Stuff and Things

Just haven't found time to blog lately. Things I've wanted to talk about have either been too short, in which case I use Twitter, or too long, so I defer them until the mythical time when I can sit down and write a few essays. For now a smattering of stuff and things will have to do:

1) My NYC trip was quite fun. I caught up with old friends, played a lot of games, and had four days away from work and the internet. Manhattan has changed in a lot of ways, but walking around town still makes me smile. One excellent addition to the Lower East Side is authentic Japanese noodle shops. I had some outstanding ramen on Friday with my friend Chesley.

2) The Green Ronin summit is this weekend. This is an annual get-together that brings together all of our staff from various parts of the country. We talk about the previous year and plan for the coming one. Should be productive and enjoyable.

3) It's been pretty amazing to watch John McCain so effectively destroy his own brand in just a couple of months. His reputation as an honorable politician and a maverick were mostly bullshit to begin with, the product of a media so in love with his image that they never dwelled on his record or challenged his claims. That he is now reduced to aping the tactics of Karl Rove, who destroyed McCain's campaign in 2000, is a testimony to his desperation. I would almost feel bad for the guy if not for his tacit encouragement of the right's lunatic fringe that may yet end in tragedy.

4) I picked up Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying core rulebook recently and have been enjoying it. It's basically the distillation of 30 years of classic RPGs, from Runequest to Call of Cthulhu to Elric. It takes a toolkit approach, offering many options that let you customize the rules for the campaign you want to run. I wouldn't hand this book to a newb, as it requires you to make a lot of choices when setting up a game, but it's really nice for experienced gamers because it gives you a wealth of options in one source. I am now pondering a Basic Roleplaying Freeport Companion, but I'm not certain if there's enough of an audience for such a book.

5) Green Ronin is doing another d20 Apocalypse Sale this month, blowing out titles before the WotC-mandated deadline makes selling d20 logo products a license violation for publishers. If you are still playing D&D 3.X, there are many fine books to choose from for $2 to $5. You can find them at participating stores or get them online from Paizo:
http://paizo.com/store/sale/greenRoninApocalypseSale

Cool Stuff, Part 2: GenCon

It wouldn’t be GenCon if I wasn’t stuffing my suitcase full of games come Monday morning. This was actually a pretty light year all in all, as I didn’t have a whole lot of time out of the booth to look around the exhibit hall. One area I totally failed in was miniatures. I usually find something cool at GenCon but this year I only brought home two minis and they were for a friend who couldn’t be there.

3:16, Carnage Amongst the Stars: This is basically an Aliens/Space Hulk RPG. Looks easy to pick up and quick to run, which are plusses.

Battletech Technical Readouts 3039 and 3050: I could swear I used have some old Tech Readouts, but I can’t find them. These are the newest ones from Catalyst.

Cold City: It’s Berlin, 1950 and you are part of a multinational force hunting down the horrors unleashed by the Nazis during WWII. I love the premise and the game reads well, but I would have liked more discussion and examples of the core mechanic.

Dying Earth RPG: Saw this at Troll and Toad for $10 and couldn’t say no. Robin Laws designed this game based on Jack Vance’s classic fantasy series.

España 1936: Bill Bodden showed me this new boardgame and I picked it up on the last day of GenCon. It’s a two player game about the Spanish Civil War by Devir.

Houses of the Blooded: John Wick’s “anti-D&D” RPG that embraces tragedy in the classical sense.

Inquisitor’s Handbook: TS Luikart gave me this bigass supplement for the Dark Heresy RPG.

Legend of the Burning Sands: I had no idea this was even coming out, so when I heard it was at GenCon I made a point of tracking it down. Basically, it’s an Arabian-themed game tied into the Legend of the Five Rings setting. Al-Qadim fans take note.

Legend of the Five Rings, Third Edition: I never did pick up the latest edition of L5R, so I grabbed that along with LBS. Thank you, jim pinto.

Tour de Lovecraft: Ken Hite writes about many of Lovecraft’s classic stories.

War and Peace: This is an old Avalon Hill boardgame of Napoleononic conflict. I love AH games and make a point of buying them when I can find them for a reasonable price. Someday I’ll find Up Front and then there will be much rejoicing.

The Winter War DVD: Classic film from the early 90s about Finland’s fight against the Soviet Union in 1939 and 1940. How could I pass it up after my recent trip? If you thought Saving Private Ryan was too upbeat, the Winter War is for you.

Cool Stuff, Part 1: Finland

I brought home some cool stuff from my travels. I'll do the GenCon swag later, but for now it's Finland. This doesn't count the Finnish booze that Nicole bought.

Bilekuosi: This is a card game whose name translates to Dope Fiend. In the game you get to both deal and take drugs, while playing cards like "Crackwhore" and my favorite, "Damn fucking hippies." Something tells me the American market is not ready for Dope Fiend.

Dragonbane, the Legacy: Dragonbane was an ambitious LARP that took place in Sweden in 2006. Over 300 players trekked out to a fantasy village purpose built for the event. Oh yeah, there was also a fire breathing dragon! This book is a document and post mortem of the LARP, analyzing its successes and failures. Timo Multamäki, the executive producer, was also a volunteer and Ropecon and he gave me a copy of the book as we were leaving the afterparty. It is quite an interesting read, and it comes with a DVD of resources and pictures as well.

Finland at War, Defensive Battles of Summer 1944: I'm hoping I can play this DVD on an American machine. It's a documentary about the battles in 1944 that preserved Finland's independence. The country could have met the same fate as the Baltic States, but the defensive victories of that summer convinced Stalin to make a separate peace with Finland instead.

Isältä Pojalle, Suomipunk 1978-2001: This is a 60 song CD retrospective of Finnish punk rock. Ville, one of the many great folks at Ropecon, gave this to me after learning that I was an old punk. I had found a couple of CDs on a brief trip to a record store to score a metal record that Schwalb wanted, but I really appreciated getting this, so thanks, Ville.

Lama CD: Lama was a key Helsinki punk band from '77 to '82 and this is a CD of their one and only album. If you like bands like the Partisans and Anti-Pasti, you will dig it.

Playground Worlds, Creating and Evaluating Experiences of Role-Playing Games: There's a convention for Nordic roleplayers that happens each year in a different member country. The most recent one, Solmukohta, was in Finland and this is a book of essays that came out of that event. I met Markus Montola, one of the editors, at Ropecon and he gave me a copy of the book. It's an interesting collection of essays divided into three sections: Journalism & Community, Art & Design, and Research & Theory. Like the con the book focuses on LARPs but there is some tabletop RPG stuff as well. Timo wants us to come to the next one, which is in Oslo in February. I would love to go, but money and vacation time probably prohibit it.

Ratsia, 1979-1981: A retrospective of another old Finnish punk band. I don't know much about them but I thought I'd give the CD a shot. They remind a bit of the Undertones, which is not a bad thing in my book.

Roolipelaaja, Issues 15 and 16: I was interviewed for this Finnish RPG magazine and editor Juhana gave me two sample copies. It looks great, with crisp layout and excellent photographs. The text is all Finnish though, so I can't speak to the content. I can tell Fred that Spirit of the Century gets a 5 star review though.

Star Wreck Collection: I was on a panel with Mike Pohjola and he was nice enough to give me a full set of Star Wreck goodies: movie DVD, soundtrack, and the RPG he designed. Star Wreck is a Finnish scifi parody that basically posits what would happen if the Star Trek and Babylon 5 universes clashed. Several years ago Nicole got me a Star Wreck t-shirt for Xmas and I said, "What the hell is Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning?" Now I am well informed!

System Danmarc: In 2005 there was a three day live action roleplaying game in Copenhagen that took place in a shanty town built out of 40 shipping containers. Peter Andreasen, one of the other guests at Ropecon, was an organizer for this event and he gave me this documentary DVD of the event. It's got interviews with participants, footage from the game, and thousands of photos.

The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna: Katri recommended this novel to me and I'm glad she did. Väinö Linna was a soldier in a Finnish machinegun company in WWII and he based the Unknown Soldier on his experiences. It is not a happy story, but Linna really captures the feel of soldiers at war.