc follow (the other two I’m still sorting). While many of the example aspects in the book are one or two words, I found that I liked creating more flavorful phrases. “From Paris to Peking” just sounds more exciting than “well-traveled.” I also tried to create a couple of “gimmes” for the GM, like Enemy of the People. These will not only make it easy for Dean to come up with plot complications that involve my back story, but will also give me a way to earn more fate points when he does so.

From Paris to Peking: Tristan’s father worked in France’s colonial administration. He spent most of his young life in places like Algeria and Indochina. He is familiar with many foreign customs and showed a talent for languages at a young age.

Connoisseur of Decadence: The colonial administrators lived in a different world than their subjects. This gave young Tristan an appreciation for the fine things in life, from wine and foie gras to cognac and cigars. During the war Tristan took particular delight in seizing such luxuries from the billets of enemy officers. To him such booty became synonymous with victory.

Demon of the Trenches: Ironically enough the longest period Tristan spent in France was during the Great War. He volunteered for the army to defend a country he had visited only a few times in his life. He developed into a fearsome trench fighter, eventually leading a unit of irregulars specializing in infiltration and close combat. Leclerc’s raiders were greatly feared by the Germans.

A Pox on All Generals: Watching the way his father was treated in the colonial administration gave Leclerc a healthy distrust of bureaucracies. During the Great War this blossomed into a full fledged hatred of hierarchies, and generals who led from the rear. The carnage of the trenches taught him that only the officers on the front line knew what was really going on. While these beliefs helped make him a highly effective combat leader, they also caused him to have no end of trouble with authority figures inside and outside of the military.

Allied Zeppelin Corps Veteran: After the war Leclerc thought he was done with the military. When he was offered a large sum of money to join a new unit called the Allied Zeppelin Corps, however, he changed his mind. This multinational force was posted to Archangel as part of the anti-Bolshevik effort organized by the victorious allies. Leclerc made a name for himself by thwarting the plot of Commissar Krasnaya to blow up the Zeppelin’s Corps headquarters.

Enemy of the People: The Soviets never forgot the Allied intervention after the Great War. Nor have they forgotten Leclerc. In addition to earning the enmity of Commissar Krasnaya, Leclerc also led a bombing raid that derailed Trotsky’s armored train. He has been dogged by Soviet agents ever since.

Brother of Heaven and Earth: Leclerc was cut adrift after the Allied Zeppelin Corps fell apart. He drifted across Latin and South America for several years working as a mercenary. He eventually ended up in China, where he was hired by the Kuomintang. There he became acquainted with several Triad organizations and the notorious Green Gang, who backed Chiang Kai Shek. These Triad connections have proved useful over the years.

Magnificent Butcher’s Apprentice: While in China Leclerc met Lam Sai Wing, “the Magnificent Butcher”. A famous martial artist, Lam had been a student of the legendary Wong Fei Hung and was later appointed the chief instructor of the army in the Fujian Province. Leclerc met him shortly after Lam’s official retirement. He convinced the old master to give him weapons training for six months, until events transpired that took the Frenchman to the USA.

When I was first getting into punk rock at age 15, I started with the English class of ’77 bands: the Clash, Sex Pistols, the Damned, etc. It didn’t take me long to start delving deeper into the music and discovering the disparate scenes and bands that fell under the overall punk moniker. I was particularly drawn to the anarcho and peace punk bands, as they were the most blatantly political and I was all about that as an angry young teenager. I got into English bands like Crass, the Subhumans, Flux of Pink Indians, and Rudimentary Peni. My favorite of those bands was Conflict though. They were like Crass (and in fact started on Crass’s record label before starting their own), but their music was more aggressive and they advocated direct action instead of Crass’s straight up pacifism. This was quite appealing to me when I was in high school. I kept hoping that Conflict would tour so I could see them, but they only came to America once in the 80s and that was a West Coast tour. A few years later they broke up.

Imagine my surprise then when I saw in the paper that Conflict was playing here. Naturally, I had to go, even though I hadn’t listened to much Conflict in some years. The show was this past Friday night at Studio 7, a cozy club in “Sodo”, a largely industrial area near the port part of the city. There couldn’t have been more than 250 people there, which suited me just fine. I got there towards the end of the Bloodclots set and based on three of their songs I’m OK with that. Next up was Anima Mundi. They were very much Crass influenced and somewhat interesting in that they had two drummers and four female members. As with many bands in this vein though, watching them play was like being lectured at for half an hour. They were, however, better than the final opening band, Scarred for Life. These guys were about the 3,000th band to ride Discharge’s coattails since 1980. The only thing even mildly notable about them was that the singer was cutting up his head and chest during the set and bleeding all over himself. Alas, such hackney antics don’t make a mediocre band any less mediocre.

At last at 11 pm Conflict hit the stage after a pre-recorded five minute bombastic intro. As near as I could tell it was mostly the original members and they passed the first reunion test by clearly being into what they were doing. The band was tight and they did not fuck around. For 75 minutes they slammed from one song into the next in a furious barrage of classic anarcho punk. They only played a few songs from their first record, but that was fine because they did most of side 1 of “Increase the Pressure,” which was the band at its best. I was pleased to hear both the single “This Is Not Enough” and its b-side “Neither Is This,” which date from the same era. Later in the set they did a bunch of songs from “the Ungovernable Force,” an album which managed to be more musically sophisticated while maintaining the band’s power and edge. The two singers from Anima Mundi came out at several points to do additional vocals for these songs and they were clearly geeked to be onstage with a band they must idolize. Overall, Conflict delivered a solid show. Good song selection, plenty of energy, apparent sincerity. And yet I could not escape the feeling that I was seeing this show 20 years too late.

I came down with some kind of flu today, so I’ve spent the day drinking tea, sleeping, and watching movies. Tonight the Western Channel was showing all the various Magnificent Seven movies in order. The original is one of my favorite westerns, but I had never seen any of the sequels. Each one follows the same basic framework. Downtrodden Mexicans need help, a gunslinger named Chris recruits a team of badass specialists, complications arise, and then there’s a big shootout in which some of the seven die.

The third one, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, was better than I expected, even with George Kennedy replacing Yul Brenner. You can definitely see the influence of 60s politics in the script (the likable kid who endears himself to the gunslingers, for example, is supposed to a young Zapata). This time there are some interesting new characters, like the mighty John Henry-like heavy and the one armed ex-Confederate trick shooter (played by Joe Don “Mitchell” Baker no less). Here’s the problem. In the final confrontation, none of these characters get their cool moments to show off their shticks. The really strong guy does not perform some heroic feat of strength before getting gunned down. The trick shooter does not make the improbable shot that saves the day. The guy who is supposed to be best knifeman in the west doesn’t even use a knife in the fight!

The whole climax was pretty disappointing because the writer didn’t follow through on the promise of the characters. Each one of these guys should have had his moment as the overall plot moved towards its conclusion. It’s a good thing to remember when writing fiction or when running roleplaying games.

Thanks to one of my co-worker’s expansive collection of Joy Division CDs, I have been listening to a lot of Manchester’s bleakest lately. I’ve had a soft spot for Unknown Pleasures since I was in college but never did get around to acquiring their other material. Now a lot of their earliest songs have been made available, so a pretty complete document of the band has emerged. Joy Division is not a band for everyone, that’s for sure. They are like the soundtrack to a life movie of industrial and moral decay. Since Ian Curtis famously killed himself, the somberness of his lyrics and delivery has an undeniable authenticity. That guy was feeling it. And really Morrissey should have learned an important lesson from Joy Division. If you want us to believe that you are a tortured soul, just go ahead and kill yourself.

Now you might get the idea that me listening to a lot of Joy Division means I’m depressed or something. In fact, quite the opposite is true. I’m in a great mood and many good things are happening. Maybe the ghost of Ian Curtis just wants to make sure I’m keeping it real.

I had planned to go to the Emerald City Comic Con this weekend, but I had too much work to do. I probably didn’t miss much, since I was at NY Comic Con less than two months ago. Probably better for my wallet in the end and I did manage to catch up on a lot of stuff yesterday. Today I have to write. Well, after I am shanghaied into making breakfast anyway. Before Kate went to bed, she said, “You know, there’s bacon in the fridge. . .” She cracks me up.

Last night I came upstairs to find Kate watching House, which she loves. At one point House says to a patient, “Did you ever star in any pornos?”

Kate says, “What’s that supposed to mean?” Then she turns to me and asks, “What’s a porno?”

I tell her, “It’s something 11-year old girls don’t need to know about.” Though this answer would not satisfy many kids, Kate accepts it. Since she’s spent so much of her life around adults, she understands that there are adult things and kid things and that she’s not old enough for everything yet. She is really mature for her age though, so I suspect this acceptance isn’t going to last beyond age 12 or 13.

Man, this has been a busy week. I’ve had something going on every night, which has meant being out of the house for 12-15 hours most days. This weekend I have a bunch of writing to do, correspondence to catch up on, and contracts to hash out. Tonight though I do not have any plans. It will be very tempting to just have dinner, crawl into bed, and watch some movies or something.

In addition to being busy, this week was also what you’d call eventful. Until today it was a mix of good and bad news. Today I had some really good news though. Literally within 24 hours of one door closing, a new one opened. More on that when I can talk about it.

Now it’s an afternoon of pirates and then some R&R;.

Last night we went to Jenny’s birthday celebration. It started at Hale’s Ales Brewery and Pub and then at 10:30 we went around back to “Hale’s Palladium” to see one of the Moisture Festival’s performances. This was a totally old school vaudeville show with jugglers, jokesters, magicians, trapeze artists, singers, and a full band. The atmosphere was festive, the acts were good, and the crowd was in the proper spirit. John had tipped off the MC, who led the entire crowd in singing happy birthday to our girl. All in all quite a fun time.

One of the other partygoers was Scott Glancy of Pagan Publishing and he brought an advanced copy of Delta Green d20 for Tynes. So those of you who have been waiting for this book for like three years, I can confirm that it exists. I even touched it. The main shipment is on a boat, so there’s still a chance that R’ley will rise and Cthulhu will seize the print run for himself, but it seems the book that has been “at print” longer than it takes most game books to be written may finally see release.

If you’ve been wonder what exactly it is that I do at Flying Lab, you can find it in my new devlog.

http://www.burningsea.com/logs.php?log_select=95190

Yaarrr.

Nothing puts me off more than corporate mandated friendliness at a store or restaurant. When the sentiment is so clearly phony, it puts me off and makes me less likely to patronize the place, not more. It’s the same reason I can’t stand Rachel Ray. I tried watching her $40 a day show when that first came on, and her ridiculous hamming put me right off. “Ooooh, mmmmmm, it’s sooooo gooooodddd. Mmmmm!” Now seeing her stupid face on a box of Triscuits makes me not want to eat Triscuits.

Last night I had dinner with Nik and Rick at PF Chang’s before the Anti-Flag show. PF Chang’s has this weird “signature” thing where the waiters excitedly mix up your sauce for you before you even order. I usually just lay back and think of General Tso while this is going on, but last night I finally had to say something to the waiter. “One thing I never get about this place if your obsession with the sauce,” I said. “If I get something like dumplings, I might want a sauce like that, but if I don’t it’s just a waste. So, what’s the deal with the sauce and why are you so keen to give it to me?” Our waiter’s response was to leave the soy sauce and take everything else away in a huff. I guess it didn’t occur to him that I might want to use the chili oil or other condiments on my own. “I’m taking my sauce and going home, you bastard!”

He totally had the enforced friendliness thing going on. It made me think, of all things, of porn. No wait, stay with me here. I was watching HBO’s Pornucopia show and they were interviewing this actress named Katie Morgan. She said that when she first got into porn, she didn’t know what to say during the scenes. Then an older pro said, “It’s easy, you just say whatever is being done to you.” If you think about that, it’ll ruin most porn for you. Anyway, our waiter was doing the exact same thing, and he ended every declaration with “guys.” So he’s in the middle of clearing our plates and he says, “I’m just clearing your plates, guys.” Really, I get it, because I’m one foot away from you and I have eyes!

The Anti-Flag show was OK. I guess I just wasn’t feeling it. I mean, I’m glad there are still some earnest bands doing real protest music, but it takes a lot more than raising your fist at a punk show to affect change.

A lot of folks have asked me if they’ll see me in Vegas this week at Games Expo. The answer is that Green Ronin is not attending. Here’s why.

Games Expo is a new show organized by Mark Matthew-Simmons. He’s spent a year going on about how he’s doing this show for the good of the industry and he only has everyone’s best interests at heart. I do not believe him for a minute. I think this is part of Mark’s lunatic vendetta against GAMA and I just don’t want to participate in that. He pretends otherwise, but why else would you announce a show in the same month and the same city as GAMA Trade Show? Just a coincidence I’m sure. Now to its credit GAMA decided to push GTS into April instead of having an outright bitch fight, but that still puts two game industry shows in Las Vegas within a month of each other. How many companies or retailers have the budget to go to both? And even if you could do both, is it really going to be worth your while?

I decided that Green Ronin would support GTS because we know what we’re getting with that show. As this is Games Expo’s first year, all we have is Mark’s promises and a location that’s way off the Strip. The danger here is that this show will split the audience down the middle and make neither show viable. If we end up with zero trade shows in two years because of this, we’ll know who to thank.