The World Famous Crank Report

You have to give up...

2010-04-21T04:33:00.002-04:00

"You have to give up. You have to realize that someday you will die. Until you know that, you are USELESS."
-T. Durden

Lately i've been doing chat games and playing in larps. Mostly keeping my hand out of the storytelling side of things. I keep rolling along and there are times when i feel the itch, but lately i am just enjoying being a player.

Recently, an old character of mine was slain on a chat game. He was ambushed, incapacitated, and diablerized. I had to admit that the player who attacked me had a good plan. And it was even in character for him to do so. He was, up until the point of the attack trying to talk me out of clashing with the current prince, and hoping that i would see reason.

Did I get irked or plan horrifying vengeance on everyone involved. No.
The only point of serious stress during the whole debacle for me was right at the point where this whole thing went down, things went crazy at work and didn't stop until my character was dead. I was ready to pull the firehose off the wall and go to work on the servers as a result of that ill-timed bullshit. But did I have malice in my heart for the player or the GM?

No.
As most of you know already, I tend to take a broad view of character mortality. A character being slain allows me to make something new and try a new thing out. Also, I'm okay with a character dying if I can go out in some huge dramatic manner that affects the whole rest of the game.

But also it's because I feel it is in my best interests to show grace in defeat as well as in triumph. As long as my character dying doesn't involve cheating, I am perfectly okay with having a character go shuffling off this mortal coil. Don't misunderstand, I'm not going to make it EASY for you. You're going to have to work for it, sweat for it, probably even bleed for it. I don't lay down for nobody.
But if you did it right, I'll look at it as a learning experience, shake your hand, and go do something new.

The fact is, a lot of people forget that in a game like a larp or chat game where the bulk of your problems are going to be caused by other players, that you are going to be thrown up against players who are smarter or more capable than you. Sooner or later, no matter how smart you THINK you are, you're going to run into someone smarter and maybe they'll take it into their head to wax you as a result. Sometimes, that's a compliment. You were smart and dangerous enough that they felt they needed to get rid of you first!

It's a puny souled individual that whines and cries when his plans are upset and his character dies. You show even less class if you are furious and there wasn't a bit of cheating going on. (On the other hand, if there WAS cheating...Cry havoc and lets slip the dogs of war.) Learn to suck it up. Find a way to ally with the guy who stopped you cold in your next incarnation. Better to have that guy inside the tent pissing out, rather than outside the tent pissing in.

Sooner or later your character is going to die. Accept that basic fact. Better to die with your boots on, than like some cowering punk bitch. In fact, once you understand this basic fact of Game Life, then you can actually start thinking of the sorts of situations where your character might give up his life heroically.

In fact, there are some characters that seem to have a sort of death wish built into them, and yet, actual death seems to flee from them. Can't explain that one. I don't know why that is.

All i'm really trying to say is, stop playing your character like he's going to live forever. He isn't. If that doesn't make you pay attention to the consequences of your character's actions, nothing will.

Sono finito.

I have altered the Deal. Pray I do not alter it further.

2009-05-26T04:48:00.002-04:00

There are many iniquitous practices in the world of gaming. People pursue them out of all manner of sickening motivations. Some cheat. Some fuck over newbies. Some eat a gallon of chili before game time and wear shorts. Some offenses are egregious. Others you can live with. Those of you who read this blog have heard me rail about such things. The universe is unfair enough without such everyday perfidy

But such calumny is hardly confined to players. I was reminded of a particular practice this week. I won't go into specifics about what triggered the ugliness. But I will tell the tale of the first time I encountered it.

In brief: I saw a game master change the rules of a game, without consulting or even notifying the players of that game. He basically decided to get rid of the Vampire players in his larp. He decided that vampiric powers and disciplines didn't work at all during daylight hours. He didn't tell any of the Vampire players this, but somehow the word got out to the various people playing hunters. Imagine that.

Now, he had an excuse. He mentioned that since Vampires didn't hang around during daylight hours too much that they didn't really know. But I'd been playing a vampire in the game for 36 years of game time. I think it would have come up at some point. And if I know about it, then other vampires did.
But beyond the fact that his explanation had massive holes in it. It robbed me and many other players of the ability to make informed choices. My haven's security would have been markedly different from the set-up I'd had previously. The only reason a friend of mine survived when the hunters came for him, was that he was markedly more paranoid than I and a goodly portion of his haven was built around the fact that he was quite a bit stronger than a normal man.

Needless to say, it was a breach of trust. It was discovered on the same night that a bunch of other shit went down that was causing some bad-blood in the larp. And in truth, it wasn't the straw that broke the camels back. But it certainly added to the load.

I have mentioned in the past how important trust is to gaming. If you enjoy gaming,and wish to continue to do it. Do not do this. I am perhaps most charitable insofar as I simply left the game never to return, and in days afterward, chalked the whole thing up to a mid-life crisis and a crumbling marriage. Sure. Easy to have some temporary insanity during all that. But among my friends, the dissolution of that game is still, better than a decade later, a sore spot. And there are friends who still have significant, burning, vituperative, viscera-curdling hatred for the GM in question.

When a GM does this, he is essentially saying to you, "I have just wiped my ass with your trust."

In fact, the whole mess causes a failure of imagination in me. So, I had to enlist others in helping me to find a name for it. Suraya came up with the closest thing to what i wanted. Which was "Term Jerking"
To me, Gaming is a form of social contract. Trust is broken when someone changes the terms of that contract.

The other title was provided by the folks of RPG.Net along with the title of the article. "Bespin Gambit" Which makes sense if you know the context.

Sono Finito

Once again, you can ignore this if you want

2009-05-08T20:59:00.002-04:00

A picture to host for my Dark Providence game

Reset Blues

2009-03-14T18:53:00.001-04:00

As of this writing, The Camarilla is going through a reset in their global chronicle.
I am watching this horrible thing play out and as a veteran of a multi-year campus vampire game, which has gone through multiple resets and i'm going to go on record.

Resets almost never EVER fix the problems they are meant to fix.

The main reason why, is that it is somewhat rare in the first place to truly understand the EXACT reasons why you might be resetting the Larp. A lot of that comes out of a feeling that a particular scene is played out. Sometime it comes from players and sometimes from GM's. But you know, if you feel like you've painted yourself into a corner. It's up to you to fix that for yourself. Causing a reset because you're bored is like setting the house on fire, so you can toast marshmallows.

Sometimes, you might reset a game because of power creep. This is actually a valid concern and sometimes is a good reason for a reset. If you've got a game where low powered newbies can't actually hit any of the antagonists because they are so beefy, in order to slow down the power players. Then, a problem truly does exist. But in truth, Power creep can be handled in a number of ways. Capping EXP for the higher powered players is one way. Another way might be to create a hard limit on experience so that once a PC becomes a certain power level, he or she becomes an NPC. Face it, once you've garnered a huge wodge of experience to the point where nothing and no one is a challenge, you need to fade into the background. You certainly need to stay out of plots made for much younger players.

Sometimes, you call for a reset in order to fix broken rules. Naturally, this is a source for much squeaking and beeping from every single player who perceives that the rule change works against him. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is that rule-sets are like jenga blocks. There is literally no way to tell how a change in a single rule is going to affect the myriad little rules hanging off of it. It's a recipe for disaster. I should know. A re-write of Masquerade celerity nearly cost me my sanity and all the color in my hair.

Sometimes, you go for a reset, because you're going from one game system to another. Like Masquerade to Requiem. An announcement that Gehenna is really coming this time, was like unto a death knell for the game i was running. fully 40% of my players just stopped turning up. Charitably, I'll say it was because the characters were so loved that the players didn't want to see them hurt or slain. Personally, i found it all a bit chicken-shit. But that's the way it shook out.

In any case, Resets cause all sorts of stress. Rarely fix the problem. and frankly aggravate the people who are putting time and effort into building the game world.
Calling for a reset, when other people are still playing in and building in that world is a bit like pissing all over their parade.

Me. Well. I've written a book based on a character and a second book is nearly finished. These are projects that i've done because i was having fun and i wanted to share some of that fun with other players who might enjoy it. Not to mention the work that i've done making the local Requiem game as wire tight as i could. Proponents of the hard reset want to trash my work without so much as a by your leave. Thankfully, the Camarilla is only doing a soft reset. So i get to keep playing
The Pinkster. But there are a lot of Hard reset proponents out there among the old guard of players.

Frankly, it's times like these when the drama of these situations is enough to drive me into the hinterlands.

Get Visual!

2009-01-01T03:55:00.002-05:00

Sometimes, People write me and ask me questions.

It's true! I'm not making it up!

Hey Pete, it's Del again.
Feel like tossing me and the ST's of my game a little helping hand?

I'm running my first official Elysium (well, technically a salon, since it's not the permanent location), and it's going to be a slobberknocker:
http://img518.imageshack.us/my.php?image=5f64rw2.jpg
BITE NIGHT, a friendly battle between the kindred of Tampa. Some IC stuff:

"We've all secretly wondered it: Could I take him in a fight? Would she destroy me in a brawl? Well now, with the help of my good friend Craig Forist, the most esteemed leader of Clan Brujah in the city of Tampa, Eric Skye of Skye High Productions is pleased to present... BITE NIGHT, a no-holds-barred battle among the city's kindred, in a safe and controlled environment where we find out - without that messy business of Final Death and all - whether you really are a bad enough dude to save the President.

Interested? Maybe you're not yet, but Mr. Forist has been kind enough to offer up a major prize for winning. I asked him to be more
specific, but he cagily replied, "Don't worry, it's gonna be Major!"
Here are the ground rules [OOC Stuff in brackets after each bullet]:

• It is one-on-one combat, in a caged ring. Two kindred enter, one leaves.
• Everyone starts on an even playing field. Vampires enter the ring with 5 blood from their pool; the rest is set aside for either the
next round or the rest of their night. (You make a note to the ST there how much you had before, and you get the balance of [5-your
total] after the fight)
• It is a battle until one vampire relents. Either through crying for mercy, tapping out, or simply falling unconscious, but when the
fight's over, it's over. (Battles go to Incap, no further)
• This is for bragging rights and the night's prize only, not grudge settling. NO TORPOR! Taking things too far and putting an opponent in Torpor will immediately disqualify you from the tournament, and additionally you will owe the office of Keeper of Elysium a Major Boon for disrupting the tournament and engaging in unsanctioned violence in a Salon!
• Winner moves on in a bracketed tournament, and you will have some or all of your blood pool refreshed in between rounds (if you advance).[There will be additional blood available for winners to replenish between rounds]

If you're interested, stop by the offices of Skye High Productions during the week. We're in Club Underground, upstairs. Just mention
'BNR1' to the doorman and he'll show you up [email me at tendrilsfor20 at gmail dot com to get on the list]

I'll see you all at the fight! Let's get it on!

Eric Skye neé emcee Up-Roc"

Now the OOC:
I am working with the Storytellers right now on an ersatz "sub-health- system" so people won't be crippled for the night/torpored
while still getting to compete and show off those sexy dots on their sheet.
There must be some way to voluntarily only use part of your health levels, assuming all parties agree to it, so that we don't end up with half the game torpor'd from a little diversion.

Any thoughts? This is happening this Saturday.

Now I'm going to talk about specific advice first and then more general advice later okay?
I've seen this idea turn up in at least a couple of places. It's a good one. It has mileage to be gotten out of it. I cribbed the same idea from a short story about vampires entitled "Dancing Nightly" We've used it a couple of times and here are some bits of general advice:

1) I like the idea of short rations of blood. It keeps the fights short. You might amend this on the fly, if it seems that the fights are TOO short or are triggering too many hunger frenzies. Also, it's good that you keep the battles to one on one.

2) Have the combatants tape their mouths shut with duct tape.Literally wind duct tape around the kindred's head at mouth level a couple of times, This prevents a hunger frenzy from getting very far and prevents vampires with dominate and majesty from hosing their opponents. Won't prevent animalism or nightmare though.

3) Force players who wish to participate in combat to provide you with a 3x5 card with the following information:
-BP, (the pool of course is five, but they may be able to spend more than one a round.
-Disciplines
-Combat merits
-defense
- all of their combat attack pools PREFIGURED
-Frenzy check pool
-Initiative
This gets the sheet out of the players hands for the duration of the combat. You will essentially be running combat.
Make a mess of these cards up ahead of time. It'll save you some prep.

4) Allow the players involved in combat to mark the movements of the combat in slow motion. It'll be nice and visual and will give the people watching something to look at.

5) Have at least one NPC who is keenly interested in betting. If you can cozen a few players into doing the same, then the action in the stands will get as heated as it is in the arena. It wouldn't hurt to have some covenant pride going on, it also wouldn't hurt for there to be side prizes being offered to winners and good losers.

6) Station 8 ghouls with shock-sticks and armor around the perimeter of the cage. Have a magnetic lock on the cage door which can be gotten open by the press of a button.Have that button held by the "Proctor" Have a fast-blood delivery system in case of a mishap. (Like an enormous syringe filled with blood. That way, the medical team, does NOT have to cut the tape to get the blood in the kindreds system.

7) Have at least one Mekhet acting as "Proctor" to keep an eye out for cheating, Don't tell anyone that this is happening.

8) Make certain that the competitors blood as well as a large store of animal blood and human blood liberated from a blood-bank are on hand to provide healing to competitors.

9) I wouldn't worry too much about the sub-health system. Give your players an opportunity to role-play daunting injuries for the rest of the evening. Since the promoter who arranges the fight wants to make sure that the fighters get home undamaged, he can also provide a secure means for returning to their haven. That way, nobody gets jumped after the fight and the subsequent party.

10) Make sure that there IS a subsequent party. Fete the winners and if the losers showed good sportsmanship, honor them too. Make certain that those who cheated, showed poor sportsmanship, or frenzied get stripped of status. That's Harpy territory. talk it over with them.

11) If you're feeling up to it, you can even pre-script some of the fight action. This is especially good for NPC/NPC fights. and obviates a lot of throwing chops. Can even be useful for bringing in certain plot elements. ("Dude! I had no idea the old man was that FAST!")

12) In case you don't have a lot of takers right up front, schedule an undercard of NPC ghoul fights. This will hopefully get them into the proper spirit of things. Get a couple of players to play NPC's and have them do the slow motion fighting stuff while you narrate to the crowd. You might consider asking your player base if anyone has any experience in Stage Combat. It might be worth the time to have that person teach a small class on that stuff for the next time you do something like this. Although, it's probably too short notice for this Saturday.

Now... A lot of the advice i give above, is to help with certain specific elements of a set-piece fight. Set piece fights are different from ordinary fights in larps, because you have a pretty good idea of how they're going to come out before they even happen. The main point of lot of the advice above is to help make the fight itself into a something very visual.
Visual events in a larp are very important. No one wants to sit around watching two guys throw chops all night. That's about as exciting as watching flies fuck. Granted, it's a different story when YOU'RE the one in the arena, or you have something riding on the outcome. But, if the fight is more visual, it's also more accessible to people who aren't as involved.
Visual elements also help people get out of the mindset of whatever dingy venue they've managed to scrounge up for the evening and into the vibe of being in another place, possibly another time even. Visual events and set decoration can cue the mind in subtle ways and aid in the creation of suspension of disbelief.

Well, actually. Now that i think about it. Since larper are both actors AND audience, maybe that ought to be suspension of SELF.

In any case, anything you can do as an ST or as a player to up the visual and dramatic potential of a larp, helps the overall performance of the larp itself.

Sono Finito.

The Sneaky Bastards Guide to Animalism

2008-12-31T03:59:00.001-05:00

On occasion, you run across a power or ability in a game that causes a compete failure of imagination. It's fairly easy to come up with interesting and useful applications for things, if it fires your imagination. But when you get right down to it, some powers leave you cold.

The best way to handle these situations is a little directed thinking. Sitting down with the book, reading the power over and over and trying to think of situations where the power might become more useful than for the most simple applications, the kind that you see all the time.

The project du jour is Animalism. I've seen a few interesting uses of this power and come up with a few myself. So allow me to share a few that hopefully will have your GM's scratching their heads and consulting the book to see if you can actually DO that sort of thing.

Guard Duty(Body):

One of the more common ways that animalism is used is to press gang animals into service as haven guards and body guards.

Body guards of an exotic sort will be problematical in the modern world. One can't just go swanning about with animals other than Dogs in most places. And even so, if you come rolling up to the club entrance with two large pit bulls they might tell you to piss off. If i were the bouncer of a ritzy establishment, I certainly would beat the shit of a door guy who let a dude with pit bulls in. You might get away with it, if you're blind or can convince them that you are, and that your dog is a Working dog.

As a Keeper of Elysium, i would be similarly ill disposed to allow animals into the premises whether the bringer was a Ventrue or a Gangrel. It's simply too easy for something to get out of hand. And if your animal bit someone, that could be construed as an attack.

Body guard duty is a bit impractical unless you're expecting direct trouble coming your way. Then, it's perfectly alright to rouse up your small army of ghouled gators, boars, wolves, junkyard dogs, or what have you.

You might however get a bit of mileage out of passive forms of guard duty for your animals. A sneaky bastard type might be able to get a coral snake to "nap" in his pockets. Which would certainly be a surprise to any light fingered types, and in a tight situation, you might even toss the snake into a person's face. I even think you might be able to create an Animalism/Resilience devotion that would enable you to pull the "Thulsa Doom Trick" of straightening a snake, and shooting him from a bow like a poisoned arrow. I could even see a Sanctified Gangrel or Ventrue doing something similar to an old school D&D "Sticks to snakes" spell. Except the snake would be a snake the whole time.

Sure as hell doesn't show up on a metal detector. and if asked, you can truthfully say that you didn't bring a weapon.

Guard Duty (Haven):

You should probably own the place. You probably don't want a huge boa constrictor or a puma guarding you if you live in an apartment. Also, certain types of animals require licenses and immunizations. But let's be honest, hosting a party at your home with a puma strolling around accepting ear skritches from guests, makes a certain impression.

If you care about your animals, make certain they understand what to do in case of fire, and how to get out. You might want to take some extra effort to camouflage your dog door or puma door, as the case may be.

With enough resources, one can conceivably have a number of animals in ones home. Perhaps the pull of a single lever, might release them all. Won't that be fun?

You can even, with some preparation, have animals guard you in a torpor. I can't think of a more secure place to sleep off some time, than in the soil at the back of a cave full of bears.

Even passively, animals can be used as a sort of burglar alarm. The English have been doing it for centuries with geese and ducks. Put a pond near your home and you're pretty much in business during the warmer months. Chickens can be used for this same purpose. and chickens have the added bonus of being dumbly aggressive.

On more than one occasion, my players have run headlong into the fact that my antagonists had gone to a small amount of trouble to make nice with all the neighborhood pets. In at least one case, the Gangrel in question had gone to the trouble of making sure that no one could set foot on their mountain without them knowing in minutes.

Search (and Rescue?)

Now a lot of players seem to think that Animalism is a great way to look for people from the air. This is impractical for a lot of reasons. The short attention spans of most birds, not to mention that there aren't many nocturnal birds suited for that sort of work. Sure, you can command whole clouds of pigeons, but they won't be as useful to you as one owl. Unfortunately, owls aren't nearly as numerous as pigeons, and so you won't be able to do any kind of picket-fence surveilance of a city with them.

Animals also don't sense the beast in the same way kindred do, so some kindred might slide by detection in that way. Plus, animals acting oddly usually tip off the subject that they are being watched. Crabby sorts will take a shotgun to them.

and the ability to compel an animal will only go so far.

Rats are useful for finding specific things as long as you're dealing with underground spaces. While their utility at scouring a city is limited they can be used to great effect in order to sense incursions from the surface world on the underground world. If nothing else, they can tell you if the public works people are working in and around your underground haven.

The best way to use Animalism for search applications is with dogs and other canines. Such animals have incredibly strong and sensitive olfactory apparatus. A properly trained dog, could tell you not only that a kindred spilled blood here in this crime scene, but if you bump into him before he's had a proper wash, the dog might be able to ID the perp.

Dogs, wolves and other canines can also track across great distances, This is of limited utility in an urban environment, but they still use dogs to find drugs in large airports. So your mileage may vary.

Interested kindred with the right sort of attitudes might be able to have dogs track and harry prey for practical, or in the case of certain covenants, ritual purposes.

Recon

While flying animals are not so hot at tracking across a city, they are a positive boon when it comes to recon on a specific targeted area. It's usually best to stay away from large and obvious predator birds, regardless of how cool they may be. You'll get noticed more often if you recon bird of choice is a raven or a hawk than if it's a bird that is far more common in your area. I mean, who's going to look twice at pigeons or sparrows?

You should also consider ground recon as well. You can probably get some intel out of the target area if there are trees, as long as you have a squirrel or two to work with. Paranoid kindred who clear trees from their house in a wide circular areas (Called "kill zones") might still be vulnerable to intrusion by a garter snake, and such a creature is unlikely to set off Geo-phones or other intrusion counter measures.

In fact, I am reminded of a number of occasions where animals where able to invade my grandmother's house via the dryer outflow pipe. a few times, they were frog. Little teeny buggers. The whacky thing was, they looked just like the floor, so I only saw them when they moved in my line of sight. Don't know if they had chromatophores or if they were just the same color as the tile. On another occasion, the animal in question was a two foot long black snake. Which i had to kill with a rake.

A house is rarely impenetrable. Once, we lived in an apartment where the pigeons had managed to get inside the attic. There was a small hole into the top of the closet that housed our water heater and they would get in. I became very very adept at catching pigeons, before the kitties could do so. (Tip: use a towel.)

Small animals can exploit plumbing and HVAC systems in a number of ways to get inside of a house. After a certain point though, you'll know what you need to know, but it might be worth it to continue, just for harassment's sake.

Another way in which you can use this basic application is getting the animals to help you map a certain area. learning landmarks, Helping to find underground areas, Stuff like that. Could make cartography in a particularly non-urban area fairly easy. In a place like my home state, a quick word with the local animals might help you locate mineral deposits, toxic waste, sinkholes, and a dozen other things, as long as the animals know what to sniff for.

Training:

Animals that will take training are a positive boon to users of Animalism. When compelling an animal, you have to make them understand what you want and why you want it. But animals that will take training can understand that you require certain behavior from them even when you aren't around. And if you're smart, you can help them learn to do things that animals don't normally know how to to do.

Say i have 5 attack dogs. Say i've chosen a pit-bull/rottweiler mix for maximum ferocity. Pit bulls also can breathe through their nose while latched onto an attacker. They are the only breed that can do this, which adds to their utility in this regard.

So i've got dogs roaming around, peeing at the fence-line to scare off smaller predators and herbivores. Let's say you and your bunch of dudes come round to my place to roll me,

But if I am intelligent user of Animalism, Not only will i have trained my dogs not to accept food from any hand but mine, i will have trained them to move around singly or in pairs. In addition, i will have trained them to bark during a frontal attack. but not to bark during a flank attack... What this means, is tactically savvy doggies.

One or two who will bark when they site prey but the other three who will not bark as they flank the targets, and before you know it, they'll be on those dudes, like cheap on a K-mart.

Another application for this is training horses. Horses are skittish animals, but with proper training and reinforcement can be a positive terror on the battlefield. Some older kindred know this, and may keep a ghouled horse around for open warfare, should that sort of thing come to pass. A properly trained horse might even be able to put an iron-shod hoof in the face of a nosferatu attempting to cow it with Nightmare.

Another application would be the passing of extremely covert messages. Carrier pigeons can move messages about, but a properly trained Mynah bird could deliver the message directly to the user, even mimicking the speech patterns of the sender. All your target needs is a window. If the kindred on both ends have Animalism, then the messages length and complexity are no longer an issue. Even less so, if the animal is possessed by it's sender. In effect, that then would become a kind of low grade telepathy. Or at least would greatly facilitate informationally dense communication.

Body disposal;

Not everyone has access to sharks,alligators, piranha fish, or even ill-tempered sea bass. And if you do, great, good on you. You're probably a not very frugal Ventrue with an Ernst Stavro Blofeld fixation, and a small white kitty that you stroke while planning your dastardly deeds.

But you hardly need that, while you might want to keep your DOGS from eating people of a regular basis, you might consider your HOGS a different story. I always joked that i'd have a character one day with a closet full of ghouled pygmy marmosets. (Which is a type of tiny monkey, no bigger than your fist. ) Just toss the living or dead person you want to be rid of in the closet ,and shut the door. Odds are good they'd strip the flesh from his bones as fast as piranha could.

Urban Warfare:

While pushing around insects isn't exactly easy it can be damned useful if done with an eye toward working with their natural instincts. Tiny critters means tiny tiny brains, so you can't really do much out of the ordinary with them. But with the right work, there is nothing better for a long term urban harassment campaign.

You might have to take a specialty in Animal Ken for insects, and to do intricate work, you might even have to subsume an insect and direct the work from inside the hive as it were. But one wasps nest, or a batch of brown recluse spiders in the right spot can make an entire corporate building or apartment building uninhabitable. I mean seriously. Think of the lawsuits.

I bet that snooty elder who lives on the hill is real proud of his ancestral manse. Wouldn't it be an awful shame, if he got a bad case of termites. Especially termites that had been directed to feast in certain....LODE BEARING...spots.

There are companies that sell insect eggs online. You can drive the other kindred's animals to distraction if you plague them with fleas, ticks, mites, and nits. Might make his house damn near unliveable.

Crossbreeding:

Certain animals have desirable characteristics. With blood, and time,and judicious use, you can crossbreed certain species and enhance those characteristics. Mortal horse breeders have been doing it for centuries. Dog breeders too. Suppose someone with the right attitude and tools decided to breed snakes for greater venom toxicity, and toads for greater hallucinogenic properties. How about hedgehogs with a decidedly aggressive edge? And Animalism certainly makes the task of milking poisonous animals for their venom a good deal easier. Certain types of animals even deliver contact poison, (Spitting snakes, certain frog types.)

Animal based jobs:

If you have to pull up stakes and go somewhere else, getting back on your feet monetarily might be fairly easy if you have animalism. You could get a job as a third shift animal control officer. Keeping some of the more exotic and vicious animals for yourself. You could get yourself a job as a horse trainer or horse "whisperer" which for a vampire is nearly ideal. Almost all of those jobs are paid under the table and are done in the EARLY morning hours.

With the right knowledge and forged credentials, you could have a semi-lucrative veterinarian practice. You might have to hire on an actual vet to take care of cases during the day, but if the calf is foaling in the middle of the night, You could be the guy the farmer calls at 3 am.

Spies on the street:

While most animals are not adapted for urban areas and most domesticated animals have very circumscribed limits on their movements, It is not impossible to create a spy network in a city with animalism. Squirrels, pigeons and badgers have all become acclimated to urban areas and move around in nearly all season. One could even pair them with a human partner, someone trained to interpret their behavior, or even a homeless ghoul trained in the use of animalism. Such a buddy system has many many intelligence gathering use as one can go where the other cannot.

Distraction:

While it is technically a slight fracture of the masquerade, calling up a shitload of pissed off bats, like Batman does in "Batman Begins" is an excellent distraction and/or getaway plan.

War form:

Once you've reached a certainly level in animalism use, you can of course put your soul into an animal and move about in daytime, if you like. Marry this ability to earth melding and you are fairly well secured to do so. This means that any animal in your menagerie can be possesed by you as a way of defending your lair. If i was you, I'd keep a bear around. Or maybe a mountain lion. And since you can use your animalism in animal form, you can make yourself the Alpha wolf, and command an entire pack.

Food:

Lest we forget, Animals also supply blood to hungry kindred. Granted they aren't as succulent as humans or other kindred. But in sufficient bulk and with the right tools and storage facilities, you can not only feed well, but develop enough overrage that you can feed other kindred. I'm certainly not talking about snacking on squirrels, but what's to stop a kindred with a little bit of money from starting his own cattle ranch. You could have a pig farm. If you really want to spend money, why not a full on horse farm. even a rabbit, sheep, or chicken farm can supply plentiful warm red food, and can also supply incidental commodities.

Frenzy management:

In order to evoke a frenzy or cool one out in another kindred, you must be within line of sight of the kindred in question. While you can certainly insult a kindred into a frenzy, or talk him down, Neither need necessarily be done by making any outward sign. This can lead to all sorts of sneaky work if played right, but if you get caught doing so in an elysium, it can be bad business. Not that Auspex immediately reveals it or anything. You can even do so while possessing the animal ghoul of another kindred. (which is another reason that smart keeper will want to keep animals out of Elysium.

You might even work with another kindred to provoke a frenzy. The other kindred insults or provokes the kindred, ostensibly with some minor cutting remark, and then you tag them with the Animalism sending them over the edge.

You might even make a case, that you could use the 5th dot of Animalism as a kind of preventative frenzy maintenance, cooling the fires of the passionate vampire nature, BEFORE stepping onto the political stage, That would also provide some preventative bulwark against sneaky pricks trying to push you into a frenzy at court.

If YOU can think of more sneaky bastard ideas for Animalism, I encourage you to add them in the comments below. I will be giving out sick twisted bastard points for the most creative.

Sono Finito.

Down to the Felt

2008-08-22T04:31:00.002-04:00

Posit: There is no such thing as a role playing unless there are emotional stakes involved in the game. Ergo: Other stakes are essentially meaningless.

Life is a gamble at times. There are times when you feel as if you have only one chip left, which is the difference between a steak dinner and a cab ride to the Vegas Airport, or going hungry and thumbing it. Never mind, the problems you'll face when you get home. That one last chip is all that stands between you and utter misery for the rest of the night...

And yet. It is also the one thing that could open the door to getting it all back. This kind of thing could be considered the beginnings of madness, but it could also be that part of the Legend that you decided to step into when you put that last chip down and took the dice into your hands for one last roll.

Gamblers don't gamble for money. Oh sure. money comes into it. but it's not the primary reason. It's the emotional roller coaster. Nothing in their lives seems to have as much punch as the wild ecstatic emotions that you can find at any game of chance, especially when the stakes are high. Problem Gambler have the additional problem of being addicted to these highs and lows, and being unable to find that same wild ecstasy in anything else.

As a player and ST who hews to the aesthetic that Role Playing is a form of collaborative improvisational art, I am of the opinion that Role Playing, as an artform, is all about the emotional lives of the players and the NPC's.

You've heard me go on about investing in your character. This bit of understanding is one of the very basis's of making a character get up and live. And the main reason why is, it's all up to you.

That gun in your hand is meaningless. Unless it means something to you.
Those powers you've acquired are meaningless unless they change something inside you.
That mansion you are watching burn is meaningless unless it was the home you grew up in.
That pulse in your characters heart is meaningless unless you decide to find some thing in the world your willing to risk it for.

Combat is a distraction my young Padawans! The only problem that combat presents is that it if you die in the middle of it, you'll be unable to finish your character arc. You do plan to GO somewhere with this PC of yours, right?
As a result, most combats that don't involve some sort of emotional stakes tend to be dull as dogshit.

Don't even front. You know it's true.
But get a player on the right day, give him a premise that resonates with him, and he might just look up and connect. He might just get all invested in SAVING THE GODDAMN WORLD!

And when that happens. Well, there's just no telling what they'll do. How they'll go.
Whether they'll put that last chip on the felt and say, "Let it ride."

So. The reason why i bring this to you, is because, essentially, i am perhaps becoming a little more permissive in my old age. I still understand the concept of "Game Balance" But it's largely meaningless, except as a kind of fence, to keep unruly players who haven't grasped the larger truths from tearing up the whole sandbox.

Lately, people approach me and ask for things, I am, for the most part inclined to be indulgent. I'm not even really asking much in the way of justification or anything. If it's an off the shelf thing, sure, have one....Hell. have six.
I'm more interested in where you are going, and what you plan to do, rather than what's in your damn pockets. God knows, i'm more than capable of stripping it from you if I think it will serve the story.

And if it doesn't hurt when it's taken away, then it was freaking meaningless in the first place right?

Here's a tip: if you're playing a character that's an orphan with no friends and has no personal hobbies or obsessions, then essentially, your character is meaningless. This is not to say that you can't BECOME meaningful, but some people, equate detachment with coolness. Problem is, you have nothing to hang on you until you CARE about something.

And these days, it's just not cool to care. Which is a philosophy that i VIOLENTLY disagree with. Piss on that cynical crap. Caring is the only thing that enables this world to freaking turn.

And if you don't care, you can't risk. If you can't risk, role playing is much like a broken pencil.

Pointless.
Sono Finito.

Favoritism

2008-08-04T07:32:00.002-04:00

As of this writing, i am both a VST in our local Cam chapter AND i've just been named head Storyteller for Wanton Wicked. As something of a lone wolf, i find this amusing simply because my i have a streak of Alpha. I gravitate to positions of authority in my community, but i refuse to compete for them. It's weird, but I tend to find myself calling the shots.

In my Cam chapter, most people know me, and they know what to expect, but my Chat gamers don't know me personally. Well, the bulk of them don't. There are a few that have come to play simply because i like it there and i talked it up. So, Being made Head ST there, and in a relatively short amount of time, i felt it important to make a post in the fora about various ideas and attitudes that i had about GMing. This was to be a basic distillation of my philosophy of gaming.

Yeah. I hadn't really thought that through at all. Clayton busted on me for being long winded, because gamers are famously short on attention span. But considering that i was trying to boil down the basics of my theory of gaming, a topic that i've been writing about for the better part of a decade, i think i did pretty well.

One of the things that came to me in the midst of writing this, was a basic idea that burst full blown into my head while i was writing and in hindsight, it seems that it should have been something obvious.

I favor people.
This might seem like a horrific revelation. Especially when i have preached about favoritism and how destructive it can be to a game. But you know, i may be coming around to a better understanding of the basic underlying social dynamic at work. So bear with me here.

I find that as i get older i tend to fall into the idea of, "You decide your own level of Involvement" It generally means less work for me as a GM. Out of any game you'll find a percentage of players who totally groove on it. You'll find a much larger percentage of people who enjoy the game, but don't think a single thought about it outside. You'll have another percentage who aren't loving it tonight, because they are getting boned. Any group will also have a few folks who come and "play" but are really kind of bored and just show up because they get to see their friends. Occasionally, you'll have people who develop a desire to damage the game and the other player's calm, but most people stop coming before they reach this place.

Now, my natural tendency is to favor people who are really jazzing on the game. I also tend to really enjoy players who bring me really interesting plot-generating toys and storylines. I also like players who are genuinely nice people and make the game a nice environment to play in.
So, if i state flat out, that those things are the sort of things that i'm looking for from my players, then that becomes again, a case of "You decide your own level of Involvement" Doesn't it?

Look: I am far more likely to toss a plot cookie to someone who looks like they are going enjoy it, or who is going to go to some lengths to involve a number of other people in it. If approached by the sorts of players i favor with some wild scheme, i am more liable to be flexable.

I will say, that in major scenes and in combat scenes, i am a great deal less likely to favor players. Frankly i have too much on my mind. I usually like to be clear about this as well. People i favor ought to know that i musn't ever favor them in combat. Also that combat is dangerous and you can get killed doing it. In addition, players that i don't know all that well, or don't like as much ought to understand that I'm still willing to mediate for them. Would prefer it in fact.
Frankly, the only thing i'm liable to favor in combat is cool and unexpected solutions to problems. I have to admit that someone swinging from a chandelier jazzes me far more than someone quizzing me about the total modifiers of a full burst from a kalishnikov with a laser sight on a target with full cover.

And shouldn't you have a lot of that shit pre-figured ANYWAY!

Happily, in many ways. i have been blessed with decent players and i hope that things in the Chat will start to bring out basic understanding in many of the players there too. Lately it seems, the OOC soap opera has been getting out of hand.

I do however expect that all this new found responsibility will generate plenty of grist for the mill here. And also you folks will get to watch what i hope will be a highly entertaining nervous breakdown.
So. Win/win!

Sono Finito.

Let the circle be broken

2008-07-21T09:49:00.003-04:00

You know me, I'm all about the art of games and a lot of what I talk about in this column has to do with various bits and pieces cribbed from various things and place, that i hope, will create a more fertile patch of land to grow these sorts of things in.

But I also am very keen to understand the social dynamics of gaming. One of the primary reasons to game at all is to be social. To find friends and have an excuse to get out of the house. Novel writing is a solitary activity. Gaming never is. Even Chat gaming is social. Gaming involves you taking your pristine, in-box, character and ripping open the package and playing with the other kids in the neighborhood.

As i get older, i notice certain changes and refinement in the gamer social dynamic. As people get older there is a tendency to be less tolerant of things. It's a known fact that men over the age of thirty have a much harder time making friends and their social circles tend to dwindle down.

I have observed, on more than one occasion, the slow calcification of gaming groups. As a group tends to become more cliqueish, it also tends to become more incestuous and ingrown like a toenail. This leads to schoolyard soap opera and drama and if left unchecked can end friendships and damage the gaming community at large.

And that's not just sad. It's tragic.
There once was a time when we'd think nothing of allowing a gamer friend to sleep on the couch after getting kicked out of his parents house. But too many stolen books, too many arguments over things that are truly trivial, too many nights schlepping another person's emotional baggage, and too many days of just dealing with our own crap can make us bitter.

Worse, in unguarded moments, it can make us wonder, "Is this the best i can do for friends?"
Let's say you're like me. You may work long hours at a dull job, but at least it gives you the opportunity to be thinking about other things. And what you think about, as like as not, is the upcoming game. In essence, you are working for the weekend. Making your way through the long hard slog in order to get to the thing in your life that gives it balance.
And you get there, only to discover that one of the people at the game has had a hard week and hasn't left it at the door. He's being a real cock. Or maybe you walk into the larp only to discover a couple of the players have decided to have a knock down, drag out, Out of Character fight and it has effectively ruined the night for everyone.
Maybe you walk in the door to discover that the young lady with the neurotic tendencies and the low self esteem has tossed over ANOTHER guy only to take up with one of the other players. She's hanging all over him like a cheap suit, and the Ex, and the 4 guys that came before him are all there trying to deal...Sexual tension so thick you could drive a nail through it.
Maybe you've walked in the door on the night where some person test drives the larp for the first time and his idea of "Fun" is VASTLY different from everyone elses.
Maybe you log onto the chat game, only to realize that people are completely blind to their own behavior. They act like pricks and then don't understand why people hate them. I have literally heard a person playing a vampire on a chat work himself into a self righteous tizzy over the fact that he had a blood hunt called on him, because he was a multiple murderer, Diabolist, and had made the Masquerade bend over and grab it's ankles. He seriously didn't understand that he had DONE WRONG THINGS!

God the list of bullshit that can happen at games is so deep and broad, it's almost a wonder that any of these games go right. And almost all of them come out of familiarity breeding contempt. Yes, that's right. The better you get to know your friends, the less you tend to like them.

Jeez. That sounds pretty fucking grim doesn't it. But with the exception of those people who are closest to you, The one's you've started to think of as family, Your social circle is very likely to implode under the weight of drama, bullshit, and slights real and imagined.

But there is a solution.
One of the main reasons why i do Larps is that they help me to expand my social circle. And I think i've talked about that here before. I go to great length to try to keep the larp in a constant state of expansion. I am firmly of the belief that the more you add new blood, the more vital the whole community stays.

It's occasionally important to break the same social cycles, before boredom and bullshit start to make you think that picking lint out of your bely button, would be a better use of your Saturday night. Each new person that walks in the door has the potential not only to bring something new to the community, but they also might have tips and tricks, you might never have thought of before. The new guy, might just teach you something about yourself. And you, might teach him something in return.

And that, all by itself, is worth the price of admission.
Plus, a LARGE community of players makes it easier for you to avoid people you really don't cotton to. If you don't particularly like that girl because she's a OOC manipulator, and you don't much care for the mouth-breather who plays one of the power characters, well in a large game, you don't have to deal with them a lot. In a large game, it's harder for one person to make it un-fun for everyone. A large game has more absorption for crap like that. The trade off is that large games tend to develop a certain amount of bureaucracy in order to function.
And who knows, If you approach things like an adult, and you keep your OOC drama at home, You might just rub off on those people. And if you keep an open mind, and a set of open eyes, you may come to find value in people that you didn't like at first. If nothing else, you might develop a grudging respect.

And just like Corn-bread. There ain't NOTHING wrong with that.

Occult Influence (An Iron Larper Challenge)

2008-07-15T13:04:00.000-04:00

I don't know if this will shake out into a full-on series or not. Goddess knows my track record for STARTING such things is great, but my ability to actually keep going with them is kind of erratic.

But the idea occurred to me to start coming up with some Challenges for people with certain kinds of influences and since there are a few of them, i figure an actual series is not entirely out of the question.

Certain types of influence are easy. Or at least they seem that way to me. Underworld influence has a LOT of utility, and so does Police influence. Odds are good these are the first couple you might throw some points towards.

But being a sneaky bastard, I also like it when the Influences come back and create problems. Not only for the people who have them but also those that don't. If nothing else, it occurs to me that it's easier to involve players with storylines if they've got an Influence that occasionally makes demands of them too.

One of the more abstruse influences to deal with is Occult influence. There are a few reasons for this. Not every one is exactly clued into how Occult subculture works and in a lot of ways, occult influence is sharply curtailed in it's basic utility to a player. This is not to say that you can't get some mileage out of it as a backdrop to larger action. Also, you can show off the larger mosiac of a cities culture.

You might consider dusting of some Google-fu and Wikipedia for an in-depth look into the weirdness of your home town. While we can't all live in New Orleans or Savannah, Georgia. I think you'll find interesting weirdness.

My own Hometown boasts Transylvania University and it's extremely haunted environs. The oldest Masonic lodge west of the Alleghenies, and about 20 wiccan groups, none of them older than the 80's. You'll be surprised at what you dig up.

But beyond that, it's a good idea to have a few gambits to play when you want to highlight the basic weirdness quotient of your city.

Widget Comes to Town:
The local university has a set of stone tablets written in Aramaic brought in at the behest of the linguistics department. Perhaps the Star of Shamballah is on exhibition at the local museum. A copy of De Vermiis turns up in an estate sale. it may not be the key to the mystery you're dealing with, but it will certainly get tongues wagging. And the tales get taller on down the line of course.
I've even, on occasion, run what i've called the Traveling Salesman Storyline. A person comes to town with merchandise of an "Occult Nature" and arranges an Auction. Such things can get heated. Some people expressing a desire to acquire, others expressing a desire to keep potentially dangerous articles out of the hands of others. "Are you out of your mind? This is a Burundi wand! This is like leaving the gun out for the baby to play with!"
I even usually have the articles in the auction, more or less do exactly what they are supposed to. With some notable exceptions of course.
I once made the the Kindred population of a city nervous for several months, An article fell into the hands of a ghoul. It was useless to kindred, but in humans, it tended to stimulate them with psychic powers or a raw boost in magickal power if they were already mystical practitioners. The ghoul in question was gifted with precognition.
Only problem was, his sire got murdered, and he decided to take out his grief on the other vampires of the city. How do you catch a Precognitive Ghoul? Took them months to figure out how.

Specialist comes to town:
There's a lot of ways you could go with this one. Perhaps its just the world's foremost authority on tibetan funerary rites comes to town for a symposium. Perhaps one of those crews of ghostbusters that turn up on the Sci-Fi channel rolls through getting underfoot for everyone. Perhaps a notorious satanist retires to a country manse, and only comes out to the corner grocery, looking pasty and bewildered.
Maybe it's a bit more serious like a gathering of the lodge grandmasters. Maybe someone hears a rumour that the occult hit-man from up near jersey way is in town, and some of the people in town have been feeling some FIERCE evil eye action.
Either way, someone is in town and some people are a little stirred up by it.

Turf war:
Now, i'm not saying that Occult types are prone to drive-bys or anything like that. You might find the occasional Pentacostal ruckus at the Wiccan bake sale.
You might find differing rites of Masonry scrambling for influence and dominance. You might even find different factions of the occult world chasing after the same magickal dingus from time to time.
But the way that Turf wars in the Occult usually unfold is because of cults of personality. It's amusing to read about the various occult wars that Aleister Crowley was involved in with various other members of the occult community with character assasination and curses hurled back and forth. Sometimes these arguments have no teeth in them. Other times...Well. It gets ugly.
It's easy enough to see. People aren't really all that different from wolves and wolves are prone to arranging themselves in packs. Trouble always arises when an alpha proves himself weak. Or two strong alpha's contend with one another. Or less often, when a pack bothers a lone wolf. Some lone wolves are quite powerful.
In any case, in a world where cults of personality are built out of raw power, or the reputation of same, It can get ugly very fast when dominance issue rear their heads.And usually when that happens.... Someone has to go.

Turned off:
Communities go through cycles. Just as they go through cycles of expansion, they also go through cycles where they lose members. Some might call this a distillation. Some get married and have kids and leave aside some things. Some have bad experiences and leave the occult life. Some get sick of the persecution. Some get eaten.
In any case, it may be that your Occult community is undergoing a period of drawing back.

Recruitment drive:
Just the opposite of course, For one reason or another, the various groups in the Occult Communities are on the prod to grab as many people as they can. Not everyone is liable to stick of course. Some don't have the right attitude. Some can't handle the scholarship. Some will get one look at something beyond their ordinary life and run screaming back to sanity and normalcy. Some will get eaten. But at least for a while, the occult world will have larger posses than usual. They'll roll deep and might even get into a little trouble as a result of it.

Big holiday coming up:
You know, not everyone around here was raised baptist. So not everyone celebrates the same holidays. Some might venerate St Brigid, others might make a yearly sacrifice to Kali. Others might hold an annual grand convocation and dinner/dance. Different strokes and all. Certain holidays see a bit more traffic than others. The Wiccan high holy days of course. Hallow's Eve. Walpurgisnacht. You know. the big ones. And most occult types stay in on the Equinoxes.
Granted, it's not like the traffic you run into right after Thankgiving, but still, close around the holidays can be a jammed up time for occultists.

These are the bulk of the ideas that i came up with for grist for the story mill. You folks got any more?

2008 Origins Post Mortem Report

2008-07-02T00:50:00.002-04:00

This one looked as if it weren't going to happen.

Oh, I had been diligent. I had gotten together with friends and gotten a hotel for a decent price and had paid ahead of time. But the one-two punch of crazy high gas prices and losing my job at the end of May, nearly conspired to rob me of my favorite convention.

I was laid off at work. Budgetary concerns and all that. At nearly three years, i still had less seniority than any of the other full timers in the shop. So i got bounced. They did however, give me all my vacation pay as well as 2 weeks of severance. So as it stands as of this writing, all of the bills are paid.

An unexpected bump of cash from a house-sitting gig for dad, a sell-off of some of my collections, and a timely and incredibly kind gift from a from a friend enabled me to go, and not worry every second i was there that i would be broke before trying to drive home.

Incredibly, i didn't even have to drive. Jimmy has a large-ish van and in a last minute change of plans, i left my car at home. and skived off to the wilds of Columbus with a van load of friends.

Our Cast:
Jimmy (The driver and my best friend)
Brandon and Maranda (The cute couple)
Alec (The "Navigator" and resident Blunt Object)
Megan (More Pervy than YOU!)
And your arrogant correspondent

Travelling with friends means that you have people to share the trip with, but it also means that your schedule is not your own. We were up early every day and home late every night. I got no swimming nor long sybaritic breakfasts where i got to make notes and consider the day before. It meant that i ended up playing more games this year than any other year previous.
Also, worried that i would have very little money for food, i had packed a bag filled with comestibles, but they turned out to be unnecessary, and thankfully so. The bag was heavy to bring along,even in the truck it would have been a pain in the ass.

We arrived around noon-ish, got checked in at the con. (Swag bag was a little light this year) And then made a look around the Dealers room. Had an opportunity to touch base with Fred Hicks of IPR games and chew the fat.
Also touched based with my peeps at the White Wolf booth. Donated the one and only physical copy of "Out in the Night Air" to Kelley who was pleasantly surprised and has vowed to put it up as a prize for ICC (Which is the international Cam convention, being held in Detroit this year.)

I managed to get in a game of Requiem for Rome. learned many amusing things about Gladiators. (Apparently during the neo-pagan revival, there were seven gladiator schools in Rome and they functioned much like wrestling federations. Some gladiators even had action figures.) Got to play a Daeva senator and try to unravel a mystery. A short game meant only to give a taste of the setting and system. 2 hours and out. Not a bad idea that.

A trip to the hotel, check in, unpack, sort out my gear, At this point i'd been awake 26 hours. A long hot shower and in a little over two hours, back out to the con and dive into Requiem Larp. No way in hell i'll fall asle...

Okay. Maybe there was a way in hell. The greater miracle is that i awoke refreshed and ready to go.
As per tradition, i'll detail my experiences in the larp in a separate post. Suffice to say here, i think we all had a good time and managed to do some cool things.
Requiem over, and back to the hotel after a stop at Chateau Blanche (White castle for those that don't know.)

A word about the hotel. A step up from the days inn of the first year, but a major step down from the Courtyard By Marriot from the last two. I missed the early morning jacuzzi and the hot breakfast bar.

Acquisitions:
-Ex Machina for Tri-stat, Have had an itch to maybe do some cyberpunk. Going to look it over. (5 bucks)
-Dogs of War for White Wolf. In the same vein as Precinct 13 for cops, this book handles military material. Good stuff from what i've read.
-Truth and Justice. Heard a lot of good stuff about this game and i like much of what i've read so far. been looking for a rules light game for supers for a while now.
-Floor plans from the cut-rate gear at the SJGames booth. 3 for 10 bucks. Got the Haunted houses, the underground labs, and the Mall of the Dead.
-Some new purple dice.
- A free disk of the Silvervine game from it's makers.

No weapons. Too expensive this year. Also, no T-shirts except for a white wolf shirt i got for playing the Requiem for Rome game. I have Zazzle now. I can make my own.

Day two
Up relatively early. into the con without too much muss or fuss. (Our navigator has the unfortunate habit of missing the proper exit.) And onto the games.

Played a lovely game called Silvervine. Was handed a character which was an orge, but not the usual ogre. I was large, and furry, and apparently an ex priest, with the ability to levitate. I carried a long spear with a hook end and because of this, i decided i was the rigger's mate aboard the sky-ship we were aboard. Jimmy was handed a goat-man with a penchant for firearms. We bumped into another skiy-ship that was unfortunately over-run with Zombies. The ships log read like the ships log of the Demeter. We cleaned them out Jimmy and I parted company and i went off to play Mage.

Mage: the Awakening is not a game for beginners. You should not be trying to teach introductory WOD system in addition to the vagueries of the Mage system, which is a touch baroque at the best of times. Still. I had a good time, and we got much of the plot sorted before time ran out. It may have also helped me to realize a work around for the problems i was having with it. I may yet find some ways to work with it better than i presently am.

Requiem that night, bloody and masquerade shreddy. Home and thence to bed.

Bitch: WHY IN GOD'S NAME AREN'T THERE MORE PEOPLE RUNNING SPIRIT OF THE CENTURY? I saw one game, it was closed by the time i got to it.

Computer Game News: I am officialy excited about Eve Online and Champions Online. Will hopefully try both and report here.

Day Three
Up early, and dragged out to the con. thought about playing the Mage larp at 9:00 am, but instead had an enormous breakfast at All American Burger and dug out a con booklet.
Ended up playing a game of Champions and surprised myself at how much i remembered. The guy who ran it was pretty good. He'd come up with a fun scenario involving the Grand Rapids Power Corps. The game was a cross between the "Mystery Men" and "The Office" I ended up playing the Martial Artist and grim avenger of Justice, who's the office grump and is a little bitter that he didn't go into management. Happily, the people who came out for this game knew Champions pretty well and we were off to the races. I had fun filling in the forms in an impertinent manner. A FUN and FUNNY game.

Then after a necessary hiatus, Requiem. Where the Pinkster was in rare form.
A long day. but good. Most of our people who were relatively new got something for playing

Mission: stay at the Drury or the Hyatt next year, Get myself a Zuca carry-all.

Sunday
Up, packed, dressed, showered and out the door by 10. On the con floor for one last turn around the place before heading home. As predicted, many vendors had slashed prices. it pays to be a veteran.
After a false start, we haul ass for home.

Other things i learned over the course of the weekend:

-While the well of inspiration is usually a spring. Occasionally it must be refreshed by the rain. The rain comes in the form of hundreds of other people with similar interests and their own tips, tricks, gambits, and bits of creativity. These things are old hat to them of course, but to you they can be new and fresh.
-Every con is an opportunity to learn and tighten your own game.
-No matter raunchy and pervy you think you can be, Megan can top you.
-Brandon jumps in with both feet.
-Maranda has interesting Head-meats.
- Pinky still doesn't belong in a fight, but i am good at handling car accidents.
-The ST team is rarely ready for a batch of people who know a little something about working Influence.
-Euchered out of trying Terrorwerks again!
-North Market is NOT a grocery, but is collection of kiosk style micro restaurants and food vendors. A little pricey but not more pricey than the food court. Wish i'd known about it sooner.
-Were-Raccoons.
-Corsets and Bustiers are not always an improvement, But they certainly better the odds. On balance, "Yes".
-Hot women dig on a fez wearing man. I am tragically completely oblivious in at least two cases, that were reported to me after the fact. There are times, when i wish i was a great deal quicker on the uptake.
-Occasionally, Teens needs to be punched. Trust me it will help them to develop better social radar, and maybe some fucking manners.
- favorite line of mine from champions game."WHO'S THE FUCKING "OLD MAN" NOW? HUH? YOU GODDAMN PAJAMA WEARING SCUMBAG. I'M GOING TO RIP OUT YOUR SPLEEN AND MAKE YOU WEAR IT LIKE A CLOWN NOSE!"
-Hunter is going to be Bad-ass. Everything i've seen for it, including the FREE scenario that i acquired, is superhumanly cool.
-More people this year than i expected. I sort of thought that gas prices would have crabbed the con a bit. But people really turned out. I still expect however, that gas prices may yet rip the tits off of the smaller cons.

Sono Finito.

The System

2008-07-01T19:00:00.002-04:00

No. This is not an article about 4E.

In my LJ F-list, i saw something that kicked my old head into working and i'd just like to share it with you all.
In the space of some years we have gone from being a culture of service to being a culture of entitlement, and from that to a culture of abuse. (A slight paraphrase)

It is a sad fact, that ultimately i believe the sentiment expressed above is largely true. In Larps and in Chat games I see people who may have all the right equipment to be full grown adults and yet they either cannot be, or they choose not be. And when things go against them, They do everything right up to throwing a screaming fool fit and laying down in the floor to drum their heels on the tile.

It is the Tragedy of the Commons all over again.
(Cribbed from WikiPedia)
The tragedy of the commons is a type of social trap, often economic, that involves a conflict over finite resources between individual interests and the common good. It states that free access and unrestricted demand for a finite resource ultimately structurally dooms the resource through over-exploitation. The term derives originally from a comparison noticed by William Forster Lloyd with medieval village land holding in his 1833 book on population.[1] It was then popularized and extended by Garrett Hardin in his 1968 Science essay "The Tragedy of the Commons."[2] However, the theory itself is as old as Thucydides[3] and Aristotle.[4]

To shorten, If something is available and unrestricted, then more people tend to exploit it than maintain it. I always wondered why a Larp that charges an admission fee had more dedicated players than one you could get into for free. I always wondered why it seems there is always a group of players that are gung-ho about keeping a a good chat game going and they always seem to be outnumbered, and unable to protect themselves, from players who seem to only get their fun out of wrecking everyone else's good time.

"The customer is always right", is a broken and unrealistic philosophy. I have long been of the opinion that more people being thrown out of more places might correct their acting up. America is afflicted with this loathesome entitlement illness to the point where people start shit on airplanes. Are you aware that causing a ruckus on a airplane,to the point where you interfere with the flight crew in the performance of their duties, is A FEDERAL OFFENSE! So, in essence, getting liquored up and losing your shit on an airplane because you got so used to screaming at the wait-staff at your local O'Charlies, will have you doing federal time.

The words ought to read "The customer is right up until they damage the system. Then they have to go." I'm certainly not against helping people with problems, even frustrated and upset people can be handled with aplomb and grace. But once rudeness is given, then rudeness needs to be repaid. A person shouting at you over things you can't fix or control, does nothing to help your situation or improve your business.

Now, i know there are people who take the tack that any person who has a bad experience at your business/larp/chat game is going to tell at least six people about it. Thus damaging you further.
To which, I answer. "Good. I don't want that fuck-heads money. and i sure don't want to deal with his asshole friends either."

I have seen a few situations in the course of larping, that were I charge at the time, i would have stopped the larp, turned to the person(s) causing the problem, refunded their site fee and told them in front of GOD and everyone that they had 2 minutes to collect their gear and leave my larp or i would summon the police and have them removed from the premises.

As a character, i tend to adhere to the basic credo of "Evil we can understand, Treachery we can appreciate. But we do not tolerate rudeness." And it's a credo I try to live out as much as I can in real life. Politeness is the grease we apply to social interaction to enable the machinery of society to function. Rudeness is like throwing sand in the gears.

Certainly there are things that can cause problems and in many cases, there are things in place to keep players and ST from damaging a game beyond repair just because there was a messy break-up, or someone hasn't had enough sleep, or is on the rag, or any number of a dozen other things,
Sadly, no amount of appeal process or code of conduct can substitute for a proper attitude and basic politeness and kindness. You can have all the safety equipment you want on a kitchen meat slicer, but none of it is a substitute for paying attention to what your doing while the blade is moving.

Look. Each of us wants to have a good time. The things that may be stopping us is that we don't always have a good handle on what each of us considers a good time. I've talked about this before. Some might enjoy an approach that seems deathly dull to outsiders while others might consider a more cinematic approach that seems crack-filled and stupid.

Also: Before you send that email or throw that hissy fit. Remember that every larp and chat game is a volunteer operation. It functions as well as it can manage on the schedules of it's volunteers and REAL LIFE always trumps. Hell, there have been situations i've seen where the hissy fit was simply the final straw, and the person it was thrown at simply folded their tent, and went the fuck home. Is that what you want? If so, fuck you anyway.

Lately, the chat i like has been plagued by a trio of players who have been poor-mouthing the GM staff. The staff for their part has hard guidelines about how often you can change characters and these people were way abusing the system and then acted childish and petulant when the rules wee pointed out to them, to the point where one of the asshats would sit in the foyer of the chat game and go on an endless diatribe about how shitty the ST staff was. Finally they were permabanned, but they were making the game un-fun. If they had spent a quarter of the energy they wasted on that behavior on playing their characters. They wouldn't have been a problem.

In order to battle the Tragedy of the Commons, we have to refine and redefine our approach. Too many people feel like "suckers" if they pay into a public system. They also feel like "suckers" if they don't exploit and abuse the public system as much as they can. This is self interest. and moreover, it is dumb, short-sighted, moral-killing self interest. You see that shit in corporations, where people are more concerned about protecting their bonus than keeping their team working like a well oiled machine.
It's exactly backwards. One should try for Enlightened Self Interest instead. We all want to have fun. We all want to be here. The best way we can achieve it is by working together. When people care, the Commons flourishes and guess what, Not only do YOU get what you want, but everybody else does too.

The social contract is a finicky thing and it work less well when people don't understand it or notice it. Sometimes it's very important to take another person by the hand and say, "we have a code of conduct here and it is important to realize that this little society is entirely ad hoc and volunteer. If you want to be a part of this community, then you have to realize that we have certain rules, and rule zero is, Don't be a DICK!" So maybe it's me on my hobby horse about people making informed choices. But i can honestly say that i think it's best to help people realize that even though no money changes hands, there is a price to be payed for being a part of a community

And that price is courtesy.
Pay it, and it will pay you in return.
Invest in your community and it will pay you dividends.

Hopefully, i will coalesce my 2008 Origins Post Mortem into some concrete form in the next couple of days.
Sono Finito.

Here comes the ZYDECO!

2008-06-23T22:20:00.002-04:00

At the end of last month, I lost my job in the laboratory. Actually. I was laid off for budgetary reasons. I was however given my full vacation pay, and two weeks severance. In addition, i am elligible for Unemployment. So i'm not exactly scared shitless.
There is food in the cupboard. There is gas in car. (And that's an increasingly aggravating thing of late)

I have a total of 120 dollars in my possession.
The bulk of which will be slain by transport to and fro.
But will also have to deal with parking costs, and the costs for games. My room is covered, my registration is handled.

And i've got a couple more days to try and figure out some way to throw a few more dollars at my trip.

As most of you know, i dearly love Origins and in truth, i learn something new about gaming every time. It will be my treat to touch base with the White Wolf folks again, as well as friends i've made in Columbus. And i hope to catch up to Fred Hicks and Chad Underkoffer at the IPR booth.

In addition, quite a number of the Lexington crew are going, many of them are Cam Members.

Pinky Berkowitz has a Posse!

I'm kidding. But it will be nice to show off a few more of the people that have a level of play that i am consistently proud of.

Because of my somewhat limited budget. I suspect that i might be leaning a little into game demos in the dealers room. And if i am able buy ANYTHING. i'll be wildly shocked.

Of course, there will be a report. I have foreseen it!

Undignified Cause of Death List

2008-05-03T22:09:00.001-04:00

he Undignified Cause of Death List: ( roll 1D15)

He was;

Killed in a freak gazebo collapse.
Sucked up into a vent
Dragged under a fast moving carousel
Beaten to death by pissed off Hare Krishnas
Slain by a falling walrus.
Decapitated in a freak morris dancing mishap
Run down by a haunted moped
Killed by an accidental airline bathroom depressurization
Killed when he accidentally got his scarf caught in a cyclotron
Killed by catastrophic sinus failure
Infected by the Borneo "swelling testicle" disease.
Nose hairs caught on fire, died of smoke inhalation.
a Victim of spontaneous human implosion.
laid low by an infected mollusk bite.
Became the world worst escape artist
Auto-Erotic Asphyxiation (thanks to Stewart Barnes)
Run down by a street sweeper (thanks to Ben Vandgrift)

Addenda to the Gamer Jargon Lexicon

2008-05-03T22:07:00.000-04:00

Okay. i've got to admit that i've come to love the Gamer Jargon Lexicon and so i've come up with some of the jargon and phrases that have become common parlance in our games here at T.I.

Mojo ( 1. Magickal power, 2. Raw manliness etc... May be applied to nearly any skill or talent to denote power or lack thereof. I.E. " He would have been okay if his legedary dice mojo hadn't given out at the critical moment.")

Wake me for Combat (Uttered by persons who have no interest in actual role-playing and are waiting for a fight to break out so they can get their rocks off by rolling lots of dice.)

Engage the Plot Device! ( Refers to the semi-mythical plot device and it's operation. Denotes a situation where the GM isn't exactly being subtle about what is plot and what is not.)

Sub-Space Plot-based Phenomenon ( Indicates any Plot device that cannot be avoided once it is spotted no matter what you do. Reverse engines full all you want monkeyboy, it will avail you naught.)

I will bend it over the coffee table and have my nasty way with it. (denotes a situation where the person intends to exert total mastery. Often refers to rules rape.)

On the Payroll ( The state of being blood bound to a vampire. Ghouls require regular infusions to keep their ghoul like state. From the Kinesys derived maxim: "Everyone on the payroll is a potential bulletshield.")

But i didn't have the salmon mousse! ( default phrase when you are totally confused. From the Monty Python film. The Meaning of Life )

Ground Zero Dump (A combat tactic that involves dropping an area effect attack at one's own feet in the belief, somtimes mistaken, that they are immune to the attack or will be able to survive it better than any of the ravening horde they are surrounded by. Surprisingly effective, if a little hard on nearby compatriots.)

Kibbitzer ( From the Yiddish, to stand by and offer helpful advice without actually playing. Detrimental in cards. Actively upsetting in RPG's. Kibbitzers may need to killed if they cannot be driven off.)

...Holocaust (Descriptor appended to adjectives to denotes throwing around a huge amount of collateral damage. Examples: Hot-and-cold-running Holocaust, Hot-buttered Holocaust, Push-button Holocaust...etc.)

Weapon X ( slightly derogative term reffering to players who have poor impulse control especially involving attacks that might affect his compatriots.)

We have Audacity! ( Used to rally other players in the face of a massively superior enemy who has never lost to the players. From a speech once given by Ivan Crowley.)

Go Quad ( To break out the whoopass in a heretofore unseen manner. origin obscure)

When last we left our intrepid heroes...: (Phrase used to signal the actual begining of game play.)

Having said that...let's move on. (Phrase used to encourage a change of subject.)

Blood and Thunder Style. ( Refers to gaming that doesn't involve any of the small details of a low fantasy campaign like not getting lost or starving to death on the way to the castle of Abject Dread. May involve tossing around some Hot,buttered Holocaust.

Meanwhile...In another part of the city. ( Standard scene change phrase.)

Clusterfuck Tactics. ( Succeeding in combat despite an abject lack of teamwork.)

Mortality Warning. ( Warning given by the gamemaster during the climax of a story arc denoting the very real possibility that screwing up can get you killed.)

Gregor's Law ( Which states: Tardiness to the game, destroys dice mojo. Seems to be true by all accounts so far.)

St. Trillian's Gift ( The ability to remember game history minutae that every one else has long forgotten.)

No Plot Night. ( Indicates a game night where the Gm has not scripted anything in order to allow players to pursue their characters own goals. Usually caused by laziness or exhaustion. but is occasionally a cruel hoax. Also refered to as Sleepy GM syndrome)

Mutant Shmeld Game ( Refers to an existing game that brings in setting material from a whole other game. Example that i have seen and done include; Mage/Call of Cthulhu, Top Secret S.I./Call of Cthulhu, and Battletech/Call of Cthulhu.)

Quarterback ( a player that tends to drive the plot with their active approach to problems and wilingness to lead. Origin obscure...may come from sports or something.)

Being hit byThe Plot (blank) ( Usually refers to a situation that is deeply unpleasant but is necessary to generate the actual plot. The blank is usually some implement of destruction. I.E. Plot Stick, Plot Hammer, Plot Belt-sander...Etc.)

The big, red, caaaandy-like button (indicates something that should not ever be messed with...but probably will be.)

Trenchcoat of Holding ( a situation where a character is bending the rules involving encumbrance past any reasonable explanation. Also denotes trying to conceal weapons on your person that cannot actually be concealed...like a 6 foot claymore. )

Krixing it up ( Succeeding so wildly at a task that everybody in the party wish that you hadn't done it at all. named after Krix Wildrose.)

RoleMaster Style Hit ( An attack that succeeds so wildly that it passes into legend. I.E. Your character hits an opponent, vaporizes him and his spleen flies out and kills a whole other guy. The other enemies on the board stop for a moment and stare...they may even clap desultorily while they seriously reconsider their life path. The slain enemy is -47 to next initiative.)

The Oyster Fork of Doom ( a non-weapon that ends up being used as a weapon in the heat of combat, and to deadly effect. Comes from an Aeon Adventure game where a character actually killed a gun toting enemy with a flung oyster fork.)

The Yoshi Propensity (refers to a character that is not some sort of combat god but who has the dumbest luck with decapitating head shots.)

Toy Surprise Villian ( a villian that explodes messily when slain, often showering the heroes, with toxic, caustic, or actively teratogenic gut-splatter. Noticably hard on clothing. Also: Evil Pinata Effect

Pulling a Garrison ( Extreme dice luck for good or ill. Garrison was the name of a Star Wars character who had a propensity for accidentally horribly botching the simplest actions ( I.e. tossing a grenade) but also had the ability to occasionally kill the main villian with one shot.

Welcome Wagon ( a seige tactic pioneered in a Mage campaign of mine which involves going to where the bad guys are, knocking on the front door and then defending oneself.

Damage Sink (a player that has found a way to become damn near unkillable within the rules and is capable of soaking up damage like soaking up gravy with a biscuit. May not actually be much use in the fight but is definitely going to survive it. Extreme examples of this character type have been known to strap live claymores mines to thier bodies.

More added when i think of or remember more.

Curse Repository

2008-05-03T22:04:00.000-04:00

This is repository of all sorts of Curses. You never know when you'll need a good curse.

May the fleas of a thousand camels nest in your genitalia!
May a trolley car run through your small intestine!
May you live in interesting times!
May you come to the notice of powerful people!
May the demoness Lamashtu close up your wives!
May boil imps bite you!
May you drown and search the world forever for an earthen grave!
May Scorpions fill your armpits!
May the Hoary host rain calumny upon you!
May bugs,bats,and beetles light on you!
May your woman have curses on her lips,daggers in her eyes and bitter gall in her heart.
May you have blood on your hands and the thousand curses of Allah on your back.
May you walk the earth and leave no trace!
May rabid devil monkeys plaugue your town!
May you inherit a house with a thousand halls, and along each hall a thousand doors, and behind each door a room with a thousand beds. And may a thousand fleas, each with a thousand teeth, chase you from bed to bed to bed....
May you find yourself on a plane, in a holding pattern over Cleveland for four hours, stuck in a seat between Al Sharpton and Rush Limbaugh!
May you take your father's place as Satan's sex slave!
May tiny gnomes eat away at every hair on your body including the little hairs in your intestines. (sent in by Nikki)
May an army of penguins chew at your toes. (sent in by Nikki)
May chickens raid your home and crap on your furniture and donate your legs to KFC. (sent in by Nikki)
May satanic donkeys with oral herpes and gingivitis and a sulfuric acid saliva chew out your eyes (sent in by Nikki)

Clearing some space. Pay no attention to this if you don't want

2008-05-03T21:59:00.002-04:00

World of Darkness Light Bulb jokes

This one deserves a bit of explanation. I have a character named Carter Wonderful who is a Bone Gnawer Ragabash. early in the creation process, I decided that one of his less endearing habits was his complete inability to take anything seriously. His favorite thing was Light bulb jokes and it became a running gag throughout the game. These are the best ones I could come up with.

Q: How many Cultists of Ecstasy does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:All of them,Cultists will screw anything.

Q: How many Toreador does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Sixty; Four to manipulate a caitiff into doing the real work and then steal all the credit, Six, to argue over what color the light bulb should have been, and the other forty to stand around and mutter "I could've done that."

Q: How many Silver Fangs does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Four; one to screw it in and the other three to organize the press conference.

Q: How many Malkavians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one. But good luck finding pampers that small.

Q: How many Black Furies does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: "Hey ! That's not Funny !"

Q: O.K. How many Black Furies does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Six; one to change it and five to say how much better she did it than any man.

Q: How many Children of Gaia does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: "You're missing the point... The light bulb has to want to change itself!"

Q: How many Arcanum Members does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: Four; one to change the bulb, and the rest to buck for tenure on the basis of shared research.

Q: How many Ventrue does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: four; one to change the bulb, one to steal the credit,one to be the scapegoat if things go badly wrong, and one to find a reason to execute the anarchs.

Q: How many Syndicate Mages does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Well, one to leverage a buyout of G.E....

Q: How many Virtual Adepts does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:None, That's a hardware problem.

Q: How many Marauders does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:Fish!

Q: One.
A:How many Zigg'Raug'lurr does it take to change a bulb.

Q: How many Verbena does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A:(see the Cult of Ecstasy joke.)

Q:How many Celestial Chorus mages does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None, Chorus mages are uncomfortable doing anything involving screwing.

Q: Ok smartass,How many Celestial Chorus mages does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, Chorus mages are uncomfortable doing anything involving Change.

Q: How many Sons of Ether does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: 8...It's a big bulb

FREE! FREE! Fly my pretties! The Sky is your Playground!

2008-04-29T00:59:00.002-04:00

Well, that's the way i'm feeling these days.
After three long months of hard, arduous, work, The show i was working on is finally done. I have missed my friends. I have missed opportunities within the Camarilla and I've been missing my peeps in the Wanton Wicked chat. Would have been on tonight but mental exhaustion caught up to me and beat me with iron bars.

But i didn't want to go any longer without some updates, and let you peoples know what's the what.

1) WORLD FAMOUS CRANK REPORT MERCH!
I opened a store on Zazzle and hope that you folks are interested enough to pick up some merch for your own amusement. You can also join what's called a "Fan Club" and get updates when new stuff gets designed. Soon this link will go into the sidebar in a fairly permanent fashion. In fact. I have a special deal.

Some of you know that i wrote a book. A book i cannot publish. I am giving away a PDF copy of this book to any person who can prove they bought a product from the Zazzle store. In fact, send me a picture of you with your shirt, button or whatever on, and i'll send it to you via direct mail.
The Book is entitled "Out in the Night Air" and is by my camarilla character "Pinky Berkowitz". Pinky has made his book widely available to as many Carthians as he can (and a few select Invictus. But there's no reason why other's can't get in on the fun too.

2) The Ebon Shelf
Another addition for the sidebar and very soon is my repository for short and Micro-fiction of an Occult nature.
The whole plan for this website was to create "Prop text" for putting around bits of Occult plot found in dusty old tomes. rather than create a whole lot of "Lorem Ipsem" text. Who knows. Maybe the prop text could lead somewhere too.
But over time it metamorphosed into the occasional bit of fiction that would boil out of me.
And others have contributed too. (which was the plan! God knows i didn't want to write it all myself.) But it is still mostly just me these days. Join! Read! Contribute yourself if you feel lead to!

3) I have been named Interim VST for the Vampire venue in my city. (which is growing. But very slowly.) In addition i intend to put myself in for VST and for DST as well, when we have our Domain status. (Which is coming soon i think.)
What this means. is MOAR LARPING and therefore, more articles. Indeed i may have some thoughts rattling around in my transome right now. heh!

4) May have talked my mother into editing the WFCR book (which has still gone unedited.) So i may be pimping that in the very near future.

5) Hey. It appears that Blogger has updated certain tools for Safari users. Awesome!

Regular readers may ignore with impunity

2008-02-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

This is Kevin Gage as the psychopath Waingro in the movie "Heat" I am using this picture as a character picture. On Wanton Wicked.

This character is Detective Bela Janofsky. My Vice Cop.

Bounce, Awesome, and Paydon's Curse

2008-02-03T01:08:00.000-05:00

Bounce, Awesome, and Paydon's Curse

Hello it's me.
Yeah, i know. it's been a while. I've been playing a bit, running a bit. Doing a show or two. Keeping busy.
I don't like to joggle y'alls elbows unless i feel I've got a thing or two to say.
And i like to have a FEW things to tell you, so as not to nickel and dime y'all.

Bounce
Recently, i had a romantic setback. That's not the point of my story though. It was merely what helped me to see something basic.
I created a character for a game. It wasn't super special, but i liked it, and it had a certain je nais se qua. I met the lady in question and something between us clicked. And from that point on, i was as one dead...

Nah, i'm joking, but there was a certain chemistry. At least i thought. I was inspired with the character because of the way we bounced off one another. How inspired was I?

I wrote a book, and dedicated it to her.

No, I'm entirely serious.
Pinky's Book
Granted, i cannot actually publish the book of that character's exploits, because it's all kinds of trademark infringe-y. But i can distribute the link to the file as long as i don't make money off of it. I can even have Lulu print me a copy or two, if i'd like to gift it to someone.
But money was never the point. I started out writing an in-character journal, took a turn into offering advice from games and my own experiences, looked for way to insert that character's back story into the book. But as i went on, it was clear to me that what i was writing was something that had gained a momentum of it's own. And it gained that momentum because, i thought she would think it was cool.

I don't know if she's even read the thing. But that's, again, beside the point.
What i learned is that characters, are not interesting. Well, not entirely, Characters are not interesting in and of themselves. No personality is interesting in a vacuum. What makes characters interesting is the way they interact with one another. Too many times, i see people creating a character with not a single seconds thought of how it will interact with the other members of the party or the Larp. Which is the reason why the moody loner character never works. it works fine in the comic books, or in the movies, but never in a form of art that is more interactive. The dynamic is different.

The way i learned it, is because now i'm wondering exactly how i'm going to continue with this character now that the relationship that gave it vital spark is deader than dog shit. There are a number of options open to me, and i'll probably choose something at some point and proceed with it. But i don't know how the character is going to work now that i'm not getting the bounce that i started with.
Bounce is important It is what differentiates our art-form from novel writing. which is essentially a lonely activity. Even Chat gaming is more collaborative than that.

Awesome
I have a friend who is having some difficulties in a game he's in. he keeps getting shut down by the GM anytime he wants to do anything at all. He says that none of the other players are being dissed in this way. I counseled him to quit. But it pointed up certain basic problems i've seen in all kinds of games and in all kinds of places.
Q: Why do people play Role Playing Games?
A: Because they don't have enough Awesome in their lives. They want more Awesome. They might have some, but obviously they don't feel they have enough. That's why they try on other lives, other skins, other destinies... They want more Awesome.

So, when you step on a player's dick, you'd better be certain that your reasons are sound. "Game balance" is important, maintaining some control over "Cheese" and "Twinkery" is important. But they aren't always the most important elements of a game. There ARE times when you should throw caution to the wind and allow the players wild-ass scheme to work. There ARE times when you should allow the characters access to Nukes, and Attack Zeppelins, and Mil-spec weapons, and any other crazy piece of game breaking equipment their dark little hearts lust after. There ARE times when you should allow the player with the crazy glint in his eye to stand off the bad guy all by himself and say "You Shall Not PASS!", No matter how bad-ass the bad guy is. Some systems encourage this, others discourage it completely, but it is essentially up to you to figure out the when and where.

No game is fun if the GM never let's his foot off your throat. No game is fun if the NPC's are the only ones who get to be cool. No game is fun if the puzzle is unsolvable, or might as well be, pixelbitch.

Now, this is not to say that you should let the players walk all over you, that you should give them all they want. You run games because you want to tell stories that are Awesome. Maybe this involves people who rise up against impossible odds to save the world, and maybe they get the Rockford files shafting afterwards, As long as you and the players are on the same page about all that, go nuts sez i. But games are a negotiation between players and GM's This social contract reads as follows: Let me be awesome, and i'll help the story be awesome.

Players and GM's need to be on the same page about this basic premise. They also need to negotiate the basic idea of what constitutes awesome in a particular game. And the best part is that this negotiation is ongoing and can be modified as you go.

Some players ideas of awesome may rub you the wrong way. They may be far off base about what you'd like to accomplish in your game. But if you get out of the habit of discounting things out of hand, you might find that you negotiate your way to middle ground that you can both live with. And if not, you can at least know that you tried.

Paydon's Curse
I don't like a lot of Westerns. There are a few i dig on, Unforgiven, The Quick and the Dead, 3:10 to Yuma, A few others. But one of my favorites is Silverado.
There's an interesting bit in the movie where Brian Denehy's corrupt sheriff explains why there is such bad blood between Paydon and Tyree. It all had to do with a dog that Tyree abused. Normally, Paydon was a cold blooded prick and a criminal to boot, but for some reason, he beat the ever loving shit out of Tyree for abusing that dog.
"Yep...Never can tell what Paydon's gonna care about." is how he finishes the story.
it is one of the most illustrative moment of character exposition i have ever seen and completely encapsulates a complicated man like Paydon competely.

Over the course of years, i've adopted for certain characters what i've come to call "Paydon's Curse" The character is invariably an anti-hero, sometimes, even an outright villain with a complicated emotional apparatus. And the thing that makes them interesting that throws them into sharp relief as a three dimensional character is their ability to instantly care about someone or something. Without even necessarily knowing why at first.

If you want a character to become active in play, start to question what he cares about and why. Look for opportunities to care about things. It will give you places to go and things to do. Even if the things you care about are impossible. It's what makes Don Quixote an incredible character and an inspiration to us all. Characters who care about nothing. DO nothing. And they aren't interesting.

These are things that have been gelling in my mind for the last little bit. I'm trying to get them to be a little more concrete and articulable. I hope they help.

Sono Finito

The Stakes

2007-11-26T17:55:00.000-05:00

A few night ago. I had most of my old gaming group around the dinner table. Sadly i was not involved in the game itself as i am doing a show right now. They are playing Exalted using Spirit of the Century as the primary engine and as near as i can tell they seem to be having fun, but also some issues.

Since there were some issues the talk around that table turned to strategies for fixing it. (They're a proactive bunch) and since i had them around the table, having just come in from practice, i asked them a question

"We've all had epic combats in the course of our various gaming careers. Which are the ones that stood out in your mind and why?"

And the response was overwhelmingly... simple.

They pointed out various struggles and combat from games past and they all shared one serious thing in common.
They cared. The stakes in the game had become important to them.

Getting to that basic state takes work and time, but once you do...You have no choice but to create conflicts for them that large stakes are riding on.

I'll never run a random encounter again. There's no point.

In other news, The World Famous Crank Report Book has gained a new editor. and the process is once again moving forward.
and there was much rejoicing.

Also, This:

Courtesy of Icanhascheesburger LJ community

Structure of a formal Court

2007-11-03T00:38:00.000-04:00

Caveat: This article is here to help me get straight some basic ideas for Requiem and hopefully to help with some things in the Camarilla. If that ain't your kind of thing you are welcome to skip this one as you choose.

A formal court is a a serious thing in kindred society. Among creatures of sufficient age, it has all the weight and gravity of it's feudal forebears. To many modern vampires it is about as much fun as a trip to the DMV. A formal court is not something you should see every single game session. Courts give unprecedented access to the Prince and to other powerful members of kindred society. In order to maintain power therefore, courts should only happen periodically. If you only have a court once per quarter, then it is very likely to be a big damn deal instead of duller than hell. I've seen a number of meetings of court that were so.

To creatures who feast on habit and imbibe on ritual. Court is a central pillar of their life in Kindred Society. As such, one would seek to formalize the necessary steps in the pageant.

1) Entrance of the Worthies:
Usually a signal that things are about to get underway. Elysium security, followed by the lesser officers of the city, followed by the Priscii and Primogen, In order of those with least status to most Status. The Seneschal arrives last and announces the entrance of the prince by his full title. Usually by tradition, once the prince enters Court is underway. Once the Prince is seated others may be seated. If there aren't enough chairs, low status people stand. (Barring player injury or pregnancy of course.)

2) The Opening ceremonies:
From place to place these can vary wildly. It largely depends on the nature of your city and the politics therein. For Example: In an invictus city, where the prince has close ties with the Sanctified, The bishop may be called upon to perform a short benediction. There may be some sort of formal welcoming announcement. Or perhaps a some other little ritual or bit of political theater.

3) Recognitions:
Powerful people usually hate surprises. As such, it's very rare for a person to introduce himself at a formal court without having been quizzed extensively by the Seneschal or the Harpy. But oftentimes, a prince might want to ask the new fang in town a question or two of his own.

For players it's a way to introduce the character to the entirety of a city all at once. And maybe even get them into trouble on the first night. If you've created a new character, give some real thought to how you would introduce yourself in that situation.

Recognitions are also a great time to look over a new character with auspex. Normally characters are questioned cursorily about their affiliations. It's good to have the heads of various covenants present and ask the new character to stand with them until court is concluded, thus introducing them if they've not already met. Unaligned vampires are usually asked to stand with their primogen instead. (Assuming they aren't to be detained for additional questioning.)

4) Oaths:
Even in nominally Carthian domains, there is power in the oath sworn publicly. And as such, there is usually respect for such oaths. Naturally the Invictus and the Lancea Sanctum have elevated this to a high art. If your city is the sort of city that recognizes, records or even just pays attention to Oaths of any sort, normally this would be the sort of thing done at a formal court. In an Ordo held city, this might include ceremonies involving becoming Sworn. If nothing else, there ought to be a portion of court set aside for petitioning the Prince to allow the swearing of a public oath.
Even in cities that aren't invictus run, some traditions have carried on. In some places there is an official swearing in for public offices within cities adapted from an old invictus oath:

The Invictus Oath of Office:

(Prince) It is the understanding of this office that certain responsibilities in this domain must be performed by right thinking dedicated kindred interested in the prosperity and the security of this Domain. It is my intent to offer you a specific duty in this domain, commensurate to your abilities and temperament. Will accept this Charge?

(Oath-taker) I, of my own free will and free of coercion, undertake this charge. To safeguard the prosperity and security of this domain. To faithfully perform the duties of my office. To stand in defense of this realm from threats internal and external. To foster the tranquility and serenity of this domain and the peaceable resolution of conflicts both internal and external. And to in all ways act within the purview of my granted office with all the rights and responsibilities thereto.
I freely accept this charge until such time as i am relieved of it.

(Prince) Then rise ennobled and go forth into the domain with my blessing

Just another little bit of theater to spruce it up. Obviously you can adapt this if you have to recruit a brute squad...especially if the old brute squad got ganked. Having each side of the oath on a 3" by 5" card for each party would be a good idea.

Announcements:
Naturally, There will be policy decisions that will be handed down from on high. Such things should be short and to the point. Long rambling anouncements are not easy to focus on, and these are the sort of things that the powerful vampires have decided MUST be focused on. Announcements ought to be handed off to the various Whips for dissemination (I.E. The Whip ought to have a copy of the minutes of formal court for the official mailing list. That way players who couldn't be there aren't left out. Also, useful for reference later.). and are often considered to be fair game for Harpies to share with the harpies of other cities, unless otherwise directed.

Announcement can often include the following:
Declarations of changes in territory
Bloodhunts
Clan/ or covenant meetings or other events coming up.
Opening or declaring territories off limits.
Information requests from the seneschal's or the Princes office.
Appointments to offices
Opening of new offices or a request to fill a vacated office.

Usually, at the end of Announcements, the seneschal declares the end of discussion of Old Business. Anything handled during the first half of Court, that is left unfinished is therefore tabled until next formal court.

Requests:
Smart Princes ration their time very carefully. It is very easy, if you're an informal sort of prince, to get neck deep in the problems of the realm. This is doubly problematical if you have trouble delegating. Believe me. I know. Therefore, smart prince sometimes make it a habit to require a boon of some size to speak with them. You always have the option of leaning on your primogen or sucking up to the seneschal or something like that, but there is one element of court that enables you to cut through the intermediaries.

During the Begining of New Business, a Prince will ask if there is anyone present who wishes to make a request of the city.
This can be as simple as an informal arrangement between coterie mates over feeding rights being made public, or as complex as a request to sire a childer. A prince may grant or deny the request on the spot or he may wish to discuss the matter with the principal at further length. At which point, by tradition the Seneschal must schedule a private meeting within the next turn of the moon.

Grievances:
As i've said often, a well run Larp is like a soap opera, eventually, all the secrets have to come out. And at formal court, this is where they often come spilling out. Every bad hunt test. Every time someone fed sloppy in a rivals domain. Every scrap of internecine conflict that can be played out on the political stage ought to come out here and if you don't have at least two kindred throwing chops for a test of wills, then you're probably doing it wrong. If nothing else, it gives a kindred an opportunity for a kindred to put up his hand and say, "Um...Yeah. It turns out that my patch of territory is lousy with Belial's Brood...Umm. Could i get some fucking help?"
When a prince announces that he is ready to hear grievances, The seneschal, the harpy, the Keeper of Elysium, the Sheriff and the Hound should all wake up and look alive. It's probable that each of them will be busy.

Summary Judgement:
This is the formal trial and sentencing of an accused Kindred. Not every formal court will have one of these of course, and this part of the evening is often very tense for the Kindred involved. It is VERY rare for a problem brought up in grievance to be ruled on the same night. In fact, many times, when a Kindred is brought to trial, he has already been thoroughly questioned (or vigorously tortured) and his story has been checked out. Often, Summary Judgement is a matter of sentencing only. On occasion, a kindred finds himself being defended from charges. but a full blown trial is usually very rare.

Closing ceremonies:
Often this element is very quick, the prince in question will have a list of people he desires to see after formal court, Again, the local ecclesiastical authority may be asked to lead a prayer or ritual and then the prince leaves. Often the other members of the court stay behind and press the flesh a bit. The seneschal schedules meetings and brings people to the prince one at a time.

A word about Nomenclature.

2007-10-20T13:56:00.000-04:00

Names have power

They just do. Hell, Andrew Carnegie encapsulated this basic idea most pithily in the phrase, "The sweetest sound another person can hear is the sound of their own name." It's the same reason why we get so annoyed at people who mispronounce or deliberately say our name wrong. Our most basic nomenclature is fundamental to our identity.

This is something that i've understood intuitively for a long time. I don't think i have ever understood the mindset of people for whom the name of a character is an afterthought, and a barely considered one at that. I saw this a great deal more in D&D than in any white wolf game. I suppose that's a bit more understandable insofar as fantasy settings are by their very nature more Iconic. You're not playing "a fighter", you're playing "THE fighter". And as such, a cool sounding name doesn't seem as integral to the vibe of a character as it would in modern day setting. Then again, i could be overthinking this. It could have just been sheer mental laziness.

To me, the name of a character tends to make the VIBE of a character snap into place. It is part and parcel of the emotional response that i hope to get from the GM and the other players. and in fact, the naming of a character ought to tell you certain things about the character before you even meet him or her. "Toby Cordwainer" is going to be a different person from "Lennox Van Rensalear". You can just tell. Certain types of names just spur basic understanding.
Lennox Van Rensalear has the cachet of the favored son of an old money family. He's not going to be a gas station attendant. You aren't going to expect that from a person with a name like that.

You can create character bits out of persons relationship with their own name. Frex: I have a character in the Camarilla named "Pinky Berkowitz" Pinky is actually his pen name. and for the most part is the only name he truly answers to. He is not a fan of his given name, which is "Cornelius Erasmus Eldridge"
His parents were historians and had no idea of the ribbing he would take at the hands of his fellow classmates in school. Just calling him "Corny" is enough to royally piss him off.

I bring this up mainly because i find that too many times, short shrift has been given to the finding of a name for a character. I cannot count the number of "Alexanders" and "Sebastians" i've run into in Vampire games. It's almost as if vampires are going out of their way to embrace people with those names. I understand about wanting a character with a cool name or even having a character with the name YOU'VE always wanted, but c'mon. PORN Actresses put more thought into their "Nom de fuck" than some role players do.

Be a collector. Start by collecting interesting names and by connecting them to the people who's vibe they represent to you. If you meet someone named Marita, and you get to know Marita at least a little, then the name Marita (or any variation therof) is going to have a certain emotional weight for you. To a degree. this weight will also color the sorts of interaction that a character like that is likely to have. It's going to be rare for you to find someone name Pablo at an art gallery (unless he's the artist.) Names can suggest an entire lifestyle.

There are many places that you can find useful and interesting names. There's a website called the Onomastikon which purports to be a name dictionary.
I've found names in the phonebook and lately i have noted the most wildly original names i've seen lately in my Junk mail file.

Start paying attention to names and their commonality. You don't see too many Mabels or Ediths walking around anymore but i'll be damned if i don't know at least 8 jennifers.

Sono finito

Killbox Etiquette

2007-10-06T11:45:00.000-04:00

Killbox

This is a term used in the Camarilla to describe any sort of set piece battle sequence. Whether generated by the GM, or generated by players ganking one another. Often, it is a room set aside for the purpose of running combat that exceeds the normal bounds of a PC on PC fight. I.E. anything that may involve a dungeon crawl of some sort or that may involve Large numbers of players or NPC combatants.

Large scale fights in any sort of game can be thrilling and exciting. It's certainly an opportunity to discover how much of a bad-ass your character really is. It's also an opportunity to discover how far you've got to go before you are even in the neighborhood of bad-assery. These sorts of combats can also be dramatic. They can be the turning point of a majo storyline. They can be the point when all the feuds between characters finally boil over into violence.

Or they can be boring tedious affairs that leave players frustrated and pissed. This, sadly is what they often turn out to be. So, in order to ease the way and hopefully find a way to make this sort of thing work better... I have a few suggestions that might just help things out. Or at least i hope so.

1) Remember that mediation is an option
It's easy to forget in the sturm und drang of a potential combat in the offing, that you can mediate what the combat will turn out to be. All you need is the ability to get everyone on the same page about what they hope to accomplish. Let's say i'm playing a Vampire that is being set upon by a sherrif and his entire posse. If i'm thinking realistically, No matter how much of a bad-ass i really am, unless i get dumb lucky on draws, i can't take more than 3-4 other vampires at a time. Mechanically, it's just very unlikely. Unless i am able to flat out kill one vampire each turn, sheer weight of numbers will pull me down.
As a result, I have only two options really. Flee and try to fair escape or lose the fight in a way that can live with.
If i can mediate a solution with the players of the opposition where i am knocked into a short duration torpor, staked and dragged to the prince for a big dramatic show trial. or allow myself to be taken into custody, where i manage a daring escape... Then everybody is happy and nobody has to die.
On the other side of the equation is if i and my party of vampire bad-asses should go out into the wilderness and discover the entire werewolf nation waiting out there, then the decision to mediate should signal to the GM, "I am not ready to die tonight. May we attempt to parley or flee with lots of damage?" When you recieve such signals, pay some attention to them.

The numbers game:
The more people involved, the more likely statisticly that one or more of the following will happen.
1) There will be an unfortunate and perhaps incovenient frenzy on one or more sides of the conflict. This is the reason why you should keep combat parties small. If one vampire loses his shit, it can turn the tide of the whole side.
2) There will be enough crosstalk that it will drive the ST to distraction.
3) There will be at least one or more people involved in the fight who have no knowledge of combat, the system, or indeed why they've been dragged along in the first place.
4) There will be someone who gets fucked over. (See "3" above.)
5) There will be someone who gets their nose out of joint so badly that they invoke the 48 hour rule and a scene freeze goes into effect. The 48 hour for you non camarilla types is basically a temper cooling rule, and good one at that, but it can shut things down in a major way. especially if it invoked in a situation that is not a regular weekly game. Say at a game of the month, in a far off city or at a major con.
6) it is very likely that no matter how many people you bring along to gank someone, they will fair escape. Usually with the ST's blessing, because he's already sick of the combat. Smart players who have calculated the odds realize that often it's easier and cheaper to routinely flee these things rather than get swept up in the blood lust. and since most GM's brains overheat after about a half hour of fast and furious combat, they are often inclined to allow the escape and start drinking early. This can leave combat gumbies with a serious case of blueballs.

The Second String:
Some players have no business being in combat. Such players ought to be involved in the second string of the operation. (I.e Standing guard outside to prevent help from coming, or to prevent the target(s) from leaving the box. Maybe they ought to be sent round to burn down the haven or slaughter the targets ghouls and herd. Makes it harder for the target to recoup if he does escape. If you're planning to destroy someone, you might as well go all Michael Corleone on them.
In GM based killboxes, second stringers ought to be involved in vital and necessary operations, such as exfil support, medical support, tactical comms, lookouts and so on. There's nothing that states they can't take their fair share of abuse too from enemy forces, But I would consider it poor form to attack them with the main enemy force and leave the combat gumbies standing there with their dicks in the hands.

The odd's favor the house:
You want to keep to keep a cool head. I'm going to repeat that because it's damned important. YOU WANT TO KEEP A COOL HEAD. Players flipping out in the middle of a combat scene because of a real or perceived screwing merely ratchets up the tension level of the game and increases the odds that your going to piss off other players and/or the GM. When this happens, things are liable to get punitive real fast.
To this end, there are a few things you should keep in mind. In fact you might want to tattoo them on your soul:
1) You are the sole person responsible for how well you know and understand the rules.
2) You are the sole person responsible for how prepared you are in play. (Keep your sheet out and updated)
3) as i often say, the GM has more things to think about than you.
4) No matter how perfect or well rehearsed your plan is, draws can favor you or screw you to the wall. There are NEVER any garauntees and nobody OWES you a critical hit or an instant kill. No matter how well you've stacked the odds in your favor in a killbox, you can still DIE. Each time you dive into combat is a crapshoot. Act like it.
5) If you cannot keep your head cool in the face of the possibility that your character might be harmed, much less die, then maybe you need to seriously take a look at other hobbies.

Aftermath:
large Killboxes indicate a failure of kindred leadership and the aftermath of such event should be attended by princes handing out punishment like beads at motherfucking Mardi Gras. At least that's the way i'd spin it to the players of Princes. On the other hand, GM driven killboxes might be an opportunity for players to earn some status in kindred society, especially if they can handle the problem without shredding the masquerade to pieces. Pay attention to these things.

The Fog of War:
Subdivide the fight when you can. Hand off what you can to other narrators and make each group of combatants be ignorant of what is going on in other parts of the fight. This is not as hard as it sounds. Smoke, darkness, gunfire, distance, and a host of other factors can effectively segregate players from one another.
Make players use a full action to use Summon or Telepathy in the midst of a running guerrilla battle and then make sure that those messages don't get passed until the proper turn. Then make a player fair escape from one room and then spend a FULL turn to get to the next part of the fight. As a matter of fact, you might consider the possibility of disallowing combat communication altogether. Fights happen in a very short and hectic amount of time, most people tune out distractions when they are in the middle of a struggle for their existence. You might allow players in one section of the fight to go join another section of the fight once they've fair escaped or fought the enemy down and dropped out of rounds. But i'd still make them wait one turn before joining the next combat.
You could try coordinating the combats via walkie talkie, but i suspect it would create more trouble than solve problems. In any event, the combat involving the largest number is allways going to run slowest.

Get a room willya:
I realize that many people play Larp to get up and away from the table. But for Yog's sake, if you run a killbox, think very hard about whether it would better to throw down a battlemap on a big table and run the damn thing from a fast laptop. There are many reasons for this. There are people who simply should not be on their damn feet for any length of time. Those who are recuperating from illness, those who are preggers, those who wore the WRONG set of heels, Hell, my knees are for shit some night. People standing in one spot for hours at a time are going to have problems and those problems are going to be 3 times worse if you're doing the scene outdoors. Even if the weather is cooperating.
Take the killbox into a room, tabletop the fight, if it's large and complex. It's easier to keep notes at a table and read sheets indoors under actual light. Nobody want to freeze or get rained on, or swelter in their leather coat, or be subject to outdoor allergies, or miss part of the fight because it's too far away to be heard. Get real. Comfort level is a very real consideration.

Chatter:
In a killbox there are only two people who should be talking at any given time. The ST and the person he is talking to. This isn't even up for discussion. It's not up for arguement or debate. Each utterance of "Dude, nice kilt." or "Damn these fucking heels" or even "God, there's too much chatter. I can't hear what's going on" is distracting from the main business and slowing it down.
In addition, each and every person who takes it upon themselves to help by going "SHUT THE FUCK UP RIGHT NOW!" is merely adding to the noise polution and ratcheting up the tension level besides.
If you are in room situation, you might tell the people in the room that each time you catch someone cross talking, that they'll be bumped to dead last in the initiative queue. Repeat offenders will be asked to leave the fight entirely. If you want or need to crosstalk, go outside. If you miss your initiative then you miss your turn. If you want to volunteer information (Say on a rules call) then raise your hand like in school.
Hopefully that can keep the chatter down. There's nothing wrong with a little dramatic dialogue or with the OCCASIONAL joke that gets a laugh, but players need to be on notice that this thing is something that drives ST's batty.

Sono Finito.

Too long between words

2007-10-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

I'm knocking the frost of my branches. It's been too long since i had something to say.

I've been larping and running a Mage: The Awakening larp in the cam.
I've just participated in a major game of the month in Cinci (And i took notes. I think i'll have something to say soonish.
I'm working a show and my day job seems to vacillate between utter deadness and trying to kill me
Been wtaching nifty things which i may talk about some too.

In the meantime, if you're a regular reader here, but you aren't a regular reader of the LJ, you can keep up with my doings over there via the link to your right.

Love and kisses. Hopefully i'll have time to write some more and soon.

Walking the Walk

2007-07-28T03:27:00.000-04:00

Spitballing tonight, so excuse me if this one rambles a bit.

Oen night i was hanging out with some friends and we were talking about the building of a larp. Most of them were veterans of one ongoing game or another, and had seen so much cheese in their various larp adventures, that you'd have though they would have turned swiss.

Okay bad joke, and badly told too, but on with the story. We stayed up late into the night, eventually retiring to the former Geek Palace to continue our wranglng into the wee small hours of the night. The reason i had ended up involved was for some reason, even though i had not run a game of my own yet, I had come up with some basic ideas that had impressed these fellows and they had adopted a few of them.

One of the things i had noticed was the tendency, and i still see this today, to stomp on all things cheesy or that had wrecked games of the past. But, as i eventually pointed out, They had done a great deal of talking about what they didn't want, But not enough talking about what they DID want.

Every single game that i have played has had positive elements and negative elements to it. The key in these things is to amplify the good and minimize the bad down to what you can live with. This to me is a far more useful approach than simply trying to stamp out all the bad, it leaves you with less energy to create the good in the first place.

In the past, i have advocated the use of vision statements for GM's to help players understand what the GM's are trying to do and hopefully get them on board. In addition to this, i'd like to add the following idea.

Be an example.

It is my opinion, and i realize that i'm biased as all get out, but i believe that the players in this area are as good as it gets. And i'd put them up against any serious group of players. So, when the time comes, for us to start drawing players from other domains in the Cam, i'm not worried because i have a sneaking suspicion that the idea of being one of the best examples of a play group is on their minds.

When you walk into any game, whether local or con, you present a certain face to other players. Are you friendly? Are you Open? Do you have your shit together? Are you able to play at the top of your game, without hogging the stage? or are you the sort of player that can't stop quoting "Holy Grail"?

Ask yourself the hard questions. What sort of example do you want to set when you sit down to a table? What level of play do you want people to see when you stroll into the Larp? If nothing else, asking yourself these sorts of questions may at least force you to reset your own internal dials.

I've been onstage with people who have game so tight, that i felt my game rising to match theirs. That is what you must strive for as best you can. No one likes to feel like their level of play is being brought down by the people they are playing with. Why would you stay? That's like bringing a beloved character to a con game that turns into one long unfortunate hosing. Or playing one of those stupid tournament modules of old, no plot, no characterization, just some ludicrous puzzle and a waste of a few hours.

Fuck that noise.

Sono finito.

Origins 2007 post mortem

2007-07-08T22:19:00.000-04:00

Hello folks.
This year was interesting and fun. and in some ways a little disappointing. Certain things that i would have liked to have happen did not do so and other things that i had not expected, took place. Serendipitous. I guess would be the word to use.

This years experience was a bit truncated it seemed. Friday was payday, and as result, I could not actually leave for Origins until i had the money in my hand. Normally it is my custom to go up on thursday, which is a good way to get in on the ground floor of the activity, Also, you can use some of thursday's night time to go the Con Book and find out about things that you might not have seen online. But such was not to be. And in addition, unless there were crazy amounts of open gaming featuring Spirit of the Century, I didn't see a single event for that game that didn't run headlong into Cam larp time. I go to the Origins for the Cam larp and that's what it is.

Well, Okay, I actually go to Origins because there's a girl in Columbus i'm sweet on, But that's neither here nor there. And sadly, her schedule and my schedule did not mesh up at ALL. It made me very sad.

I did however get to re-sample some of the same things that i enjoy about Columbus. And i did get to stay at the Courtyard By Marriot as is my usual want. Big Breakfast, Pool all to myself in the mornings. Love it. Pure sybaritic pleasure. I may sample the Drury or the Hampton next year, as they are closer, there would be less walking. But hands down the CBM peeps did a bang up job.

As a gamer, i am not used to being treated politely in public by hotel staff. It has been my experience in the past that most hotels that have vast amounts of gamers descend upon them feel as if they are experience the torments of Christ.
And truth be told, Gamers can be finicky, excitable, and notoriously cheap. I have been all three on various occasions.
Although, to my credit, never all three at once. But honestly, i think the hotels know that the gamers bring in the money. and since we are an aging demographic, a lot of the craziness of our youth is more focused and channeled into our various obsessions. As a result, I think we're seeing better treatment.

I have noted in the past though, that we have had to explain to certain venues that we are NOT Civil war Re-enactors or SCA people. I don't know that's about but in this area at least, if you do SCA most hotels won't touch you with a ten foot pole.

SO! Out of the city, Hit a traffic slowdown just past King's Island. (Gotta plan a trip there. It's been ages since i went last.) Had the slowdown clear up about a half hour later, and into the heart of Ohio.

I am becoming a bit more adept at navigating on this trip. Didn't have to look at my directions once actually. Remembered the trip from recent journeys. Checked into the hotel, no problem. Unpacked and geaered up for my run onto the con floor this year, no problem. Made my run into the con floor and picked up my pre-regged packet and swag, No problem.

Found out that the Cam larp had been moved out of the main ballroom and into a much smalled space on D-pod. Ah well. Could be worse.

Went into the dealer's room and purchased swag:
a lovely black and white shirt from

MingLing

which says "KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!"
A copy of The Book of Spirits (For use with my awakening thing)
A copy of The Blood (Which is a players guide to Requiem kinda. I glossed it and liked what i saw.)
A number of out of print Gurps books, Which i've found are invalueable resources.
And i collected a number of cards and stuff for the purposes of later follow up. There was simply too much that i could not buy. Might post the most interesting links here once i've had an opportunity to peruse.

Touched base with the Cammies and the White Wolfers. Wanna throw a shout out to my World of Darkness posse! Yo, for rizzle! Ended up talking a little shop with Eddy Webb, who is developping MET Awakening and got invited to participate in the Mage Larp on Saturday. Which was a blast actually. But i'll come back to that.

Quick trip back to the hotel to unload swaggage and get a quick shower. Like most really urban areas, where you have large buildings downtown, Columbus can be like a convection oven in the height of summer.

Back to the Requiem larp: I am told that our IC venue is not, in fact, Columbus, but is in fact Segovia, Spain. A spanish prince is about to step down and take his rest and it's rumoured that he has a chalice that may in fact be the cup of Christ. Hijinks ensue. Adding to the weirdness factor is that a larg number of the existing camarilla members have elected to play their own characters, who just happen to turn up in spain for this event. If there was an explanation given for this, it was laid out on thursday and i did not hear of it. I'm not going to be so cruel as to point the finger and cry "CHEESE!" but it was jarring, i thought. Still, the NPC crew and the Cam ST and coordinator team did yeoman's work. And while i felt a little odd participating in the main plot, (Which has nothing to do with Pinky Berkowitz) I did have an opportunity to touch base with a number of the people in my region and work on all kinds of regional plot, At one point, i was tapped to hide the bodies of a pair of Diablerists before the prince returned, And using my contacts, I was able to hide those bodies in such a way that GOD HIMSELF would have trouble locating them without a phone call from me.) Always willing to help out for the movement. ya know? Have made some formal enemies. Have made some new friends. Have vastly expanded my vampire rolodex, as it were. Had a long and thoughtful talk with a few people that i had been meaning to. Felt like i got a lot done.

Went back to the hotel and slept fitfully.

Saturday was day for Mage! And i threw into the mage game with gusto. A non-sanctioned event with pre-gens, i was handed a musician character, Happily, music is something a bit about. The game was set aboard a riverboat during 1939 and had to do with the judgement of a mage who had given himself over to dark powers. There was at least one attack from abyssal spirits, that involved me using a shoe as a weapon. Tried to prevent a second murder but failed. Game had to be called on account of time limits sadly.

In playing, and watching as much as i could, i have come the realization that i can indeed run this game without having some kind of aneurysm or nervous breakdown. It FLIES in the hands of an experienced GM and is actually way faster than i would have imagined. I, personally, was in awe of the John Hermann.

John also had what i thought was one of the best organizational tips that i have heard of late for GM's. He said to a player who was asking about reponses to questions that oftentimes, it is better to send a dozen email message containing 1 question each than to send 1 email with ten questions. It keeps responses short and o the point and enables the ST to clear them off their plate that much faster. Genius!

Had a good time with the Mage larpers and was impressed by the level of play. I felt like most of them brought their "A" game. And i got a compliment or two.

Had to compliment the guy Jeff Himmelman, who played the head of our Cabal. He had the proper attitude from the Jump. Turns out the fella has a podcast called,

Gamer: The Podcasting

Which i will be checking out in due course. You know me, i like to be up on things. Also turns out he's read the WFCR, which was such a shock that i nearly fell over. I keep forgetting that people other than Acid Reign and Everett actually read this stuff.

After a quick dinner, came back and hit the Vampire Larp again. Oddly, quite a bit of the actual bloodshed took place on friday night, and the Praxis of the city of Segovia changed hands without anybody having to die. A rarity. The Chalice was found not to be the actual Grail, but may have still had powers or was a complete ruse. Still don't know. Things became tense round about 10:30, and there was some yelling, and when this occurs in a room full of predators far older than me, I usually look at my bare wrist and say. "Woo! Look at the time!" I bailed, and sat down to relax for a bit, and arrange some OOC action. May be doing my first proxy soon, and hopefully that won't be too heinous.

Went back to the hotel and stayed up late, read some, but then also found that the room next to mine was filled with Cammies and they were drinking. (For the record. I did not hear them through the wall. Only through the door while i was out getting ice. CBM rooms are very quiet) So, we stayed up a bit and jawed and then finally i went back to my room and slept the sleep of the damned.

Got up, had a fistful of bacon and sausage, and then packed up and got on the road. headed home. I wish i had spent more time with the girl, of course, but i had a damn decent time anyway.

Origins approaches!

2007-06-21T22:16:00.000-04:00

Yep. It's nearly that time of year again. Once again i'll be off to the wilds of Columbus, where they paint their office buildings with odd signs, and the radio is dominated by christian broadcasting and Soft Rock. No wonder the gaming scene there is so robust.

I hope to get in some Spirit of the Century while i'm there, but i am going primarily for their great big Cam larp.
I don't know how many of you also read the LJ, but in case you don't know. I've gotten at least a little involved in the Camarilla. I like it, and i've met some fairly decent thereby. I can also see how that thing could swallow up your life if you let it.

Pinky and I have written a book. It is not available as yet as it is all kinds of trademark infringey. I may be able to offer the book on a non-profit basis to the Cam players who might be interested.

In doing that project, I found myself keen to finish another that i'd meant to do for some time as well. The "1000 Things that a New Actor should Know" was actually, technically finished first. That one might actually make me a little money but nobody seems interested so far. It too is something of a charity project. Proceeds from it's sale go to keep your arrogant correspondent in beer and skittles.

I have thought from time to time that i might do a World Famous Crank Report book. I've even been told that if i were to do so, some people might buy it. Is that still the case? I've got a bit more leeway there in terms of trademark-age, simply because what i'm doing here is goddamn JOURNALISM, instead of making setting material for an existing setting.

If nothing else, i might at least condense the Larp materials down into something that i can give to fellow larpers. There are times in the various larps that i belong to, that i want to reach out and shake certain players and say, "Do you not know that i have been writing about this stuff for YEARS!"

Of course, now i'll be able to shake them and say, "Did you not know i actually wrote the BOOK on this? DUMBASS!"
And then i can hit them on the head with it. 800 pages. Hardcover.

In addition, I'm thinking about creating some one-shot larp content for the SAS games section of White Wolf games. I may put up a blog or three to deal with character creation for this project. Comments will be extremely welcome in this project. Even light heckling, will be welcomed by me as long as it's still constructive.

And who knows, Maybe i'll get off my ass and figure out how to use Cafe Press or Spreadshirt, and there will Templeton Institute Merch to be had. At this point, i feel nothing is outside the realm of the possible.

A little bit of Theater.

2007-06-03T19:07:00.000-04:00

Last night, i was at my larp, There was a situation involving the ganking of the Prince. The sheriff had called all of the vampires in town at elysium together to let them know, But then he spent about a half hour investigating the crime scene. In addition, the vampires were not allowed to leave. Until he made his pronouncement.
Did i mention that the sheriff is mute?

This is unfortunate because it had the effect of trapping a whole bunch of players in one spot with nothing to do but wait. And there were a number of new players in the room who had no attachment to the plot or the old prince. I could feel them getting restless. But as it was created by the other players,and not the ST staff, there was little they could do.

The reason why i bring this up is because i feel that most gamers, myself included have famously short attention spans. Leave a player in the lurch too long, and eventually they'll think to themselves, "Ya know...I could be at home right now, downloading Doctor Who on Bit-torrent." And come next game session, that's just what they'll do.

So, i want to talk about the theater of larping for a bit.

You know me. I'm always trying to figure out ways to help get people in that crazy mindset of "Larp as Improv Art-form" because i find that when you do this, it helps you to find your way into your character in a way that game systems flatly don't do. But, like any improv person can tell you, when the pace begins to drag, it can mean death. The other end of this puzzle, is that you'll have players that want and need to be handed a bit of plot, but you'll also have players that want and need you to leave them the hell alone so they can get into trouble all alone. There are nights, when all you have to do is put a few players in the room together and simply let them talk. exchange philosophies and junk like that. There are some players that will dig on that.
But other players may need a little bit more.

Make it an event
The Camarilla has taught me a very valuable thing about Larping. Insofar as when you've got a great big chronicle that stretched across the depth and breadth of the globe, you ought to plan your game as if you'll have visitors every single night you play it. Visitors who aren't involved with your ongoing plots and who may need some sort of handle to grip onto in order to get involved. You want them too. You honestly want to find ways to help them into the ongoing things and maybe even help them develop plot of their own. If you do this, they may want to come back. And one of the principles of larping is "The More the Merrier."

With this in mind, No court of vampires should be a dull, dry, and un-dramatic affair. While some vampires should cultivate a bland attitude, others should come to court shaking with rage over some slight or other. There should be drama seething in each vampire court. I expect that the equivalent ought to take place in any other sort of game where supernatural creatures gather. They do tend to be excitable creatures don't they? As a GM, i think it would be wise to engineer some sort of low level conflict of some sort, A bit of sloppy feeding here, a bit of domain poaching there. If a PC prince asks the assembled kindred, "Does anyone have a grievance to bring before me?" The last thing he should hear is silence. At least 1 hunt test failure ought to create some problem that would turn up at court.

In fact, it is my opinion that supernatural creatures should only meet in a full one elysium when the political needs are pressing. Court is a regimented affair, and violence is strictly verboten. The problem with this is, That occasionally, vampires want to kill one another.
Also, you should make room for times when Vampire congregate that have nothing to do with Formal Court. Social events, Clan Meetings, Covenant Meetings, and things of that sort play a vital role in the theatrical life of a community of vampires.

In addition, Formal courts are held in Elysiums, unless of course, one means to dispense justice on the grounds. As a result they are a means for socially oriented kindred to meet and greet and get to know all of the kindred in the community. Also, it is a means for artistically inclined kindred to show off their skills and talents to the small select group who are liable to "Get it."
What this OUGHT to mean, is that players with those sorts of skills should figure out ways to turn a formal court into a kind of artistic salon for their OWN talents. I suspect that any larp with 30 people or more could likely field a 3-4 person band. In any given group of players there ought to be a few people with formal dramatic skills, improv, a singer, a juggler, a stand-up comedian, and things of that sort. The Keeper of Elysium is supposed to actually organize entertainments at any formal court, And yet i have yet to see a single larp where that was the actual case. Also, Carthians are keen on debates. Why can't there be the occasional debates at something like this? It seems like i only see these sorts of things at major conventions. This seems like a gyp to me.

Another thing that i think would be helpful: Whenever a person is appointed to an office in a vampire court. I think there should be a formal rite of investiture witnessed by the whole court. It's a little bit of the pomp and circumstance that one should expect from these proceedings, and in addition makes it far less likely that people don't know who's actually filling those offices.

Indeed, some of the best forms of theater and some of the best forms of religious rite, share much in common. They have a certain kind of rhythm. and a certain bit of showmanship is involved in their creation. Also: There is the tendency towards a heightened form of language, a poetry to ritualized proceedings. That sort of shit is kind of hard to fake and unless you have some experience in that kind of thing, you ought to memorize, or at least have some crib notes for it. Why not have a prop book with the proper texts. No problem with that sort of thing if you're reading off an Invictus oath, a Lancea Sanctum mass, or a Crone high ritual. Heck, if you're planning to swear a new Ordo Dracul to the Oath, You might even consider a phonetic translation of the proper oath in hungarian.
That, in my arrogant opinion, would be cool as hell.

The primary concern in these sorts of things is that you are trying to evoke a specific emotional responses from it's participants. Decide from the jump what that specific emotional response IS, and then build from there. The less diluted that emotional response is, the more likely it is that it will have the proper effect. And the more likely it is that the players and GM's will feel as if they've been part of something cool.

This of course, begs the question of players who for reasons dumb or smart, want to interrupt such things. Which may be the reason why some folks aren't keen to try it. I don't know how to tell you to fix this short of some mechanical fix or some out of character contract between the players. Of course, it ought to go without saying, that if you turn up at a Ordo Dracul knighting ceremony and start acting "Ig'nant" Then you ought to expect every Ordo Dracul there to jump up and stomp the unliving shit out of you.

And they'd be right to do so. Nobody likes to have their parade pissed on.

Shaking off the cobwebs

2007-05-28T22:12:00.000-04:00

I've been away for a while. I've been doing other things mostly. But recently i've gotten into a writing groove that hasn't anything to do with what goes on here.

This writing has finally convinced me that maybe i ought to work on some longer form projects and stop being so chickenshit about writing those things. It's also sort of helped me to find my voice a bit.

Still, i don't want to talk about the current project here for fear of jinxing it. When i talk about something i'm doing, i lose the impetus to do it somehow. I hate that.

It has however made me realize that even with great wodging chunks out of it, the World Famous Crank Report is easily large enough to fill a book. And i hope has enough good advice within it, to make for useful reading. I've been encouraged to do it. So maybe i will. I have at least found that i can.

Soon will come

2007-04-06T02:06:00.000-04:00

Been busy.
Still love you all
There may be writing this weekend.

Gaming as an Adult.

2007-02-25T01:59:00.000-05:00

Be prepared for one of those long tedious meandering bits of self examination that i am so fond of.

Take your valium?
Strapped in tight?
Got those pencils shoved in your eyes?

Stout fellow.

Recently, I have been realizing one of the things that i like about the various people that i game with is that they are, for the most part, full grown adults.

Now, you might question this. After all, most of these people are younger than me or about my age and still playing games that most people abandon after college. One has to wonder if arrested development plays a role in each and every one of these lives.

I say to you. I know many people, from many different walks of life. And in this still new century of american living, there are many people who have become soft and flabby from the comforts of American life. There are many who have retreated or adbicated from any kind of responsibility in their personal world. Large is the throng of people who find some kind of release from endless whining and puling on LJ's and Myspaces.

Less Poetical: Full grown adult human beings seem to be in short supply. We've all seen it. The bullshit schoolyard attitudes hardened into full blown neurosis by the time one is in one's teens, and possibly even psychosis by the late 20's.

Life is hard. Life isn't fair. Life can suck and then you die. Or so we are told.

But as gamers grow older. I am noticing an interesting thing. Many of them seem to be growing up.

A game is an evolutionary process. It has a beginning, a middle, and an End. It has rules to define it. Some games are finite. (Like say Baseball or Monopoly) And other games are Infinite. (Like most role playing games.)

The key to gaming as a grown-up, ,lies in the acceptance of responsibilities. Any goof can write up some piece of tripe character, based on the last movie they saw, and fling a few dice around. But there are steps that you have to take in order to be considered adult in our society.

The Weight:
There are many games geared to many tastes and not all tastes fit all gamers, it's true. But, in my completely arrogant elitist opinion. The best kind of gaming is the kind which involves you on an emotional, almost visceral level. Oh sure, there's nothing wrong with breaking out the minis and breaking down a Dragon or two and hauling off their treasure. There's nothing wrong with goofy lighthearted fun. (As long as that's what everyone is down for.) There's not even anything wrong with heavy twitch tactical gaming. (I have friends who play warhammer, and while that sort of thing tends to leave me cold, i don't denigrate it's fun potential.
But, once you've had a taste of a game that touches you on an emotional level. Once you've been in a situation that extracts an honest emotional response from you, then i think that most other sorts of games, seem like living on potato chips when you could be eating steak.
What are the bits of games that you remember the best? Do you remember the tragedies? Do you remember the times when you out-clevered everyone by playing so far above your head that it made you dizzy? Each and every one of the best game moments that i have ever had shared certain things in common:
1) They involved a long running character. One i had made an emotional investment in.
2) They involved a fundamental change in that character, Whether leaving aside a quest for vengeance, or deciding to sacrifice all for the greater good.
3) They involved playing with people who could understand and appreciate this sort of "Deep Play".
4) They moved me or inspired me.

There are people who argue that gaming is not a form of art. I submit to you that if they knew what i know, They'd be ashamed at their words, and ashamed that maybe their words turned someone aside from finding the place themselves. If it moves you. it's art.
And that, to me, is the way to see. The way to go. Have the proper attitude and 90% of the work is done for you. Try, each and every time out to reach that place where the game stops being just a game. Try each and every time out to reach that golden place, where you are the character and the character is you, and the rules and systems just seem to fall away. Realize that each and every character you play is a stained glass window...and that you are the light shining through it.

Meta-games:
In the past, i've talked about various ideas and approaches involving character mortality. In contrast to what i've said above, While i urge you to make an emotional investment in your characters, i also urge you to be ready and willing and able to die in the service of a good story. In fact, it's not a tragedy for a character to die, if you don't really care. it's just the dice going the other way.
See, there is a continuum of Emotional Weight that players have to find their comfort level.
At one end of the scale is the player who doesn't give a shit about his character. This is the guy who does dumb stuff because he's bored, or because he figures it's more fun to fuck up another persons good time. This person is ignorant. Not necessarily evil, but you can't rule that out. He may be schooled, or he may be incorrigible. That's up to you to figure out i guess.
At the extreme other end of the scale, is the person who identifies with their character so much, that they really ought to just write a damn novel about the character and have done.
While gaming shares many of the same underpinnings as any literary endeavor or theatrical endeavor, Over-identification with a character is not an active impediment in those realms. In that frame of reference, the death or fundamental changes to that character are up to it's primary mover. In gaming though, You are asked to put the destiny of the character in the hands of another.
And this scares some people shitless on some level. it's why it's so important to find a middle road on this Emotional Weight Continuum. Over-identification can lead to cheating. It can lead to meta-gaming of all sorts.
Another cause of meta-gaming is the competitive impulse. Some people are still stuck in that whole Win/Lose paradigm. They don't understand that you can lose a test, but have it cause a great new wrinkle in the story, and thereby "Win". They don't understand that if your character never loses a challenge, or never does the wrong thing, that you are actually cheating yourself out of better play. Thus you "lose".
Rules lawyering is another symptom of meta-gaming disease. Whenever you encounter this multi-headed Hydra, simply banish it with the magick words. "Systems and Rules are not Fun. Characters and Stories are Fun."

Priorities:
Last, and certainly not least, i would like to talk about what is the one thing that you should definitely understand if you want to be considered an Adult Gamer.
In this uncertain, fast moving world, things can change quickly. There's always some new damn thing coming down the pipe that can demand your attention or pull you away from the gaming table.
I do not, as a rule, tend to be an attendance Nazi for my games. I understand that there are thing that take precedence over a good game. Family troubles, illness, Child Illness, Death,Inclement weather, a serious shot at Sex, These are things that must be payed attention. And i think we all understand that.
But on the other hand, getting together with gamers is a social compact. and in order to tell a story with in-depth characters and interesting stuff like that, you've got to be willing to make the effort, to show up, on time, and be relatively ready to play.
If you can't be there. let me know. Oh, and don't tell me that you're going out drinking or watch BSG instead. That's a slap in my face. You can do that crap anytime. About the only thing along this line that i won't get upset about, is a lack of sleep. Being a life-long insomniac myself, i can understand. Go back to bed, we can do it another time.
Look, all i'm really asking from a player is a simple commitment.
Don't schedule things against my game. You know what night is. Figure it out.
Don't ditch my game for other activities unless you let me know in advance. If you can't figure out how to use a phone or E-mail. I am not going to be very sympathetic.
Don't decide, last minute, that you have something else to do. If there is one thing about RPG gamers that I HATE HATE HATE, it is the tendency to hold all the options open as long as possible and then MAYBE make a fucking decision.
Don't get involved in a game you have no business getting involved in, because of other commitments.
Figure out when you have too many games on your plate.

Ah well. I guess really all this really boils down to is, "Do what you say. Say what you do."

Class:
Leave your Drama at home.
Realize that you will allways get farther by negotiating rather than laying on the floor and drumming your heels on the tile in some kind of fool fit. Know that even if you do get your way by doing that, that people will find ways to exclude you from now on.
You can be an asshole. Or you can be an Asshole With Class. Which is the sort that other people would be willing to hang out with?
It doesn't hurt you to be nice. It also costs you nothing. You might make a new friend of of the new person walking in the door. and isn't that one of the freaking points?

Sono Finito

How to be Smert! (part 1)

2007-02-14T01:28:00.000-05:00

Err. Smart!

Okay, things have been hectic here at the Nerve Center. I've been doing Wanton Wicked Chat, Gearing up for a friends Aberrant Game. Running My own larp, trying to manage a couple of trips out of town to do some Cam larps, and fiddling around with the Mage MET playtest. (I think we did some good work on it.)

But percolating in the back of my head have been some random tips that don't seem to have a home in a larger document. Rather than go any longer without posting any of it, i thought i'd throw it under the rubric of some basic tactic and smart tips to use in play or in GMing.

Stress Statting
This is an idea that i came up with to explain and work around certain disparities in what people can do and know in real life as opposed to what they can do and know in a game world. We've all seen people in larps or Tabletop that seem to have a certain social acumen that they can lean into at any time, even though none of that is reflected on their sheet. I have a character in one of my games, that is Eidetic, and has read multiple books on the occult, can discourse knowledgeably about this material in casual conversation and has zero dots of Occult.
The basic premise of the idea of stress statting is that statistics on a characters sheet only delineate what the character can do while in a stressful situation. For instance, to use a real world example. I am a professional actor, when i step on a stage, even in the face of a potentially hostile crowd, i have enough experience to command a good 4 dots of Expression when i bust out.
On the other hand, while i might be able to play my guitar in my room, or at a party where i am liquored up, with a certain degree of skill. If you put me in front of a group of people to play, my skill is going to drop to 1 dot at best. Do you see what i'm getting at?
Take the example of the guy with social skills playing a character with no dots. Do you have to follow him around and bust his balls each time he opens his mouth? certainly not. His character may be totally sauve while speaking one on one.
But put him in front of a bunch of other PC's or in front of a powerful NPC, and that's where the pressure is on, right?
In the example above, of my character, with no Occult dots, i basically rationalize that as knowledge without practical experience and a total lack of understanding or practice in term of controlling occult powers. Although, in play i've had some experience with the occult and i'm thinking i ought to raise it up some to reflect this.

The Reserve List
This is basically a contract between you and your GM that states what you think your character would have as part of his or her make-up despite what the rules might say about such things. Rules systems can be remarkably frustrating in terms of creating people that are as well rounded and multi-layered as real people. To help with this disparity, i have found that on occasion it's useful to talk with my GM about what sort of skills and abilities that i think would be right for my character even though i can't afford them at creation. At times, if it's a skill or ability that is narrow and has no real bearing on things i'm inclined to give you extra points and maybe a specialty in dutch expressionist painters for free.
If it's something that might be useful in play i might consider point debt. I might allow you to purchase it later without making you go through any kind of rigamarole (He actually had the skill, but now has the dots to back it up,) I might consider that the character's stress stat has gone up. (He always played the guitar, it's just now he's good enough at it that he's confident in a room full of people.) Or even the possibility that it's an old skill that he's just now "Dusting off" (Combat skills are perfect for this, many of them are frangible and degrade if not practiced.)
In this way, you can sort of give the ST an idea of what the fully rounded character looks like even if you don't have the dots yet to flesh it out.

The Methodical Approach to Power
I am constantly surprised and occasionally appauled at the number of people who play in roleplaying games that have no earthly idea of how their powers work. Maybe i'm atypical, but if you hand me a set of powers, especially powers that i'm unfamiliar with, the first thing i want to do is sit down and try to think up and list each and every single thing that that power can do. It saves me some effort of trying to think up what it can do while someone is trying to kill me. It saves my GM some effort if i've approached my GM at some point and asked him, "Okay, this power does this thing...Can i use it to do this, this and THIS?"
I'm serious, if you're a Mage, especially a Forces mage and you don't do this, you are asking to be killed. Make a list. every speck of thinking you do now saves you later when the pressure is on.

Mojo!

2007-01-21T19:48:00.000-05:00

So, for the last week or so, I've been re-familiarizing myself with the rule-set for Mage: The Awakening. This has been done in order to smoothe the way for a MET playtest (Which i can't talk about.)

Now, as most of you may have surmised, I hate mechanical crunch. Hate it to pieces. As a result, I look on such projects with ill-concealed dread. But i will say this about NMage. Whether you love or hate the whole concept of Atlantis is entirely immaterial. NMage has one of the most flexable and comprehensive and balanced magick systems in games today.

My only beef is that it is so NOT a game for beginners. Start them off with Werewolf or Vampire and let them start to get froggy first. Mage is next level material.

In looking over this stuff, i am feeling the creative juices flowing in a way they haven't been doing in a while. Most of the mage books i have have been given a brief glossing a best. Now, i'm keen to deep read the lot of them.

I am putting this effort in, because, if we manage to get our Camarilla Chapter off the ground here, We might be one of the very few in the whole region that actually offers a Mage Venue. And likely, i'll be it's VST.

Not only that, but we have a couple of players here, that have gotten involved with National level plot at ICC. So i think it might get interesting.

Also; The Harry Dresden Files Premiere on Sci-Fi tonight.
Also: Yay!

A quick plug

2006-12-29T00:20:00.000-05:00

http://www.larppodcast.com/

I heard about it on RPG.net and listened. And i liked what i heard. Go give them a listen.

Flash, Dash and Panache!

2006-11-26T16:31:00.000-05:00

It's so easy to lose the basic idea of gaming. One can get wrapped up in the minutia and twitch of gaming. One can be lead astray by various philosophies and mechanics of gaming. One can get to wrapped up in the social dynamics and the inevitable politics of table top play and Larping and lose the thread.

There is one simple reason that players play games. There is an equally simple reason that GM's do what they do.
That is, Each wants to tell an ENTERTAINING story.

People wanna do cool stuff.

So it's nice, on those occasions, when you run into a GM or a player who is in sync with your idea of what constitutes entertainment. It's really neat when you run into a GM who is unafraid to say, "Okay, you'll have to roll a...Oh fuck it. It's looks good on film. You do it."

Now. I am a big believer in the concept of game balance. I am a big believer in making sure that changing the world is hard and that each antagonist ought to make the players sweat...But, i am coming to the realization that there are also times when you should cast that shit to the wind.
Players in a game are looking to star in the own personal film or book. Ruthlessly crushing them at every turn is no way to work. and it inhibits any attempt at heroism on their part. They become like office workers, ruled by fear and uncertainty. Not even sure that they can reliably do the one thing they've spent the most points on.
By that same token, When players are too timid and run from anything smelling like a plot, Well. It's not going to be a lot of fun for you to GM Is it?

So it's important to occasionally lean in to a crazy plan that just might work. It's important to occasionally throw the players a bone. It's important to occasionally give them a bit of help when things look darkest. I once read that the work of screenwriting is to take your guy. Put him up a tree, throw rocks at him, and then somehow figure out a way to get him down from the tree.

In other words, not only are you responsible for getting them into the situation in the first place. Not only are you responsible for making that situation worse, But you also must pay attention to the players as they try to help you tell a compelling story by getting the guy back down from the tree. There is a wonderful term invented on RPG.net for a specific type of GM problem. There comes a point in some games where it all comes to a screeching halt because the players haven't found the one tiny clue necessary for them to move. Or maybe they have the clue but can't seem to figure out what it means. And the GM is not being much help with his attitude of "C'mon guys. this is SO easy!"
It's analogous to the problem of certain computer puzzle games like Myst. where occasionally you're caught because you can't seem to find the clue that may only be four pixels wide. The term is "pixelbitching" and it's a problem of lazy GMing. Actually, that might be a little harsh. It's more of a case of mental passivity. Mental passivity in a game is the death of it. for players and GM's alike.
In any game of that sort it is ALSO part of the GM's responsibility to make sure each and every part of the puzzle gets in the players hands by some means or other. It's ALSO the GM's responsibility to gauge how sharp players are on any given night and give them a bit of help if they need it, and keep your mouth shut if they don't.

As players it's important to occasionally embrace the idea that it's more important to tell a good and gripping story rather than be protective of your character. It's okay to throw caution to the wind sometimes. Swing from a chandelier on occasion. It's healthy.
Of course, you should probably try to do these things in games that support them. Swinging from a chandelier in a game of Adventure! is par for the course, whereas in a game of Gurps, might require 3 separate rolls.

Sono Finito

The Big Exit

2006-10-21T22:54:00.000-04:00

There are times when you get to a place with a character that you've had for a while where you want something different. Maybe playing the same person for a long period gets dull. Or maybe the character has issue that depress YOU. (I've had this. It was weird.) Perhaps, you gotten into a place where you feel like you've accomplished all your story goals, or resolved the central mystery around which your character was built.

Maybe you're just bored or you feel as if this particular well has run dry.

There are at least three plotlines that you could engage in that will enable you to step off the stage in a big way. And really, that's what you do in that situation. There's nothing wrong with death or destruction. The only thing that sucks is dying cheap or feeling like you were cheated. If you feel like you want to end a particular character's story, you should talk to an ST about pursuing one of these paths.

Over the High Side
Nearly every single WOD game i've ever participated in has mechanics for characters going crazy or completely losing control of themselves in some way. In CoC or Delta Green larps this sort of personal storyline is doubly heinous and horrific. Vampires going crazy and falling to the beast are one of the most galvanizing events in a vampire larp. Mainly because not only are such vampires a threat to the players but to the masquerade as well.
When you first crack like a pinata and spill your candy on the ground, you have to decide how it's going to play out. Will you go completely psycho-mental and run through the setting like some kind of mad force of nature. Or will you keep your madness well hidden until it's awful exposure and tragic denoument. Take a look at a maniac like John Doe in the movie "Se7en". Here's a guy who kept his grand guignol insanity hidden for YEARS while he set about his task. Not only that but he was able to completely document his awful slide into the abyss and still manage the money necessary to make his plans come to fruition.
Each choice has their possibilities. With the "wassail" option, you now have an opportunity to attack anybody in the larp and force the entire community to rise against you and destroy you (or at least capture and then put you where you can no longer harm anyone.) It's rare for this option to stretch past the game session it's enacted in. Although i have seen at least one vampire fallen to the beast be a thorn in the side of an entire community of vampires for at least 4 game sessions. and even then, he was brought in, and nominally "Cured".
If you go the other way, you might want to sit down with your ST and come up with the most insane and horrifying plan you can enact. You may drop little clues. You may even have most of the other players convinced,but unable to prove, that you're insane. But when it comes right down to it, you don't want them to KNOW or be able to stop you before you've unveiled your masterpiece of BIG CRAZY. You might even have a plan in mind that requires your death in order to complete or set in motion. (Like Captain Holtz, in the series Angel.) Add in the possibility of a massive hole in the Masquerade as a possible consequence, and not only will YOU have plenty to do, but so will every one else in the larp once you're gone.
And let me tell you, they'll start scrutinizing others carefully for signs of madness after you're gone. They'll talk about you in whispered tones thereafter like some bogeyman, or some demon, easily summoned. Not truly gone...

If that doesn't put a sick smile on your face, then i can teach you nothing. You lack the necessary sadism for this kind of work.

The Fall
Speaking of demons. There is, in nearly every larp, some dark agency lurking, working the corners, playing the angles. Hoping to turn one or more people to their dark purpose. Some trick. Some seduce. Some give gifts. Others offer services.
To join these dark forces is to sign your death warrant. Even in a city of depraved magi, enraged Pure Uratha, and Vampires (who are bad enough from the jump) Once you join with the "Other", you make yourself a target. Even the cruelest Invictus and a pushy Carthian will slap back to back when the Belial's Brood come riding over the horizon. Even an atheist can feel good siding with a religious crusader to stomp satanists flat.
Sooner or later though, if you're some kind of fifth column for the forces of darkness. Someone's going to twig. You may have to work fast or silence a few people before enough people know that you are in "that" camp and come round to wax you good and proper. Best case, they'll put you on trial first.
This particular storyline can take a few different forms. You might be co-opted into some dark cult or secret society by some one you trust. You might go in search of such dark powers in hopes that they can grant you your wildest fantasies. Perhaps they can help you satisfy your hunger for power, but they always want something in return. and therein lies the rub, because demons always play dirty.
Other times, the dark forces want something specific, like their freedom or something equally troubling, and are willing to make the approach to anyone they think might be willing to help. Dreams might lead a player to the right book. a chance meeting with a mysterious gentleman might open up a world of dark possibilities.
This actual plot is so open ended it might need a crank of its own some time down the road. In the mean time, there is only one rule that you must scrupulously follow if your are game mastering. The dark forces must be strictly limited in their power and limited in their ability to actual affect the world.
If they aren't they overshadow the game, and why would they need the players help in the first place?
If you are playing the demon follow these simple rules:
1) Say as little as possible. Let their imagination do the work for you.
2) Offer to do something you would have done anyway.
3) Make dire predictions. You don't really have to base them on anything, but it's always a bonus if you can.
4) Show them little. Do as much of your work offstage as possible. Let them wonder what your actual powers are.
5) Manifest indirectly in ways that demonstrate your ubiquity. (Make your players terrified of post-it notes.)

Transcendence
There is a very real and very ugly tendency in human being to try to pull people down who are trying to better themselves. How many times have you heard someone offer a person their vice of choice immediately after they try to quit. A husband might offer his wife a piece of cake, knowing she's on a diet. A person might press a pack of smoke onto a person trying to quit, simply because they are being aggravating.
This is why being a Boddhisatva kinda sucks. Not only are you delaying stepping into Nirvanna so that others may see your example and follow the path themselves, But you will also have people trying to drag you back down to their level. They'll see you a smug and will try to wreck you or destroy you. Maybe they'll succeed. Maybe they won't. in any event, eventually you will have to step off the stage of the world

To attack this point with prose a bit less purple, To seek Golconda or mystickal Transcendence or true union with the spirit world is a death sentence. Either in the literal sense, or in the sense that it will require a sort of "Ego death".
Let's take the example of Vampire. There comes a time when a vampire becomes interested in the concept of Golconda. Such a vaunted spiritual state requires certain things to attain. For most vampires, it means a willingness to separate themselves from vampire society almost completely. The cut and thrust world of vampire politics is nearly impossible for a serious seeker of spiritual truth to endure. It is filled with lies and nightly violence.
But let's say that you persevere. You build your humanity up as best you can (Often at the expense of purchasing new powers or whatever.) and you try to be a good person, You work hard to avoid the pitfalls of vampire society. You even try to be something of an example to your fellow vampires. Perhaps even cultivate a student or two along the path.
Unfortunately, the odds favor the house. They always do. Other vampires may look upon you as weak, heretical,naive or perhaps they see themselves in you and are afflicted with burning jealousy.
So there are couple of ways that this can play out:
1) You manage to grab the brass ring and gain what you desire. To many this may represent a cure from the vampiric condition. or perhaps a sort of vampiric sainthood. Such things can be lost of course and that's a story for another time perhaps. But once a person follows such a path, they should be allowed to step off the stage with grace and perhaps gain a bit in terms of their own personal legend before reappearing again...If ever.
2) You are forced to defend yourself or sacrifice yourself in some way. Of course, if this happens, it is a poor ST indeed who doesn't allow you a little Ben Kenobi action post mortem. And why not really. Vampires don't die slow, and so they rarely get a good death scene. Why not get an opportunity to say goodbye to the people who really matter. Friends and enemies alike.
3) You miss the mark. Maybe it's all just some bullshit legend and it never existed in the first place. Maybe you've done the work and you walked the walk, but when the chips were down, you didn't make the right choice. Once this happens, you still may not be long for this world. Because it occurs to me that if you made the effort and didn't get the brass ring, but instead, fell off and got dragged under the carousel for your trouble. Well, Odds are good that you go crazy or throw in your support to the dark side. (Spiritual sour grapes and all that.)

In all of these things, you should talk to your ST and see what you can do to map out a plan and pre-script some of the events and how they'll play out. At this point, you aren't really playing the game anymore, especially if you find yourself on these paths with the express understanding that your character will be out of the game because of the culmination of the storyline. As a result, you should attack these storylines with more of an idea of being an active performer for the other players. In other words. script as much as you comfortably can, and stay clear of as many plots that don't involve you directly.

A world of Overused Plots (An Iron Larper Challenge)

2006-10-09T02:15:00.000-04:00

So. I started a thread over on RPG.net in their Larp forum, but it didn't really take off. So i'm going to repost some of that here and see what it generates:

The Challenge:
1) Name a plot device that is done to death.
2) Figure out a way to turn that plot device on it's ear.
3) Profit!
4) Additionally, you may offer new twists to other over done plots too.

A) Kill the Prince!

The gaff: Some dude in charge needs to be croaked. Damn the man! Fight the power!

The twist: Set it up so that when they go to gank him. a couple of things could happen.
1) They kill the prince disturbingly easily. Only to go to court and find him there and smiling. He seems to have no interest in discussing things nor is he interested in killing the characters. That'll bake their noodes good and proper as they try to figure out what the fuck is going on.
2) They kill the prince only to have the city completely fall apart because of the way the prince put the place together. City infrastructure flies to pieces and each week therafter some vampire or other flips out in some pre-programmed fashion.
3) They get there only to dscover that he's already been destroyed (Possibly faked) and that the local vampire law enforcement shows up just in time to catch the Would-Be Perps. A masterful frame job.

Plot: The Bad guys are coming

The gaff: It's almost ten thirty and the Sabbat/Brood/Seven/Sancitified Zealots come riding over the hill passing out some hot buttered Holocaust. Grab your ankles.

This kind of game can be played only one of a few ways.
1) Steamroller Style (I.E. all of the city's and elysiums elaborate defense catastrophically fail at once and the bad guys walk right in and throw down without even a witty speech. Kiss me at least if you're going to fuck me.)
2) Battleship Style (The bad guys are out there doing bad things and they gotta be stopped, but nobody knows where they are or how to catch them and trying to locate them is like playing a game of battleship...Except the bad guys always seem more prepared and have a better idea of where YOU are. You never seem to bump into them flat footed.
3) Dorothy's Shoes style (Yes, that's right. the bad guys were here all along. and have picked now to attack at the cities moment of greatest weekness. Of course, unless you are deaf as a post, you already know who all the bad guys are OOC. but somehow it's still supposed to be a surprise. Doesn't matter how it unfolds really, it seems anti-climactic most of the time.

Hey 10 O'clock monster happens, but there may be ways to handle the problem and the predictability.

The Twists:
1) Fuck 10 O'clock! Monsters NOW!
Occasionally, it's a good idea to change up the rythyms of things. Have the monster/invasion happen at the tip top of the game and then you have the whole rest of the session to deal with and expand on the aftermath of such a thing. It certainly crabs that whole problem of things taking the first hour and a half of play to get rolling.

2) "Hey that was easy!"
It should have been. It was a feint. It was a test of defenses. Or perhaps a diversion while something far more heinous goes on. They certainly didn't send their "A" players.

3) Who's side is it anyway!
The bad guys show up in force. Only to have the players discover that maybe they don't really understand what's going on at all. Perhaps the bad guys are here to settle the hash of some other threat that the players don't even know is about to go nuclear in their own back yard. Perhaps the Bad guys are on the run from something worse and are looking for a truce in order to get help stopping it/him/her/them.
Maybe, the bad guys are on a completely unrelated errand and if left unmolested will withdraw without making trouble. Of course, nobody believes that. Heh.

More overdone plots as i come up with them.

I think i may have cracked it!

2006-10-09T00:55:00.000-04:00

So. I keep wanting to have a way to hand new players some plot. and/or to give some plot to older players that may be getting bored with the way their characters are playing out.

Finally, i think i've got a way to do it.
I thought about how some of our plot is the kind of stuff that i go to a certain player and ask them to volunteer for it.

It occured to me that it might not be bad thing to create a file of volunteer plots. My instinct is to make it a random draw sort of thing. Such plot would be short term and discrete insofar as they could be dropped into ANY game session. Things like a getting jumped by a group of vampire hunters and managing to get away. Maybe some kind of feeding disaster. Perhaps a bit of short term spying (And in the case of a vampire game, spying which the player may not be aware of doing)

My only problem is that tried something like this one before with feeding tests and had to listen to too many people crabbing about a bad draw. I have to wonder whether it might be okay to create separate categories of volunteer plots, so that you can choose at least the direction of your self-directed character screwing.

Still Tinkering but i'm on the right track.

In other news, Attendance of the Larp is up and we may be able to move back onto campus finally. Things are looking up.

A few thoughts on Reputation

2006-09-09T03:36:00.000-04:00

There is resistance. I know there is, and most of it has to do with things properly in the past. I am coming to have an appreciation for the way that the Camarilla is run. But i fear that trying to get the thing off the ground here is colored by the excesses and personality problems of the past.

I'm not seeing it, frankly. It seems that all the troublemakers and drama queens have either grown up or moved on, and i am happy to report that my contact with the new Camarilla has been pretty darn good.

Now gamer chemistry is a tricky thing. And in your domain, it may be a different story. as always, your mileage may vary. But it seems like that the people round these parts and in Columbus seem to have their heads on straight.

As a matter of fact, it is my hope, that i can show others that this is the case. Heck, with the class-A players i've got, it's my hope that i can show other people in other places how it's really done.

See the problem is one of reputation. Once a gamer's rep is wrecked, it's not irrepairable, but it is going to take time. and it is going to take energy.

Each and every person i know, that's ruined their own rep, has had the devil's own time repairing it. (In some cases, this was entirely deserved.) Even getting tagged as someone who regularly "Flakes" on people, is enough to make it hard to get invited to play.

Protect your reputation. The best way to do this is to do what you say you'll do.
The other best way is to lead by example.

Sono finito

Am i a bad person? You Damn Betcha!

2006-09-03T18:09:00.000-04:00

So. Last night, two friends and I drove from Lexington KY. to Columbus, Ohio to participate in some gaming in the Camarilla.
Now, Driving 200 miles and change for a game and then driving home is not something i usually do. But, I and my friends are getting our feet wet in the Cam and we are doing a bit of driving these days as we don't have a chapter of our own.

I'm thinking, that this will come next.

In any case, my report of the Columbus gamers is that they are a genial bunch. and even the ones that i've made mortal enemies of In Character, are nice folks out of character. This is all good.

I made some trouble for my friends. I made more trouble for my enemies. It ain't gumbo unless you stir it up, ya know.
The Legend of Pinky Berkowitz continues.

Our only major grouse was that our directions were a bit specious (causing us to be lost in the midst of OSU post game traffic) and the actual game started late. (Which turned out to be good for us, but we were expecting to get rolling once we hit the door and cleared check-in.)

It occurs to me that it might not be bad idea to figure out a way to can the pre-game meeting as best as one is able. Hand the players, their willpower and blood tokens, Give them some kind of pre-game newsletter or somesuch, and then as soon as you've got your gear, on you go.

Perhaps a test is in order?

Grrr!

2006-08-29T17:51:00.000-04:00

Spent a few days without the ability to post to blogger. I was frustrated beyond belief.

Work is going okay, There should be some phat cash coming my way this friday and possibly, a trip to Columbus, just for grins.

We're trying to up our numbers at the campus larp, and I and a number of other UK campus larpers went on a bit of a jaunt to Louisville. we met some nice folks there and hope to be able to play with them some more in the future.

Got cast in a show. The show is entitled "The Underpants" which i think is my favorite title on my resume next to "The Shortest musical play yet written." The play is by Steve Martin and is something of a farce. I like farce.

Tonight, for the first time since i joined, Wanton Wicked's vampire venue will be busy as there is a formal court being called. We'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to it.

More news as it develops.

:D

Out from under

2006-08-06T01:13:00.000-04:00

Friday morning was my last night at the Bakery.

Well. I may be doing some outside sales on the weekends for Neil if we can come to terms on some kind of percentage deal. But the nights of me rolling about in the bakery van are at an end.

On Monday morning i start work in earnest at my first day job in ten years and the only job i've had in my life with a benefits package. My social life will also take a good turn as i will no longer be strapped for time to game or go out with friends.

I am very happy at this turn of events.

Con-tempt

2006-07-16T18:22:00.000-04:00

So, after the strenuous exertions of Origins, I and other people got to discussing the possibility of having convention here in Lexington. Because aparently we have far too much time on our hands as it is.

But, it is abjectly obvious to us that Lexington has a great big hole in it where a con should be. We plan to start small and pay for the first one mostly out of our own pocket. If we can actually defray our costs on the day of, that'd be great.
It would be a game day to start, possibly becoming a weekend as we go along.

I may be in charge of the larp stuff. God help me.

More on this as it forms up.

The Legend of Pinkie Berkowitz

2006-07-04T22:48:00.000-04:00

The things i do for you oh gentle readers...So i'm going to another party. Kindred parties are pretty much the same thing over and over and over, ad Nauseum, ad Absurdem, ad Astra...
This one is being held at a large mansion. And i do mean large. Like the Winchester House on steroids or some shit. I didn't know there was a form of diarrhea that affected Architecture. If you look at any given group of kindred from a distance you can pretty much tell what they're like. You've got you social butterfly types with their easy smiles and hearty handshakes. You got your fight-the-power-kill-whitey types, (Like yours truly) who tend to shoot their mouths off and casually offend anybody within earshot. You've got you Fuck-off-Don't-look-at-me types who spend the most time staring at you, and then either getting upset when approached, or bolting. You've got your stick up the butt types who just never loosen up. And i'm not tarring the Invictus solely with this brush either.
Body language can tell you a lot. It looks like i'm in for a dull evening of social brinksmanship. But then again, this place is supposed to be haunted, so who knows.
Jesus fuck. why am I sober?

So. I have heard bad stories about the Camarilla. I had other options to try out if this ended up sucking or into some kind of power player circle jerk. But i must admit i was curious to try a large scale larp and it appeared that this would be one. Last year, they hadn't offered one as the system was brand new and hadn't been seen by rank and file player yet. (As it happens, there WAS an NMET Larp last year, but as far as i know it hadn't made it into the con booklet. Ah well. spilt milk...)
So i go. I sit down with my books and think about creating a host of characters for a nice spread of possibilities. But an idea sort of filtered into my head that i couldn't shake.

Earlier in the week, I had re-watched my copy of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and being a longtime fan of Hunter S. Thompson, I decided to play a character like him. a rough iconoclast with a sassy mouth and a propensity for recreational chemistry. Why not? We're both from Kentucky right?

I roll in, and meet Kelly Herrmann (Who I later learn is one of the major players in Cam organization) She helps me get oriented and points me at the storytellers to help get me approved for play. This was a bit of a shock actually. I had expected to have the basic concept disallowed and tossed in favor of some pre-gen. I was actually ready to do so. I have the ability to take on a pre-gen and just play it with as much Elan as i can manage. It's all about commiting to the character and the scene.
But, shockingly, they look me over and decide that this is just fine and hand me an additional 50 points of EXP to re-tool with.
Which i do with some speed. I get approved and off i go! They handed me a sheet with some coterie materials so that i could hook up to them and throw my story into their communal pot. But i didn't see them the whole first night. and i got into some trouble on my own, so it turned out that i didn't need it. But it was nice to fall back on and was a good bit of forethought.

Going to a Kindred parties alone, when you're new in town is a bit like being the fresh fish on the prison yard. People circle like fucking sharks trying to decide whether you're interesting or exploitable. Some come with a sexual edge, other so painfully sexless that you feel their bleeding edge of pain.It's hard to deny the grim meat-hook reality of kindred existence when you can see the pain writ large on the face of a fellow kindred, especially while he/she is trying to cajole you into some attractive form of self destruction.
I amuse myself by taking pictures. I always ASK first, as it is otherwise fucking pointless. Oftentimes, elders will dress in period garb. Clothes they find themselves more comfortable in. Most times, they can't wear this gear on a regular night. So it's an opportunity to let the hair down and be "Casual" Also, Kindred parties are an opportunity to show off and look good and my photographer's eye is drawn to such things. Whether excessive or tasteful.
Some people don't like me to take pictures. I've yet to meet a Mekhet who was interested. Most Daeva, like myself, get their feelings hurt if you DON'T ask. Even if they turn you down.
I'm putting together a Book on Kindred existence, using my own experiences and feelings on the matter. Working at the Stone taught me the value of pictures and how they can make even a dull narrative jump and boogie. So, I take pictures and dictate notes.
Naturally, the Invictus decide to poke their nose in my entirely innocent business.

Met some good people. Had expected to meet at least a few folks who required an OOC ass-kicking but that was not the case here. I guess it varies from venue to venue, but it seems like the Columbus area Cam has their act together as did the ST staff. If there were problems, they got solved behind the scenes and i didn't see anyone walk away from the game pissed. I can't say this about every game i've played in. Maybe the people who really love Larping stay with it while the people with maturity issues get bored and leave.

I have not, in fact, seen my first ghost. I did hear the Irish band playing. Heard a woman's sigh. Caught a scent of jasmine, but i've had way more intense hallucinations than that. I'm kind of underwhelmed. But then again, the restless dead tend to get more agitated when you fail to understand what they want. But on the other hand, our erstwhile host may have just hired a band to play Irish waltzes and move from room to room without being seen just to fuck people up.
Honestly though. The little girl singing in my head was way creepier.(Especially while sober) I started hearing her in the library. Nearly got attacked by an excitable Gangrel. Found a book with possible occult significance which i promptly handed over to the ranking Crone and made my exit as thing got spookalicious in the library. My curiousity is gonna get me killed.

The plot became obvious towards the end of the night. It was a bit of a scavenger hunt in the old house with the creepy ghosts. With some hunters in the neighborhood for good measure and occasional violent bits, for those who like a little violence. Not to mention the usual back-stabbing and throat-cutting. Most Scavenger hunt plots are dumb. But this one was well crafted and the ST staff seemed up on what was going on. The use of actual props helped a bit i think. As did the riddles. It gave investigator types like me something to chew on.The game was also helped by the fact that the Regency Ballroom was HUGE and had multiple areas for play. Although i will say that it worked against us when the ST had opening and closing remarks. Next year i'll bring my Bullhorn.

...At the point, where it became obvious that the Hunters had arrived to make trouble, I was told by the Invictus types that it was unsafe to leave the house and that we should all stay. Uninterested in bedding down with a hundred other predators strange to me in a creepy old house fulla ghosts. Not my idea of a good idea. Deciding to leave the house, i did so unmolested. Apparently the hunters attacked just after I left. Can't imagine how i didn't manage to get tarred with that brush.
Strange feelings on this nervous night. People are giving me the stink-eye. Makes me wonder whether i've chosen the right path for myself. Who can know? Who can say? When i came up with my Mission, I knew there were going to be kindred who weren't going to like it. An actual book that someone can hold in their hands is proof and maybe more of vampire society. Some get, that i'm trying to help educate my fellow Carthians, other's like the Ordo and the Invictus who are built heavily along the idea of personal mentorship, see my work as a dangerous risk. But Carthians don't have the same luxuries that they do, and we need to deal with the young and ignorant among us.
So, a book. That's the plan. But already, with their noses out of joint over photos, the invictus ass-reaming is engaged. I've been scoped by at least two people with Auspex...That i know of.
With rumors of hunters in the area, it's not hard for me to put 2 and 2 together. Even one of the ranking Carthians came over and had to talk to me about the thing. Oliver Hearst seems like a good guy, But the Invictus are here in greater numbers than us. And even though the Prince of this domain is a Carthian, he has to deal with some dude named Talbot who is a major league Invictus hard-ass.
So there's heat. If they knew about the rumors about me driving an Invictus Prince in Kansas city to a nervous breakdown, they'd be all up in my grill. I'll have a talk with the Prince, and hopefully clear this up.

The next night was even more interesting. Our erstwhile host, Now identified as Mr Bouchard, set the terms of the scavenger hunt, warned of us the traps and set us loose to seek our fortunes. I was convinced that Bouchard was actually old enough and Ventrue enough that he'd gone crazy and was, in actuality,the Ordo Dracul that he has supposedly taken the house from. Turned out not to be the case. We received some clues from that maniac's diary and off we went. Pinkie, having become curious about the house and all the rest of it, elected to stay and try to puzzle it out.
And that's when i met Emma Moreland. (Or rather, Tracy Matson as she's known in daylight hours.) A very cute young lady with a positive gift for dialect, who ended up working with Pinkie on the case. We actually managed to find at least one of the clues all by ourselves. It was a dinner table that had been involved with at least 1 murder in the house. We also managed to help with ferreting out some of the clues and the Carthians started working as a bit of a team.

So, Me, and the English Rose, get called on the carpet by the Invictus, as a whole. This Talbot guy had showed up and decided he didn't like the idea of my little book and my pictures. Of course, the nature of my little project had gotten around the Invictus camp fire and had grown in the telling. Now i was of course taking sneaky pictures and taping kindred without their knowledge. So naturally they sent their boys around to collect me. (At least their guy was polite.) and we had a sit down. Naturally, they read me the riot act. I've been in tenser situations though, and had my poker face on. Oliver turned up to speak on my behalf, which was kind of him. But what saved my bacon was the fact that i told them the truth. Which i don't think they were prepared for. So, rather than butcher me on some kind of rumor and deal with the political fallout of it, they elected to let me go and admonish me to keep my mouth shut. Naturally this is not enough for some...

The next night, The Carthians sit down. We decide we want no damn part of owning this house. We also decide that since the Ordo want it so bad. We'll sell our action and our keys to them in exchange for consideration. In a deal brokered by Oliver, we manage to score a large estate for ourselves which Emma ends up owning in trust for the Carthians in the area. Pinkie hits on the idea of creating a Carthian Archive for his works and for the works of other carthians similarly interested. Such works would be held in the trust of trusted Carthians (Like Emma and Oliver.) We spend the rest of the evening talking politics with a couple of Invictus who seem interested in debate.
But as the evening wears on, it becomes obvious that one of our number has been ganked. Also, the Invictus Harpy sees fit to bring around the Sanctified Bishop with an earful of wrong information. He sermonizes at me for a bit and tells me that the Prince himself is talking about having my head separated from my shoulders.

...I fail to quake in my boots. which unnerves them a bit. It also unnerves Emma. So i go beard the Prince in his lair and ask him straight. The Prince is naturally shocked to hear that he's now killing fellow Carthians. He admits that i need more education. but that's not at all what he said. it occurs to me that the Harpy may have a hard-on for waxing me. and that sooner or later she'll find a sympathetic ear and her hands will be spotlessly clean.
So, with that bit of data bumping around in my skull, and our goals solved. I decide it's time to take my leave.
I have to say goodbye to my English Rose. And that hard. We'd come to like one another in a short amount of time. and i felt bad for causing her some problems. But i didn't want to tar her with my brush anymore. and i've always been rambler. So, i said my goodbyes and took my leave.
At least, i tried. I didn't get out without incident. A pair of hunters jumped me and shot me. One nearly got me with a stake. but they weren't expecting me to bugger off at a high rate of speed. Which i did. I found another car and hotwired it and left town. Hungry. covered in my own blood, pissed.
I'm gonna make some people sorry for the way this shook out.

Origins 2006 Post mortem report

2006-07-04T22:24:00.000-04:00

Thursday
Yesterday turned out to be one of the longest workday in a long time. Not only did i carry the entire load at my delivery job, but there was a massive amount of cylinders to break at the lab yesterday. As a result, when i arrived at home i fell into a coma. This became a problem because i woke up later that evening to watch "Blade: the series" on Spike and then could not get back to sleep easily. At least, it gave me a chance to over-pack (as per usual. I promise. I'm going to lick this habit.)
So i wake up on thursday with about 4 hours of sleep under my belt. Ah well, REM sleep is over-rated anyway right?
I clean out the car, Re-organize the tools that were strewn all over the back of it and then pack my bags into it, say my goodbyes to my housemate and my sweet kitty and i hit the road.
No "check engine" scare like last year thankfully. My original plan had been to go to the con and then visit my buddy Chris Foster on the way back but he's not going to be in town on my way back. So i visit on my way up.
Chris Foster and I were at Undergrad together at NKU studying theater. He went off to Louisianna after grad school and taught theater for a while before getting fed up and coming back to Northern Kentucky. Over the last few years, He's earned a black belt in Karate and when he returned to the area, began teaching Karate to kids.
So I visit his lovely school and we go off and have a bit of lunch. Wish i could have stayed longer. Chris is one of those sorts of people that make me want to be a better person and I kinda like the person that i am around him.
While at the school I ask him about a wooden bokken, that i was thinking about purchasing, and he gifts to me, Which makes me go all warm and gooey.
So now i have a katanna styled, wooden Bokken (Sp?) made of white oak that is, let's face it, cooler than hell.
Too short a visit, but i need to get back on the road. So i bid my fond farewells, and head towards Columbus.
Having had back trip mojo in the past, I am looking with a weather eye towards God trying to stop me from making it or having any fun. But as i am cruising along the highway, i am listening to a playlist of The Crystal Method, when their cover of "Magic Carpet Ride" comes on. At that exact moment I am passed by a fella on a motorcycle. I take this as a good omen.
Miss my Kitty already. :(

Sascha en Repose

Time passes and i find myself at a dead stop 20 miles out from Columbus. that lasts for about an additional hour or so. But things thaw out a bit and we get moving again. 71 north is dotted and scarred with ongoing construction like 75 that never seems to stop. I don't actually get to see what the blockage is but once we're clear of it, traffic picks up it's pace. I arrive in Columbus with little fanfare. I spend an additional hour, looking for my hotel. Mapquests information is incorrect and I discover that nobody who works downtown seems to know where anything is. I ask 5 separate people and get 5 separate sets of directions. None of which are, in fact, correct. Finally i remember that the Hampton people helped me find the place i was looking for last year, So i pull up and ask the valets. True to form, the Hampton valets help me out and in 5 minutes i am in front of my hotel.
The Hampton people are BUST-ASS. Wish i could afford to stay there. Maybe next year.
I arrive at my hotel. I discover an ugly truth. I had chosen the hotel based on the fact that according to the Origins Website, did not have additional charges for parking (Valet service really.) The main reason why i couldn't stay in the Hyatt is not their room prices. I can come up with the scratch for that. It's the 21$ a day just to park that i have trouble with.
Unfortunately, The Courtyard by Marriott, does indeed have valet parking and it's an additional 15 bucks a day. That's 45 bucks i end up paying out of my pocket that i had expected to spend elsewhere. Man did THAT suck. On the other hand, My stay at CbM was utterly pleasant otherwise. The staff was friendly and courteous, It was only two blocks from the convention center as advertised, The breakfast bar was damn good and was highly exploited by yours truly. The pool and whirlpool area were well kept, and both mornings that i stayed there, i had them entirely to myself. Sybaritic pleasure pure and unapologetic. There is nothing quite like getting up early, having an enormous breakfast, going down to the indoor pool and quietly floating in the hot whirlpool while sun streams down on your from the skylight. Other than the parking thing, I loved my stay at the CbM, and i'd recommend them to anybody.

Cthulhu chilling in his Rl'yeh crib...Bizatch!

I make it in to the con, Pick up my pre-reg package, with no muss or fuss. Find instructions to get to the Cam Larp and make my way over. I pick up some dinner first (One of the food court outlets, so i got hosed a bit.) and then headed in.
I had built a character on off-the-shelf points according to the MET book and prepared to be told no, and be handed a dull pre-gen. This did not happen. in fact, they told me that if i wanted to bring in a built character, that would have to add 50 points of exp...

DOING!

So, i sit down and re-tool the guy, change his clan a bit, put a little meat on his bones and away i go. I'll talk about the larp in a separate post. I want the reportage to be correct. Suffice to say here, that i had a very good time at the Camarilla Larp and it seemed to me that a lot of the horror stories that i had heard about them seemed to be in little evidence that weekend. Maybe ongoing larps are a different story, but we'll see. Met some good people. Feel like i made some friends. Put the old "Pete Sears" patented stamp on things and then made my way back to the hotel.
Oops, Almost forgot, stopping in at the big bar on 2 before retiring and seeing Bull and Mr and Mrs. Metalian from RPG.net. Didn't see anybody else i knew. Got tired and went back to base and didn't see them the rest of the week.

Friday
A lovely day. Abused the breakfast bar, Swam. Long leisurely shower. Dressed and went to the Convention center. Not too hot, Not too humid, a bit too sunny for this poor third shift worker.
Arrived at the Con in time for a bit of shopping and then the World of Darkness Tournament.
Swag:
Bought an Origins Travel Mug,
Bought a Cthulhu T-shirt,
Picked up a new copy of the Silicon Valley Tarot Deck for 2 dollars. (Apparently the Steve Jackson games guys take great delight in buyers with exact change.)
Cruised around the White Wolf booth a bit, but could not buy. I'll pick up the new stuff this week though. Made a point to meet as many of the staffers as i could. I'm a groupie. Sue me.
Bought a button or two at the "Order of the Stick" booth and got to meet Rich Burlew too.
When i ran out of money, i started collecting business cards and may post some links later.
Got some nice swag from the Gencon booth too. A con-badge/wallet looking thing that is UTTERLY perfect for larpers., a nice gencon hanky. (excellent for allergy sufferers like me) and a Gencon meshback cap.

I am so turned on right now. It's wrong. I know.

I went to the Tourney, The game was Werewolf: the Forsaken, naturally. A game i was completely unfamiliar with. But oddly enough, I had fun and I died a heroes death. Tourney games can be good for that kind of thing and it's oddly cathartic. I was named as an alternate for the Final of the tourney. May have to look at Werewolf again. Was told that the last game of the tourney was going to be Promethean. This was a carefully crafted piece of disinformation. But more on that tomorrow.

Afterwards, had a moment of mental paralysis. Ended up paying 11.25 for a burger,a small bag of doritos, and a cold 20 oz of Mountain Dew. Don't know why I went ahead and paid. instead of throwing a fool fit.
The real work at the Convention is trying to figure out ways to eat on the cheap. Subway on the food-court has been a real godsend. Columbus is a cool city but it seems that it's main ability is the way it hoovers my wallet clean. Maybe that's just convention area.

I am so turned on right now. It's wrong i know...

Later that night i returned for more larping action. Again, i'll handle that in a separate post.
I was however told by a couple at the larp that if i had travelled one block down from the hotel i would have found public parking in columbus that would have only dinged me for 6 bucks a day.
There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Saturday
Started to feel a bit blue. I don't travel with anyone because i am territorial like a wolf. I have trouble sleeping when anyone is near. I imagine, it'd be a different story if i were sharing a bed with someone of my own. At least, with that situation, i'd have someone to share the trip with and the expenses. and of course, the hot nasty hotel sex. (because hotel sex, even in a NICE hotel is always nastier than at home.)
One of the other reasons why i travel alone is that i want to protect the possibility that i might meet somebody and then not have to negotiate some "Alone time" with her with 4-8 other people.
So it gets a bit lonely at times. Especially when you don't realize until you go to the con that most ladies, even most geek ladies rarely go to the con, to pick up fellows. Most of the women I saw at the con were paired off already. So maybe, i'll have to amend my habits in some way to make this sort of travel more possible. Either that or find a lady who interested in traveling to cons with me and some hot nasty hotel sex. Ah well.

PlayVamp Presents Girls of Ordo Dracul

On saturday, I get a chance to play in the end of the White Wolf tourney. I am under a Non-disclosure agreement vis-a-vis the game. But i can tell you a few things.
1) I Met Rich Ranallo from RPG.net, who had the best idea of the game.
2) I also met Corey Atwill and Ann Doyle, who also seem to be involved in the industry.
3) Our GM was none other than Will Hindmarch, (Line developer for Vampire)
4) Hindmarch is an EXCELLENT GM. with a keen understanding of pacing.
5) He got us hip to a basic idea of development that i think is nothing short of brilliant and which White wolf will be trying out. And it kills me that i can't talk more about it.

Saturday evening i get involved in the Cam vampire larp again, Giving the Firefly larp a miss. I'm already embroiled, and they want 10.50$ to play in the Firefly Larp. Not for me. Not tonight.
Had a good time. Made some friends. Garnered some recognition and came within a hairs-breath of winning the Old Vampire Chess set which White wolf still has a few of. Would have liked to have won that, but it was an honor to be nominated. Truly.
Was also exposed to an interesting idea by the fellow playing the Carthian Prefect Oilver Hearst. He pointed out that when you are exposed to some sort of social discipline (like Dominate or Presence) that if you fail to resist it, then you should at least ham it up. Those people paid real points for that stuff. Might as well help them get their money's worth.
I like it. It gives me yet another excuse for some over the top acting. Which is fun.
These people seem to "get It."
Also: figured out that in a Con larp, one BIG plot is preferable to the ten little plots that i usually like to have floating around. This is not say that you can't have ten additional little plots, but you should have the one big one.

I want the woman i marry to wear this to bed on our wedding night. I make no apologies for this.

Sunday.
Got up. big breakfast, gave swimming a miss. Packed my gear and had them bring the car around. (Hey, I PAID for Valet service.) Got in and headed home. Stopped at the first place i could get gas for the trip home and cried bitter tears of anger at the price of gas on 4th of july weekend. Gah! Drove home in full clench mode, convinced that i would not have enough gas to make it.
But i was lucky. I also carved off about 30 miles on the return trip by dint of driving through Cincy on the Interstate. Forgot that although driving in and around Cincy makes me crazy, it is still a very pretty city.
I make it home without incident. Lots of police on the road so I take it easy. I'm glad to be home. Good to see my kitty. who i missed.

Will i go back next year?
If i do no other thing next year. I will do that at least. I also hope to manage Archon as well this year. Wouldn't it be sweet if we could do a real con here in lexington? I could dig on that real hard.

Sono Finito.

Back from Origins

2006-07-02T22:04:00.000-04:00

Ah...Now i can truly relax.
I have arrived home from Origins and let me tell you, it was a blast. i enjoyed it very much. I have about an hours worth of tape from the event and a camera full of pictures. So a much fuller report on the con is forthcoming including the legend of...

But no. I must not tell of that yet. Soon will come.

No way out!

2006-06-18T09:59:00.000-04:00

No way out

It was a happy accident. During the play of Clayton's fantastic Aeon Adventure game, We had a chased an ancient japanese artifact across the world and aboard a japanese submarine where we tangled with the Admiral and his ninjas in order to recover the Wakizashi No Kame. Which incidentally got run through my character up to the hilt. I remembered a bit of game mechanic that would have saved my bacon 1 action round to late to make a difference.

But i digress, The admiral and his ninjas dispatched, our team was looking to recover the sword and blaze for safer ground. The scuttling charges had gone off and the ship was sinking. I was bleeding out and in shock and most of my teammates were dinged and battered as well.

There was only one problem. The sword would not let anyone pick it up. It damaged anyone who tried. implements and gloves were no avail. Having noticed earlier that the Admiral had decorations on his uniform that indicated he was of imperial blood, i coughed out that it could only be wielded by someone with Imperial blood and that we should leave it behind. At least that way we'd deny it to the Brotherhood of the Black Lotus and stop their plans.

But, Camille, who was playing my twin sister wouldn't hear of it. Being british both of us had been brought up with the whole idea of, "Well. We've come all this way..."
And while the water rose she tried every trick in the book to figure out a way to take the sword with us.

Just then a bolt of inspiration struck her. She had been wondering aloud about the Reporter (Played by Gina) who Uncle Roger had asked along for the original expedition before his untimely murder. It had seemed out of character for him to do so. In a flash, she realized why. Somehow, Uncle Roger had figured out that the intrepid reporter Tara Tucker was in fact distantly related to the imperial line.

We pooled our inspiration and did a massive dramatic edit. Tara picked up the sword which tasted her blood and then purred, "We are your servant Empress."

Then we got aboard our seaplane and hauled balls out of there.

Clayton admitted to us later that had had no actual way for us to recover the sword but that he certainly didn't mind the brilliant solution Camille had come up with. Neither did we. It was damn cool and major props to her for coming up with it.

Some days later i had a talk with Chris Stopper about this very game while we were working in the lab. He mentioned to me that it reminded him of something he and "Evil" Joe Lamothe had talked about regarding PC's.

He said. "Once players get to a certain level, you really don't have to leave them an out. All you have to do is make the scenario tight and close up the obvious holes in the plot. Most of the time, the players will come up with a better way to resolve it."

This is a cool idea and i like it a lot. It takes a certain amount of GM confidence to relax and allow things to unfold in their own way and at their own pace. a single path to the end is the sign of an insecure GM.

The more i think about it. The more i realize that being a GM is a lot like being a regulator in an Improv group. A regulator is the guy that comes on and sets up the game and moves it along. He slows it down when the laughs are coming hard and he speeds it up when the laughs aren't there. He's the one who looks for the best laugh to come out of the crowd and lets the players get off strong. He's also the guy who knows when a game is not working and moves on to the next thing. He kind of controls the action without controlling the stage. If you get what i mean.

Sometimes players go down roads they think they need to go down, and persist even though it's obvious to everyone at the table that it's boring as hell. Ever had a player stop the game cold with pointless library research? Ever see a player slow a game session to a crawl haggling over weapons? I've seen both.

And i now know the answer to all such problems.

NINJA ATTACK!

Because everything is better with Ninjas!
Sono Finito

Perversity can be your friend...or, you know, not.

2006-06-17T03:08:00.000-04:00

Here is a list of things that will fuck up a larp good and proper. Commend them to your study and if your are sick of your larp and have come to hate your "friends" and wish be to be shut of them. See how many of these you can pull off before the whole thing implodes and engenders hatred of any kind of larping amongst those people for years to come.

1)Perceptions
It's important when starting on this path to realize the nature of vital communications and to ruthlessly strangle any possibility of allowing them to happen. Larping being imaginative sorts, will fill in the blanks of anything that they don't have direct experience of, So if you want to really cripple your larp, do inexplicable and arbitrary things and then refuse to communicate with anybody about why or reassure them that you have a reason for doing so. Players love to speculate. In fact they love it so much that you should give them even greater rein to do it by losing your internet access and giving your cell phone to a homeless Puerto Rican
If you can't manage that. You might consider a "Sock Puppet" account designed to take any current rumor on the mailing list and blow it wildly out of proportion. Even innocent questions like: "Why is the site fee going up 10 bucks per person?" or " "So how did he get all those dots of Temporis?", can send the larp reeling into a spiraling downturn of lies and recriminations.

2) Favoritism
Your S.O. Is the best player ever. In fact, it's one of the reasons why you hooked up in the first place. Since he/she's so good, and every one should see it, You should figure out a way to make all plots center on her/him. Hey, while I'm thinking about it, you might want to adjust his/her power level up so she/he can handle the extra workload. After all it's one of the perks of being star of the show.Right?
And hey, while I'm at it, let's talk about people that flatly rub you the wrong way. Now I'm not talking about people who are obnoxious, or smell or don't really get it. Those sorts of people are gold in any larp you want to ruin. No I'm talking about the people who you don't really know, and haven't really got time to meet because your clique is already full of the people you care to know. The key to dealing with these people is starve them for plot. Or maybe place them in over their head. Have someone mind control them into going after the gigantic vampire/Were-koala all by their lonesome. They'll get the hint. They'll figure out that the only person who can conquer such a beast, and look fly doing it, is your S.O. Everybody else is goose pate.

3) Dull stories.
Want to kill a larp? Make the stories dull. Make each larp event as dull and boring as you can manage. Create plotlines that involve paperclips or re-organizing a power players desk for him. Drone. Fail to make eye contact. Load up on Melatonin or L-Tryptophane. Make a pointless and arbitrary combat every so often, but don't let the players win or capture the bad guy. Each Larp should be an exercise in frustration and "Blue Balls." Make each an every event that occurs in the life of the larp, as interesting and engaging as waiting in line at the DMV and you'll be well on your way.

4) Dull players
You should begin weeding now. It's obvious that the sort of player who enjoys dressing up, who likes performing for others, and who is more than capable of getting plot stirred up all by himself is an active danger to the deceasement of your game. You want players who are entirely reactive. You want players who are far more comfortable with the Tabletop dynamic and abstruse mechanics. After all, mechanics are simple and don't change at all, not like pesky people. You want to start actively recruiting people who are,in fact, shy. Get them to play the moody loner who doesn't like talking or doing anything. Plant them in a corner and leave them be. Heck. If you're going to that length, you might even want to consider allowing a potted plant to be one of your NPC's.

5) OOC politics (Sexual or otherwise)
You know, the "game" of the game ought to be duller than dogshit, but that's no reason why things can't be as complicated as a season of the Sopranos backstage. Hey, if you're not having at least one shouting match with a fellow narrator over a settled issue or dragging someone's sexual improprieties into the harsh light of critical opinion, Well, you're just not trying hard enough.
Sex, of course adds an extra level of prejudices,shame,and drama to any encounter of this sort. Sure, you can have great arguments over "Who secretly hates who." or "Who fucking up who's plot" but it just doesn't have as much sting as "Who's fucking who." or "Who WANTS to be fucking who."
Heck, I've seen games damaged by brand new players who felt the need to inject their two cents into a situation they had no knowledge about, just because they SUSPECTED some sexual impropriety on the part of two players. The people involved didn't think much, but I say kudos to the dumb cunt. That took real initiative and a certain amount of bloody-mindedness.
I have heard inspiring stories of young ladies and young gentlemen who use the larp as their own personal daisy chain with nary a backwards glance at the emotional trauma left in their wake. Believe me, such people can create a sexual tension in a game so thick that it can be cut with a knife. I read a story of a young lady on RPG.Net who had a habit of fucking a guy in the larp, then breaking up with him a week later, fucking another guy in the same larp and then telling all sorts of lies about her former paramour. Lather, rinse, repeat...A person like this can engender personal hatreds and grudges for years to come. The amount of damage someone with this sort of pathology can create in your larp can be nothing short of EPIC.
But while sex can go a long way towards screwing up a game, there is very little that can screw things up as badly as a contest between two people (or more) for being the Alpha. Power vacuums ensue. And we know what a power vacuum does don't we? That's right. It sucks.
It's even better when an Alpha realizes that he can't have his prey, so he vomits all over it.

6) Bureaucracy and Burnout
Like any human endeavor involving large amounts of people, a Larp requires paperwork. It needs people to make it, manage it, update it, and keep it safe. So it's imperative that you sabotage this FIRST.
Make the forms and character sheets uniformly complicated and badly formatted. See to it that the flakiest person you can find is placed in charge of coming to the game with the archives. See how much work load you can press onto one person before they crack. Make sure that the software you use is the most complicated and yet feature-free software you can find.
Even better, make the players be responsible for all their own paperwork. The short sighted among them will routinely forget to bother with their sheets or forget to spend large amounts of their exp. But others with more vision will understand that this is a tacit blessing of their rampant cheating. Go and sin some more my son.

7) Lack of effort
And while I'm getting biblical. Nothing helps to engender a soul numbing ennui quite like feeling that the larp has become a cross that you've got to bear and finally get nailed to and die on. To that end, you should do your level best to discourage any person from doing anything to lighten your load. You should discourage anybody from feeling any ownership in the larp as well. It's YOUR cross to bear isn't it.
The feeling that players can contribute to the larp and eventually become part of the machinery that makes it run smoothly, so everybody can have more fun, is the lifeblood of a thriving larp community. You know what you have to do when this rears it's ugly head. Right?

8) Point and shoot
It's important that when you play NPC's, especially during the formative phase of a larp, that you make certain that each plot involving an NPC resolves by killing the NPC. This is useful because it trains players in the proper understanding of how to play a larp. Larps shouldn't really be about politics or indeed talking at all. Larp should be much like a low tech form of video gaming. Violence should be the trained response to every problem. Soon, when other players come in and create problems then the players will turn on one another in a hideous orgy of bloodletting that will leave everyone shaken and wondering if it wouldn't be better to catch up on TIVO on the weekends. Plus it has the added bonus of boring the tits off of the political gamers who didn't buy a lot points in combat/penis substitute.

9) Cheese
This one requires a bit of a cognitive leap. If the players want to do something easy or reasonable. Tell them no. If your players ask for something impossible or so dumb that it has no business being in your game, then say, "Sure!" and smile to distract them from your diabolic inner cackling. Soon enough your players will be flying around like they're in a Wuxia and fighting enormous vampire/Were-koalas.
Well it make for interesting stories for later when the alcoholism sets in.

10) Make them sweat.
Now, you might think that the Cheese route might not be for you. There is another path you can take. You can always turn to micromanagement of your larp. Make certain that nothing can actually happen unless directly observed by a narrator. (And disallow half of the stuff you don't personally witness anyway) Make sure that plots are entirely linear and can have only one outcome, no matter how obscure that outcome might be. Disallow entire scenes that contravene your plans no matter what the damage to your perfect plot might be.
In addition, each situation that players get into should be fraught with tension and peril. Make players make a test for everything. (That what the mechanics are FOR!) If you don't make a player make a roll to re-tie his shoelaces, your surrendering the scene. And we can't have that!
In addition it's important to heap scorn and derision on each and every thing your players say or do. Publicly. Through a bullhorn, if possible.

12) Venue ratfuck
It's important to leave the venue in worse shape everytime you use it. After all, if you don't do this, your game won't get kicked out and have to scuffle to get a new place. A good rule of thumb when doing this is to make sure that by the time the last player leaves, that the place looks like Stalingrad or New Orleans after the levy broke.
Also, if there are people who work in the venue while you play, you should make sure that you expose them to the worst excesses of geek behavior. Don't worry about them. They're civilians, Sheeple. They don't count in the larger scheme of things. It's not like gamers enjoy good public relations NOW. Right?

Follow these basic steps and in no time flat, you should see the end of your larp and a distinct freeing up of your weekend schedule. Also, you have less birthdays to remember, less Christmas presents to send, and a bit more space on your social calendar.

Sono Finito

No, I haven't forgotten about you...

2006-06-16T23:12:00.000-04:00

Things have been intense of late. As mentioned in my last post, i am still neck deep in working two jobs.
I may be working on a project with Keith Taylor, Andy Davis and Clayton Oliver over the course of the next year.
I'm taking another SERIOUS look at learning how to podcast.
I've stepped back into the world of working as a Narrator/ST for my local Vampire larp and hope to have the thing completely re-organized by the time school starts back. I'm already working on re-organizing the thing around a blog and our yahoogroups list.

Which is actually something i'm planning to do to T.I. The Website is more or less superflouos in the world of Blogs. I can host all the content in the files section of the mailing list and use this place as my primary web-hub/news outlet/spleen-vent/whatever, etc...

Content-wise, Clayton's Adventure! game has kicked the part of me that like Adventure! and i have a list of new knacks that need writing down and notes for same.

I also have a list of new crank topics that i expect will come boiling out of me soonish.

Origins is closing in.

Still thinking about writing a book on larps and how to organize them.

Still thinking about whether or not to create a Cafe Press store for this place. I have some interesting ideas.

Real life intrudes

2006-05-13T02:46:00.000-04:00

A bit of a news update for those who follow this thingy:

Recently, a group of my friends got a little tired about my crabbing vis-a-vis my job at the bakery and conspired to help get me hired at the Laboratory where they work.

The job is physically active and hectic and the pay is less than i am making at my current gig. But it's a day job as opposed to an overnight job. It's all indoors. I work with my friends. And the company has a pretty stellar health plan with dental.

My only trouble is that they can't offer me full time as of yet, So at the moment i am going to be working the two jobs for at least 2 months.

Which sucks pretty fucking hard. I'll get through it all, but right now i'm neck deep in work.
The good news is that it won't fuck up my trip to origins and may in fact help pay for additional cons this summer. Two revenue streams are kind of nice.

The bad news is that all i seem to do is sleep and work and occasionally game. I also won't be able to write the Reunion larp for Origins nows as i simply won't have time. This does however leave me open for other things while i'm there.

I am still bumping along with the Wanton Wicked chat game and having a good time there. I've recently started an Adventure! game on sundays where i actually get to PLAY!

It's begun to make me think interesting new thought and itch to run A! again.

Sono Finito

Jumping the bear holding the shark

2006-04-17T16:22:00.000-04:00

Recent conversations with various friends of mine have now got me thinking about games that jump the shark.

Now this is not a knock at anybody's game or anything, It's just that it goes along with my idea that RPG's need to be handled much like scripting and producing a television show.

Shows eventually jump the shark. Even really good ones.
So do games. This is not to say you can't run a good game or larp for years on end. I've done it. But it's often a good idea to consider your exit strategy for that day when you are wanting to pull the plug or your players are wanting to pull the plug for you.

But in thinking about jumping the shark, one wants to naturally consider what you can do to forestall such things. As long as the game is enjoyable and consistently so, why stop playing it? So hopefully, i can come up with a few possible things that can enable you to create a memorable game even if you are on the downslope.

1) Announce the Eschaton.
Okay, maybe things haven't been as hot as they were. It may also be that you've been having a lot of problems with illness, conflicts, exhaustion, bad or no-prep, and maybe you know that the game is ailing. Rather than just let the game slip away into nothingness, why not just pull your players in and say to them. "Look. This isn't as groovy as it used to be. We can, of course, play something else, but i would just as soon wrap the game up and not leave it hanging."

You have no idea what sort of freedom this may give your players. As a game master it allows you tie up loose ends and maybe open the door for some new thing later on down the line in the same world. The approach here is to realize that the network has cancelled the series, so it's up you, to finish up the series in a satisfying way for the fans.

2) YOU"RE DEAD! I SAW YOU DIE!
Examine what worked in your game. Who were the bad guys that the players hated with every particle of their being? What were the elements of the game that moved and affected your players the most? Why not bring some of that back?
Pull the best cards out of the stack and shuffles them back in. Maybe that will breathe some life back in.

3) Fuck it. It's time.
Many times, i find myself in the unpleasant position of planning the metaplot of a campaign on a very long time line, and really enjoying that sort of thing, only to find that it's making it impossible to concentrate on what to do for the next game session. Gah! This drives me to distraction...or at least, it used to before i realized that it was because my brain was trying to tell me something. WHY must it be in the far off future? Why must you wait for the players to be powerful enough? You can always adjust the power levels of the players upwards if it serves your purpose...And your purpose is to get to the fun part of the game. Fun for you and fun for them.

4) Hey...Remember that background of yours?
I have a theory. I ain't really sure how potent this theory is, i'll be interested in hearing from you on this point, but many times, GM's will be more interested in creating a basic storyline and then start weaving the characters stories into it at a later date. However, i am begining to think that the faster you get the personal stories into the mix of the game and RESOLVE them, then there is a greater tendency for players to get involved with the basic GM storyline.
Now it's important to gather the intent of the player as best you can. If your player has a background hook that is simple and discreet, there's no reason you can't include it in the first adventure. if however, your player has a hook that is obviously meant to be strung out over time, (Like a vendetta against a mob family or a quest to rid the world of vampires) Then you can still string it out, but you can also make a decision to cut to the chase later.
This has a number of benefits. It helps your players get into the game because they know that you are playing attention to what they are trying to do with their characters. It enables you to deal with their stories and maybe get them out of the way, if they are in the way. and if it turns out that their stories turn out to be better than yours. (which happens.) Then see 2 above.

Sono Finito

Regular readers may ignore this with impunity

2006-04-10T20:34:00.000-04:00

Since, i don't actually have a flickr or photobucket account, this is a low pressure way for me to host a picture. This particular pic is what i am using for my character picture in my White Wolf Chat game.

The above picture was yeilded by a bit of googling and it turns out, is in fact a picture of the legendary Sonny Barger, founder of the original Hell's Angels. I have been fascinated by these guys since reading Hunter S. Thompson's book on them. From what i understand Barger is still alive and has written 3 books.

Barger, to my way of thinking is a thinking man's bad-ass, and that's the kind of the character i'm playing on the WW Chat.
Plus, he resembles, at least in this photo, the fellow that i described in my character description.

Small is power

2006-04-02T11:15:00.000-04:00

Being socked up with my show, I've had little time to game. I miss my weekend game of Demon: The Fallen and my weekend Vampire Larp. I can still get in a little Spycraft 2.0 but otherwise, I got to be jonesin.

So, I did something, I swore I would never do again. I got into a chat based game.

You must understand. I had a real bad experience with chat games. And in truth, the main reason why i stay away, is that I am something of a hermit and NEED an excuse to leave the house every so often. Gaming and Acting are my main social outlet and without an excuse to go out and be around my friends, I fear that I withdraw further and further into my self. God knows I'm self absorbed enough. So, I like a nice social game.

This is not to say that a chat game can't be social. If all text-based pouncing and snuggling is anything to go by, These things can be very social. Whole communities can spring up in the digital world. And some of these communities, can be quite tightly knit. I hear stories on occasion of people in far flung corners of the world, banding together to help someone pay for horrifyingly huge medical expenses.

Good is loose in the world. It's just running fast and keeping low these days.

But like i said, I had a bad experience with chats. Now i'm not gonna name names. Although i sometimes do. All i can say is that i got really tired of power players trying to rope me into elaborate forms of character suicide and then beating the crap out of me when i said I wasn't keen on it. I also got tired of hearing storytellers crabbing about " Nobody is following up on the plot i've been dropping" Only to discover that the guy was only dropping this "Plot" at 4 o'clock in the morning (Relative server time)
Tip: things on a chat take about 3 days or so to filter out to everyone, and sometimes it won't happen even then. Don't be a whiny ass.

I don't even remember what the final straw was. I do remember telling a large number of the storytelling staff exactly what they could do with their game in nauseating detail. I'm not a big believer in burning a bridge while i'm still standing on it, but it seemed that the occasion called for it.

It just seemed like the idiot-to-player ratio was tipped too far in the bad direction.

So like I said, I had a bad experience.
But. I was jonesin...

So I tried one out.
And i liked it.

It's a good place. Been on it for a week and change now and have yet to run into someone who was a real jerk OOC. (Although, the IC jerks are a real piece of work...) And it's kind of nice to be able to play an undead scooter trash/ warrior-poet without having to leave the house, or indeed, put on pants.
In fact, i could probably write the definitive book on pantsless gaming...But i digress.

So there are a couple of things that i'm picking up on, that i'd like to pass onto you.

1) Small is powerful
A lot of people place a lot of stock in the success of a larp or chat by the size of it. Unfortunately, this kind of math doesn't really fly. If you have a game with 30 hardcore and dedicated players. You have a successful game. If you have a game with a hundred people and ten of them are fucking it up for the rest of your players, then you don't have a successful game. The more people you add to any game, the better the chance that you'll add some well-meaning fuck-head or some slick jack-ass who gets by your jack-ass radar.
This is not to say that you can't let your game GROW, but it's better to grow slow and WELL.

2) There will be a lot of acronyms for things:
There just will be. Some of them will be universal internet speak. Others will be more homegrown. You might consider taking notes.

3) You will meet a number of frustrated novelists on the path.
Some of them are more bitter about it than others. Some are more in your face about it than others. You have to make allowances for these people. and by "These people" I mean, guys like me.

4) You will at some point inevitably tell your biggest secret to the person who can most harm you with it.
Well okay, maybe that's just me. But expect to step on your dick at least once or twice.

5) Everybody is a beginner at some point.
People forget what that's like. Don't be those kinds of people. Those kinds of people are Assholes. Being an Asshole is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as you're the RIGHT kind of Asshole. The "right" kind of Asshole is an Asshole with Class. Assholes with Class don't fuck over newbies. and they never forget the people who fucked them over when they were newbies. This "fucking over" did not happen in the new game. It was a pleasant change.

6) Larps and Chats go together like chili and hot dogs.
At least now that the tabletop system and the larp system are closer together. It seems as if you could build a fairly cohesive game both online and off. I am going to look into it a little more closely.

The name of the Chat is Wanton Wicked

It has a chat for vampires set in New Orleans (Post Katrina)
It has a chat for Werewolves set in Denver
It has a chat for mages in Boston (There are a LOT of Mage players)
And there is even a cross game chat set in Seattle.

Getting a character sanctioned is a little more byzantine than i'd like but if you read the rules beforehand you should make it through okay.
It may not be your cup of tea, but i like it. and you might too.

Two Manifestoes...Manifestii...Um...

2006-02-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

Here is a link to Bankuei's blog Deep In the Game
Bankuei is a fairly smart dude and has posted two Manifestos about gaming. He has kindly given me permission to post them here as well.

The FUN NOW Manifesto:
1. Not everyone likes the same thing
2. Play with people you like
3. Play with rules you like
4. Everyone is a player
5. Talking is good
6. Trust, not fear or power
7. It's a game, not a marriage
8. Fun stuff at least every 10 minutes
9. Fix problems, don't endure them

and it's obverse
The FUN NEVER Manifesto:
1. Everyone must like the same thing
2. Keep playing with people even if you don't like them
3. Keep playing with the same game, even if you don't like it
4. Not everyone gets to play (and by play, I mean engage & input)
5. Talking is bad
6. Fear & Power, never Trust
7. Commit. Forever.
8. Be amazed when fun actually happens
9. Endure, but do not fix problems.

No one in their right mind would suggest these, right?

Try looking in some of your favorite games about "problem players", "Don't let them get too much control", "Planning a campaign", "fudging", "Acting out of character", etc. Try looking on some of your favorite forums & online advice columns about "problem players"/"problem GMs", "Forming a group", "punishing powergamers/munchkins/ruleslawyers".

Try reading Knights of the Dinner Table and pick out the cartoons you can't relate to at all.

After all, no one plays like that, right?

This is pure brilliance and should be recognized as such.
Although, for Larps, the frequency of cool things should be about once a half hour.

A missed milestone

2006-02-18T12:14:00.000-05:00

A couple of days ago, i opened blogger's dashboard to create a new blog. (I got sidetracked on that project, but i may still create it.)
In doing so, i discovered that according to Blogger, I had made 101 posts to the Crank Report.

It never occured to me to think for a moment that i had so many. So, even though, i've sort of missed that landmark, I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about how it all began and why it continues to this day

I started out in junior high. A friend introduced me to AD&D. I remember getting killed a lot. Mostly because the other dudes were jerks, and I was kind of a shrimpy tag-along dork kid who they really didn't want hanging around. The fact that now, at age 38, I write about games, act onstage professionally, have a large circle of friends, and more muscle than i've ever had at any point in my life has not escaped me. My clearest memory of those first games is that of being chased by an enormous Pac-Man.

Fuck you. I unloaded a quiver of arrows at that thing and it didn't even slow down.

In any case, I fell in love with these games. (To the point where I dragged my brother into them and then subsequently drove him out of them. A fact for which I am profoundly sorry.) In truth, I neglected my schoolwork because it simply couldn't hold my interest. (Although it further fueled my fire to read and prodded my interest in history)

I played as much as i could and it never seemed like enough. Shockingly enough, I made it into college and when I did i discovered a whole new world of other games. Champions, Traveller,and my personal favorite from those days, Top Secret S.I.

When I left school, i was just getting into more literary styled games. Vampire had just appeared on the scene and i was reading a lot of Gibson and Sterling, so Cyberpunk was also in the mix for me. AD&D had palled for me. I had gotten sick of munchkin culture (It had yet to truly take hold in Vampire yet) and I kept right on doing those things in gaming that fed me. Or at very least fed the actor and the writer in me.

As time wore on, I began to realize that Gaming was my primary form of making friends. I made some friends at Transylvania University that I keep to this day and a stranger and more wonderful bunch of folks you could not asked for.

I began the Crank Report many years ago on a second hand Macintosh Performa. I went out and purchase a copy of Claris Home Page and made my very first web pages. I wrote about things that bugged me. I wrote about things that I discovered that worked.

This, many years before the Forge and the proliferation of other sites and blogs that sought to codify and find names for the social dynamics that make for good games. Not to diss them at all. They've come up with some fantastic stuff, stuff that occasionally helps to crystalize thoughts that rattle around in this old mans head. Although to be truthful some of the bloodless terminology turns me off.

Over the years, new insights are a little harder to come by. And that's mainly because good games are harder to come by. Constructing them seems more like work, Nailing down people to play is even more work. I live in an age where most of my contemporaries have jobs and kids and mortgages to sweat. You never really get to play as much as you did back in the day when your other players all lived in the same dorm. Also, Gaming is, at best, a fragile art. When the players and GM are in sync, there is no better thing in the world.
You, and your best friends, making up a cool story and having fun doing it. Ending in triumph or tragedy is almost secondary to being in that groove. and finding the things that enable you to do it, make it that much easier.

But add one JERK and it all gets shot to hell.

So why do I go on?

Because it's worth it.
Because WE are worth it.
and if there's anything i can do or say that makes it easier for another person to find their own groove for running or playing in games, then all the effort will have been worth it.

Worth it in spades.

Sono Finito

Sunday Pictures (Feb/12/06)

2006-02-12T18:20:00.000-05:00

What the...Sweet pan fried Jesus! I'd hate to be swimming and see something like that coming towards me.

Aren't a few of these sovereign countries? Aren't they also a haven for pirate radio stations and data havens?

Okay, maybe i have an unhealthy fascination with treehouses, but shit man! How COOL is that!

There's this lovely webcomic blog where this guy re-purposes old graphics like these.
It's name is Very Important Things

These days, i'm finding that odd and unusual structures draw my attention. Papercraft too. This is just beautiful.

A shot rang out...

2006-02-12T13:18:00.000-05:00

It was a dark and stormy night...

So I'm in this Vampire Larp (as you well know) and lately, as a sort of Storyteller Emeritus, I've been suggesting storylines to our Executive ST, which he is fully able to reject or adopt as he sees fit. Telling a man how to run his game is to end up running the game, and I'm having too much fun playing.
That being said, I do still have ideas for plot lines and I always seem to see that which is missing in the make-up of any given game.
I'm always on the prod for ways to help new players get themselves hooked into the various plotlines. lately i've been on the kick of trying to help create mortal story lines that young vampires need to go deal with.

Which got me to thinking about Mortals and their place in the world of Requiem. Mortal story lines exist for a number of reasons. Most people don't play them because, as a good friend of mine puts it. "I already AM a mortal. why would i want to play one in a game of vampires. On the other hand, there are some people who are devoutly passionately devoted to playing mortals in a vampire game. Maybe ghouls, or hunters or some form of human being with supernatural sprinkles on top. but still essentially mortal.

But i think i've hit on what makes Mortals integral to a good game of Requiem beyond being the primary source of blood. Vampires are to humans what Moths are to flames. Irresistible and yet painful and potentially deadly.
The more contact a vampire has with the mortal world the more he feel the separation from it. the less he has with it, the faster his humanity slips away.

Vampires who sequester themselves away from humans begin to see them as abstractions and tools to be used and discraded. Those that stay embroiled in the fast moving world of humankind have nightly reminders of everything they've lost and the greater tendency toward the angst that a good vampire game is supposed to be colored with.

And on those occasions when the mortal world and vampire world collide, the mortal world almost always loses, but every time this happens, it should cost the vampires involved a portion of their humanity.

I've offered the example of the Kindred going round to kill the police chief only to find that his son or daughter witnessed the entire thing. This should have only 2 possible outcomes.
1) Vampire has a "Moment of Clarity" and runs away in shame at the monster he's become...Maybe loses humanity and maybe develops a derangement over it
2) Vampire kills the child as a future threat and loses humanity on the spot, and NO you don't get a fucking roll for it. Sure, maybe the Lancea Sanctum says that this is the way it's meant to be, but their religious dogma is of little comfort when you find you can't actually put the beast back in his cage.

Now consider this possibility. Statistically, most humans killed by a vampire have a family somewhere. a family that maybe loves them. How do you deal with the fact that when you go to look at the newspaper to follow your business interests, you might have to deal with the front page picture of the person you killed last week and the pictures of their family begging for a lead...any lead to their loved ones whereabouts. Hey you thought Laci Peterson got some press...

But just as this is a dramatic sort of conflict there are conflicts that are not as dramatic but that have long term effects. Say for instance, a problem with the Werewolves that cause the Kindred to buy up the property and turn it into a toxic waste dump.
What happens when that waster gets into the local water table and starts making the humans very sick. When do you hit the vampires with the humanity stick? and how often? until they stop? Until they no longer are able to care?

What about situations where the local kindred decide to throw their influence around only to discover that they are in fact destabilizing the local economy by trying to crush their competition whether they be human or other vampires. That fucks up everybody's Christmas.

So, At some point my thinking turns to Hunters. Vampire hunters are an inevitable consequence of vampires. Some vampire gets frisky with his liquid lunch and leaves a body behind...and that body happens to be someone's wife/husband/father/lover/mother/sister/brother/etc... and then the natural need is for vengeance against the evil bloodsucking freaks who killed him/her.
It may not even be that horrific. Maybe some vampire got sloppy and his obvious OTHERNESS just offended someone so much that they took up arms.

There are lots of different hunter types:
Those sneaky academic Talamasca/Arcanum/whatever ya call em/ guys who might occasionally share their knowledge with more martially oriented hunters.
The lone nut who has powers, or knowledge, or both. Enough to make problems for the Kindred population.
The group of hunter with ties to Werwolves or Mages or some other group that may not want to contest directly with the vampires but don't mind humans who do.
The group of capable and organized mysticks who may fight vampires in the arena of Influence war. (Although, if it comes down to a physical fight they'll probably get greased. That's why they seeks out more allies as well.)
The group of military or law enforcement professionals who have seen too much and are taking "Protect and Serve" seriously.
The group of heavily armed good ole boys who may not be all that books smart, but that don't mean they are dumb and they been doing this for years.
The small cadre of hunters who are being fed intel about you by one of the other vampires.
Church hunters with faith to burn and a devout congregation acting as an intelligence gathering organ.(And let's be clear, the Catholics aren't the only one who do this. They're just the ones that jump to mind first.)
The group of poor urban folks who organize. they ain't out to save the world, they just want to clean up the neighborhood.

And that's just the ones I've seen or used.
I'm sure there are types that i simply haven't stumbled onto yet.
Do some real thinking about the hunters and remember a couple of things:
1) They can jack up your shit in the day time(Not necessarily get you, but burn your house or kill your allies)
2) They have families and by dint of this alone may have superior numbers.
3) They are the good guys. (at least they think they are. They may even be right.)
4) They aren't necessarily ignorant, but they may not have all the facts.
5) They needn't always be combat crunchy. They needn't always have teamwork, but they need to have one or the other. Otherwise, they aren't scary.
6) Massed gunfire, even though it only does bashing damage to kindred can still put a kindred on the deck. In fact you can fill him so full of lead you can use his dick for a pencil.
7) Humans run the world in the daytime.Vampires may not like it but there's only so much they can do about it. You can lie,cheat,steal,enslave,and destroy lives... but at the end of the night comes the dawn and that's all there is to it.

Sono Finito

Reunion Larp Diary (Part 1)

2006-02-05T23:17:00.000-05:00

So, i have this idea for a larp to run at Origins. The premise is simply this: A high school reunion turns ugly as four students killed in the same car on prom night show up with unfinished business.

I have my membership for Origins already paid for.
my reservations are in.
My palm is loaded with the MET book
When my show is over at the end of march i'll have enough money to cover my lodgings and i intend to pre-pay it.

Now all i have to do is sit down and create a 30+ character larp between now and June.
and prove to myself that i can write a large project.

First step: re-read the entire MET book from cover to cover. Re-impress as much of the rule set on my brain as i can. then go back and Highlight and tab it. Believe it or not this incredibly anal retentive task helps me learn the rules cold so i can run things like Improv.

I've already written an outline, a timeline, a list of the various types i know i'll need, as well as a list of types that can be dropped in on short notice. I also plan to create a "Spouse" template for any people my beyond my projected group. A spouse template would be a greatly simplified sheet along with an envelope with something like: "You've been cheating on your spouse with his/her best friend for the last six months. She may or may not know but tonight, you're gonna get liquored up and the whole thing is going to come spilling out."

I plan to be the DJ for this little soirree and i have a large collection of 80's music for the event.
I also plan to have an "Open Bar" for this event (which will be a cooler with sodas and bottled water.)

I may also do some Aeon Adventure stuff at the Con as well. but that's far from set in concrete.

Sono Finito

Some news stuff that i've been saving up since before Christmas(Feb/05/06)

2006-02-05T21:51:00.000-05:00

The Flying Squirrel Man of Alcatraz
I've also seen this kind of thing in the Lara Croft movies. It seems to me that this would enable pin-point landing on even a HALO jump. Neat as hell. i could see using this in a game.

Say goodbye to cars that are surveilance free

While the encroaching loss of anything resembling privacy makes me nervous as hell, I can't help but catalog these things for use in Dystopic future settings.

A spiffy new radar based toy for law enforcement
Again, nervous about these sorts of things, but also thinking about having this sort of thing in my kit bag for my Spycraft 2.0 character.

...At 3:14 PM Botnet woke up...
Apparently this guy was hiring out his huge network for distributed spam and DOS attacks. What a waste!

Tron Frisbee
If you loved me at all. You would make sure that i got one of these for my birthday.
I am such a nerd. But I love frisbee, and it's about the only exercise i really like.

Cthulhu Carols
Not really news and kind of late for the holidays, but still worth mentioning.

Robotic Wheelchair that can drive itself.
So if your wheelchair bound villian is actually "killed", his chair can still manage his escape.

Bedside table that turns into a shield and club
Okay, I'm paranoid and even I think this is a little much. Neat though and no reason why your players or villians couldn't incorporate their violence into their design sense.

Ferrofluid Sculptures
Nifty photos of sculpting with metalic fluids and magnets.

Thousands of people living underground in Sofia, Bulgaria.
How can you not use this kind of information? Hell that's practically a whole setting!

Sono Finito

Long goddamn overdue Friday picture thread (01/27/06)

2006-01-27T22:57:00.000-05:00

I love this. It does however be-speak an inordinate amount of free time.

This photo makes me smile for no easily articulable reason.

This picture actually makes me a little twitchy. Although, if I run another horror game, there will definitely be Toddlerpedes running about.

"Dude, Is this the left? Crap! I knew we should've gotten TomTom."

There are good and proper reasons why I won't let the cat near the car.

Wow. This takes me back...

It's only funny because it's true.

How i'm feeling these days.

Another update of sorts

2006-01-27T20:12:00.000-05:00

"Proof Positive that Lamarkian Biology is junk science. My right hand does not self lubricate."
-Best quote i've heard this week.

Hi ho all. Things have taken a creative turn this week. Came into a small bump of cash and went out and sloved my printer problem. Also acquired additional memory for my Palm and now I have NWOD MET loaded on it right now. 1 step closer to my goal of not having to overpack for another con again. I expect that i will also acquire my Origins membership tonight as well.

In the midst of my acquisitive behavior. i also purchased ILife 0 for my Mac. The main reason for this was to get the brand spanking new IWeb software which i hope will replace the Claris Homepage that i've been using for my old and busted webpages. Pursuant to that, be on the lookout for something of a redesign in that quarter.

Some friends of mine are also in the process of talking about a business model for a PDF based webcompany specializing in roleplaying games.

I have this idea for a larp that is roiling around my backbrain and won't leave me alone. I may have to write it and run it at Origins. It feels like a cantaloupe sized ball slowly working it's way up my spine. Poking it has not helped.

More dispatches from the front as time permits.

Hello again my freaky darlings...

2006-01-22T13:29:00.000-05:00

So. My G5 had it's guts ripped out and then put back in. thankfully, they didn't have to actualy have to touch the hard drive. So not only do i not have to spend the next couple of weeks putting all the data back in the right place, but i also got my money back that they charged me for clearing the hard drive and re-burning my data back to the drive.

Also: Yay!

This has been kind of a time for ups and downs. Had some major problems while on the road at work that frayed my nerves more than a little bit. Had some incredible dice luck at the Demon the Fallen game that I play. But ended up paying for that last night at the Vampire: the Requiem game. Had one of those night where my dice mojo deserted me completely. Those things happen on occasion.

Got myself cast in a production of "The Importance of Being Earnest" at Actor Guild of Lexington. This means many things:
1) Paying gig. Will make enough off the show to handle a number of my expenses for Origins.
2) Short term, it will crab my availability for various games that i dig. Fortunately, most of my fellow gamers round this area realize that Theater is my career and don't give me a lot of shit about it. Also, i let them know in advance when i won't be available so, it's not a huge problem.
3) Will be working with an actress that i have "History" with. Not real happy about that, but it's not crippling either.
4) It's a smallish role, so it's not going to be energy intensive.
5) More fodder for the book i'm working on.
6) Gertrude is gnawing her own liver in jealousy over me being in this show. I larfing!

In other news. I have acquired a Palm Tungsten. It's neat! I am at present working on a way to boil down the absolute necessary stuff from the MET NWOD book so that i could conceivably run a larp out of the silly thing. I'm not so swish with this thing yet that i didn't have trouble at the game last night, but I suspect it will come with time.
The only problem is that i've installed Big Money, Bookworm, and Tetris on it. Massive time wasters all.

Maybe some news and pics later tonight if i'm feeling froggy.
TTFN.

Technical Difficulties, please stand by...

2006-01-10T17:06:00.000-05:00

My Imac G5 has crapped out on me. Thankfully, I purchased Applecare for it, otherwise you'd be reading about my upcoming funeral from cutting my wrist while jumping off a building.

Which is crabbing my action somewhat as I have huge wodges of material for news and random pictures, saved up from the last couple of weeks.

Of course, all that stuff is saved up over on the G5.

Arr!

A Christmas Wish

2005-12-24T22:44:00.000-05:00

Generally speaking, i'm not one to use the Crank as a means to send out a personal message. It's more of a soapbox really for my ideas on gaming and sundry geek topics that strike my fancy.

But tonight, I feel that maybe, just maybe it might be worth getting a bit personal.

I get the blues every Christmas. Normally by the day it rolls around, the season has worked it's ineffable transformation on me and I end up having a good time anyway. But the run-up is always hard for me for some reason. At least this year, i managed to avoid my usual Christmas cold.

This year wasn't especially heinous. the hardest thing to do deal with was extra crap at work and a distinct lack of Gertrude in my life. Gertrude is far away and I am missing her somewhat fiercely. It's making for a case of Teh Blues.

But, as bad as that is. and as EASY as it is to sink into my own personal pity party...I have to say that it's bunk.

I have a host of good friends.
I have a decent job, working for good folks.
I have a kitty who loves me very much.
I have a family that i both love AND get along with.
I have a rich life in games in in my creative work.

So. If you are reading this blog. I have a wish for you.
I hope that you will be able to see each and every one of your blessing for what it is.

Jah Love to you all.
-Pete

From Point A to Point B

2005-12-23T22:16:00.000-05:00

Today, I went out into the world to deliver a wedding cake. A simple mission. A friend knew i worked in a bakery, and had requested that i deliver the cake to his wedding. The disassembled cake went into the boot of my car and away i sped.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as all that.

My friend had chosen to have his wedding at a hotel on the day before Christmas Eve. This lovely hotel was on the backside of a shopping center which is infamous for being hard to get into and out of during holiday shopping. a quick little errand took me a total of 2 hours to complete and an additional hour and a half to get back home.

Fortunately, i had my Ipod, and i did not have a loaded weapon. It could have been grim.

But this, coupled with the coverage of the New York TWU strike, has gotten me thinking about the simple act of travel and how fragile it truly is.

Think about the last time you went out on a simple errand and the weather turned less than clement. Think about the time all you wanted to do was get home and you were stymied by downtown traffic because of some concert or sports event. Even a simple wreck, in the right spot, can fuck up traffic for miles in every direction.

Now, imagine you are in a situation that would be easily handled in ten minutes drive, that has now become an epic fucking quest by dint of this disruption in traffic patterns. Other people become Angels or Demons along your path to salvation depending on whether they help or hinder you.

There are more than couple of movies based on this simple premise. "The Ice Harvest" being the most recent.

This basic idea has two simple use: The first one is to help you stall for time. On occasion, as i have pointed out in very early Crank reports, you will have a situation that your players will solve FAR ahead of schedule. Maybe you underestimated them. Maybe they just went entirely lateral to your thinking on how to solve the thing. Still. If you just have them show up at the bad guys place loaded for bear, it will be a short night. You can make the race for time a real nail biter if you introduce a massive traffic snarl.

The other possible use of this trick is to pull out for a "No Plot Night". Say your players have some small problem to attend to, why not make a simple task into a near impossible one with this gambit? Have somebody send them on a mission and complicate it with a serious ice storm. Might be a bit interesting if you need blood or need to get under cover before the sun comes up. AAA ain't coming to help you. Will the players stop to help other along the way who are having worse problems?
Will the players end up freezing solid?

I can tell you there have been times when driving has become an adventure all by itself. There's no reason why we can't use this.

A Lovecraft Christmas

2005-12-22T22:47:00.000-05:00

(Note: This story was written by me in a single sitting after a fit of existential angst. Each Christmas, I send it out to many folks of my acquaintance. I jokingly refer to this story as "My Fruitcake". On occasion i have given this story as a dramatic reading. Many people have asked me if they may reprint this story in various places. I always say yes. So. if you've seen it somewhere else, that's probably why. If you enjoy this story. Pass it on to others who might enjoy it as well.

A Lovecraft Christmas
By Pete Sears

Journal Entry:Dec 2

I have returned home after a long time away. Time seems not to have touched Arkham very much. Oh you'll see the occasional cell phone on the street but the old-timers who sit around at the hardware store seem to be the same ones that sat there in my youth. I've spent so much time in diverse corners of the world seeking the strange and unusual that even my childhood home seems quaint and curious in the same way that Yoruba tribesmen do. I find myself having to bite my tongue whenever I get the urge to ask the natives to explain their customs. New England reticence is something I'm having to relearn.

For example. I'm staying at the old ancestral home and it's quiet enough to enable me to study. It's also remote enough to allow me to cast a spell or two in the back yard without being observed. But every time I venture into town i am struck by small changes there. Townsfolk, whom i suppose are trying to be friendly, keep asking me if I'm "Getting ready for the Holidays." I'm not aware of any particular holidays. Perhaps there's some sort of festival in the offing. I shall ask.

Journal Entry: Dec 4

It would seem that there is some sort of winter festival. When I inquired, I was looked at strangely and avoided, but finally I did get a straight answer. I've also noted some strange behavior in town. People seem to be smiling...a lot. They seem to be extremely busy and carrying a lot of suspicious parcels.

Journal Entry: Dec 13

I've observed a strange ritual. Last night, two husky men came onto the back of my property and cut down a pine tree. Taking up my shotgun to deal with the trespassers, I watched as they dragged the tree back to their car. Was that all they had come for? Had they broken the law merely to steal a tree? Fascinated and horrified, I followed them back to their home. They took the tree off their car and took it into their house. Watching from the bushes, I observed the tree thieves as they began to cover their ill-gotten foliage with strange blinking lights and odd icons of some sort. Is this some sort of odd cult activity? Perhaps some bizarre fertility ritual. (Shub?!?) Is the tree supposed to be an Altar? Sacrifice? Antenna? More study is required.

Journal Entry: Dec 16

This cult is far more widespread than I suspected was possible. Much of the town appears to have been affected. I am considering summoning help. Many of the townsfolk seem to be smiling that same insipid smile. I am beginning to worry. I was walking through town assembling some notes about this phenomenon when I went into a department store for more paper. A large man in a red suit and a bushy white beard stared at me and rang a small bell. He seemed to want me to make some offering to a small bucket on a tripod and gave me a hard look when i didn't. I asked the manager if there was a back way out of the store.

Journal Entry: Dec 17

Had a bad turn today. Found that the maid had erected one of those tree altars in the living room. Was terrified beyond comprehension by the thing. Frankly, she was completely nonplused at my reaction. "But it's traditional." she said. I was forced to dismiss her.

Journal Entry: Dec 19

My private library has proven useless for this "Winter Festival". I must brave going into town again and attempting research in the public library. I fear time is growing short somehow...and this is compounded by the snow which is coming down very hard now. I fear i will be snowed in if this keeps up.

Journal Entry: Dec 20

I am filled with horror. Venturing into town to use the library, I encountered the man in the red suit again. He was speaking very intently to a very small child who was rapt in attention at his words. I hurried along before he could notice me. I arrived at the Library and presented myself as an anthropologist studying the basis of this local "Winter Festival" I was looked at quizzically, but directed well by the young lady at the desk.

Apparently this cult is very old and it's practices are particularly gruesome. It apparently started with the Celts (who died out by the way) It's now masquerading as the festival of the birth of some Christian martyr. but it's practices are very suspicious. I'm having to read between the lines of course, but I'm seeing a terrifying pattern here. There's apparently some flying creature with claws. (The translation here may be flawed) It goes forth once per year to reward the faithful and punish the transgressors. It particularly likes "sweets" ( which i take to mean sweetbreads...Horrible!) and will consume these offerings if they are left for him. Apparently no home is proof against this horrific beast who is able to invade through the smallest fireplace (Significance? Hastur relationship?) The faithful are also enjoined to put up stockings up on the mantel and they will be "filled." I can only assume with the severed legs of the "bad little children". There is also some sort of connection to a "Snowman" ( Ithaqua? It must be!) This finally explains the bizarre patterns in the snow and odd snow sculptures all over town.

As I walked home, trying to make some sense of this horrific puzzle. I saw the man in red again. He seems to be everywhere. Is he following me?

Journal Entry: Dec 21

I had bad dreams last night. The Man in Red had invaded my home with a very large sack. To what end I don't know. I woke up screaming when he turned and I recognized his face. This was not the only strange thing that I encountered. As the snow dashed my hopes of leaving town before this hideous ritual could take place. I began to knock around the house. I discovered that the refrigerator has become home to strange foodstuffs. I found a pitcher of some odd smelling spicy fluid which looked like milk gone bad.It was a thoroughly stomach turning decoction and yet enticely sweet smelling. I also found an odd cake like substance with unidentifiable red and green THINGS in it. I was forced to dismiss the cook. These cultists are everywhere but at least I have the house to myself.

Journal Entry:Dec 22

Had the dream again. Will this nightmare ever cease? I also had visions of...something dancing in my head. My mind shears away from apprehending those terrifying images. I can feel a horrific change coming over me. It's slow and pernicious but I'm beginning to feel it's effects. I saw myself in the mirror today and i didn't recognize myself. I had that SMILE on my face...No it's not even a smile. it's more of a rictus. It took some effort to wipe it from my face. I found myself in front of the refrigerator looking at the fluid and the evil looking cake.... wondering...wondering...what they tasted like. I fear for my immortal soul.

Journal Entry:Dec 23

Last night as i was trying to calm myself by the fire. (which i keep burning all the time now.) I heard the high piping voices of the cultists outside my door. They were singing to me...In Latin! Something about "Come all ye faithful" or some such. I was filled with such fear that i was forced to retreat to the basement where I sat and trembled until they finally went away. I wanted to go to them....I wanted...

No. Best not to think about that now.

Journal Entry:Dec 24

This may be my last entry. I have dealt with some horrifying things in my life but this is far too much to handle alone. I am forced to take drastic measures. I have taken a few household chemicals and rigged a primitive detonator which I can trigger from the garage. It should kill anything in the house...At least that is my hope. I can feel the "Christmas Spirit" trying to take over my body and I want no part of it. I'll either kill the Flying Klaws or I'll freeze to death out here. Lose the house or lose my life. It's a small price to pay to end this pernicious menace.

Why are Vampires Cool?

2005-12-17T11:32:00.000-05:00

Every once in a great while, I ask myself why I bother with Vampire Larps. It can get tiring, It seems like the same social dynamic holds sway all the time and you see a lot of the same plots getting re-cycled over and over again. I mean, how many times can you do "Kill the Prince." Or "The Sabbat comes to town" Or even "A group of humans are catching wise to us. We should totally go over there and fuck up their Christmas!"
It's the same thing that drove me away from Fantasy. You start to see the same things over and over again. I mean, how many times can you do the dotty old wizard who is slightly absent minded without people seeing it coming a mile off.
So occasionally it's important to re-fresh the well. It's necessary to find the things that are cool and interesting about vampires (and probably any other supernatural critter as well.) and start to re-emphasize those things.
See, it's easy for things too get lost in the shuffle. in any large larp you got various camps of player types. Each of these camps, has a different idea of what fun is. Now I'm not going to regurgitate a whole bunch of stuff from Robin Laws at you, But you should know by now that there is at least one group of players who are keen on the political game, another group that is into all the angst and suffering, and still another group that aren't happy unless they get their claws damp. You know this right? Hell, you can usually tell by how they are dressed!

But within those divisions there are people who think they are playing super-heroes with fans or who want to be the comic relief for the evening or are so new that they blurt out their entire back-story to anyone who asks. This can take away from the actual thematic elements that make playing vampires interesting and fun.

Vampires don't sweat the small stuff.
Let's say for a moment that you are a vampire. You're a person (maybe an ordinary person, maybe not.) Whose been selected by some other inscrutable night stalking freak. You've essentially been killed and revived by the eldritch power of the blood (and let me tell you, the first time that happens, you'll eat your one true love...You'll cry about it later. BUT YOU'LL DO IT.)
Add to this that you are now on the lowest rung of society of predators. At least a couple of times a week you need to go out and drink the blood of the living in order to animate the unliving shell where you thoroughly damned soul resides. You stop feeling cold, You stop feeling hot. You stop feeling horny. You stop feeling air inside you.You don't get to feel the sun on your face anymore. You only feel hungry.
Add to that that your lizard brain has become sort of supercharged and your fight-or-flight reflex has become a barely controllable urge when you encounter other vampires or the things that can lay you low.
Sure you get some nifty powers, but they only serve to make you a better predator and to isolate you from the rest of humanity. Sure you get a chance to live forever, but if you're paying attention at all to those people at court, you realize that the older they are, the crazier they are. Some of them become entirely alien in the outlook. Some have pathologies that would crack Freud like an egg. Others lose a sense of time and concentrate on playing a long game while the rest of the world burns around them.
That's what you have to look forward to. Assuming that you don't get ganked by some other predator who has decided that you are weak, or you decide to stay up for the sunrise some night.
Now, keeping all this in mind, Do you think that Kindred is going to show up at formal court and balance their checkbook while they wait?
There is something freeing about playing a character that no longer has to worry about SMALL SHIT. Lean into this idea. Think of the first time you ever saw certain vampires in certain movies. "Dracula" in nearly each and every one of his incarnations has the kind of presence that stops people in their tracks. He simply exudes cool. and he doesn't do this by sitting in a corner all night and being a grump. He walks into a room and OWNS it.
Ever see "A Vampire In Brooklyn"? The first time you ever actually see Maximillian, He is coolness incarnate. His clothes are stylish. his voice is smooth. He is a cat-clean predator...And he doesn't care if you know it or not.
Even Selene in "Underworld" is able to wear a leather cat suit. Who can pull that look off? I certainly can't.
Lestat is all that and a side of fries. and he knows it and shows it.
It's amazing what happens to you when all of your actual needs go away and get replaced by 2. Blood and Shelter. That's all you need to survive. All the rest of it just seems to fall away. Sure, having a bit of money is nice. But anybody can get money. Or you can get someone who has money. But if it comes right down to it, you CAN live in a sewer if you have to.
People who play Vampires need to actually concentrate on their stage presence. It makes a gigantic difference. If you do no other thing. look at each and every person that passes in front of you and think. "I could eat you."
Do yourself a favor. Start watching movies and plays with an eye towards what makes stage presence and start taking notes and start practicing that stuff.

Vampires are old
They know things. They've been around. They've seen things and done things. In nearly every case they have lives(?) that are much more interesting than ours. Lean into this idea as well. Come up with the best back-story you can manage. Even if you never really share it.
In fact, you should probably resist telling as much of your core personal story as possible. You can of course tell a number of stories, without really telling your own. :D
True story: Had a dude roll up on me at a Larp. and I asked him his name, He then, taking this as an opening, told me every single piece of information about his character. This came out in a largely unbroken stream. a bit like vomit. it was a bit odd. It occurs to me in retrospect, that maybe nobody else had talked to him all night.
Vampires have time on their side. They can take a night course if they like. They can read every single book on a subject if they choose. They can travel and soak up cultures. They can hone skills a couple of centuries old. They can encounter more occult phenomenon in the space of a year than most people see in their entire lives. I talk a little bit more about this in the article the Long Game

Vampires are Passionate
Okay, leave aside the Beast for moment, don't worry, we'll come back to it. I've given it a chew toy to play with. It'll be alright.
So, in order to deal with the horrors of the undead existence, you have to have something to hold onto. You need some kind of purpose to keep you going from night to night. If you don't have one, you'll bite it. The first year of undeath claims more lives than any other factor. There's usually another bump of mortality around the time of the end of the mortal life span.
So you gotta have some thing, or cause or person to hang onto if you're going to make it. Now having said that, let's look back a bit at the basic idea that all the little stuff falls away. What this means is that the causes of vampires become large in their sight, because they have little to distract them. Vampires can afford a laser-like focus.
Now, let's go back to the Beast. Take all that above and add in the possibility that any loud argument can degenerate into some kind of blood bath. Do you see why I refer to Soap Opera as the primary model for any really good Vampire Larp? It's all about the passions involved in the game. Play in a game where the rules on frenzying are nerfed and this stuff gets lost.
Vampires are also passionate in their personal lives. Their causes are important of course, But it has nothing on their internal emotions. Vampires can be very lonely, so it is vitally important to lean into the loves and rivalries of that particular vampire. Look for ways to point up the romantic passions of your character and you'll find how vitally important they are. Look for a passionate hatred for a rival and you'll find good game play.

Vampires are scary
They are stronger than you. Faster than you. They can twist your mind. They can draw you into their web and stick you fast. They may have a heart and a sense of shame but their hunger will always trump it. They lurk in the shadows and creep around the edges of human life. Predators are always scary. If there is no greater argument for having human players sprinkled amongst the vampire players it's this. In vampire-only larps, the actual fear factor tends to slip away. Also, Neonates have nobody that they can take out their frustrations on. Games where Vampires don't have a chance to be scary are dull.

Vampires are Damned
You are on the number 8 express bus to Hell. You do bad things. You steal life from the living. Do you know why this is so?
It's because you're a BAD PERSON. You might as well revel in it. Slowly but surely, you WILL slide down the fireman's pole to damnation. You can go slow. You can go fast. But you're going to go down. If you're playing in a game where the humanity rules have been given the handwave, then you're playing Superheroes with Fangs. If you're the ST, it's up to you make sure that there are moral and ethical consequences in every direction the vampires turn. I've always wanted to have a Police chief trying to stop the vampires and have the vampires go round to his place and kill him, only to look up and realize the cops 6 year old kid has witnessed the whole thing. Lose a whole freight car of Humanitas bucko. It's stuff like this that solves the problem of players using violence to solve all their problems.

Vampires are Sexy
The blood is not only nourishment to them. It is the ability to taste other lives. Sure, it's a form of rape, but often times it's also a seductive thing too. So when a vampire feeds or shares blood with another kindred or even just feeds the ghouls, It is a sexual act of one sort or another. When vampires fall into lust with someone it's very different from the way a human would. With humans, it's largely chemical. Just as there are physiological triggers which cause it, there are trigger which can cause it to cool off.
Vampires have none of that. Vampiric lust is born out of loneliness and hunger. It has a wild desperate edge to it that has nothing to do with hormones (which a dead body no longer produces.) In ordinary folks, loneliness and desperation, is not attractive. And yet, it drives the Vampire's whole mystique. Weird huh?
Now the whole mishegoss involving IC and OOC attraction is a discussion for another time. And it may never be sufficiently answered.
I've had some good experiences in that realm and i've had some not so good experience in that realm. The whole concept of hard and fast rules about inter-kindred and about Inter-player relations daunts me and has broken stronger fellows than me.
Still, When the sexual edge of a game is present, it adds a whole other layer to things. A whole batch of them.

Sono Finito

One more thing!

2005-12-17T09:56:00.000-05:00

Sfamiliar has seen fit to set my Blogger account up to syndicate over Livejournal. Which was awfully nice of him.
So here's the linkybit if you prefer the content of this blog LJ flavoured.

Sooner or later this will make it over into the blog roll but that's a project for another day.

Saturday's Project du Jour (Or, How to make sure you never misplace your sheet!)

2005-12-17T09:05:00.000-05:00

So, today's work is to finish a little thingy on vampires that i've been working on for a few days, Transcribe notes from my little black book into some sort of useable form, make some notes on Cranks to come, send out a few character specific emails and a couple of other things. I'll come back and talk about them in a minute...

Lately, there has been an embarrassment of riches in terms of good games to play. My good friend Dave Vest has been running a Demon: The Fallen game that has going strong for months now and it just keeps getting better as i go. I think the other players feel the same. This game runs on a saturday when the Requiem larp is running

The Requiem larp is going through it's usual cycle of disruption for right around the holidays and for those who are also still students, Finals and all that shit. Also, we have a session that falls on Christmas day. Still. I am hopeful that it gets back to getting stronger after the holidays. The stoic psychopath character that i found oddly hard to play has been moved to the background and now i'm playing a Daeva Invictus who is very social and charming. Something of an 180° turn for me. Still it gives me an opportunity to lean into certain strengths and put them at the use of the ST and the story.

Clayton Oliver is running a neat game called the "The Project" Which features a multi-jurisdictional government task force that has been tapped to handle supernatural and Alien threats. It's very X-files, only with a LOT more shooting and car chases. He's using Unisystem, which i must confess i know exactly bupkus about, but Clayton has this ability to make it easy for someone to play in his game without knowing dick about how the system works. It makes me want to revise my opinions about needing players who understand what they can do under the rules. I get to play the FBI psychologist and hostage negotiator Dr. Walter Lockridge and so far we've encountered Greys, Vampires, pesky Indian gaurdian spirits and some boats with haunted metal that were causing bridges to phase out and kill more people. Did I mention it's neat?

Thursdays are for Empire City. Andy Davis is running a Spycraft 2.0 game which features a motley group of cops assigned to a task force in the most rundown and corrupt imaginary city in California. Think "Wanted" crossed with "Miami Vice" with a dash of "Wiseguy" thrown in for good measure.
I play Detective Sergeant Roger Pentonvale, former head of Metro's Special Intellgence Division. I am also known to those who have reason to fear as "Automatic Karma" In real life I am a dumpy guy who can just barely qualify for field work, have few friends, and no real social life. But on the Intarweb, I am Batman, El Cid, and Kung Fu Jesus all rolled into one.
Spycraft 2.0 is another game that i know exactly dick about, but Andy has the same ability to just know what dice i need to roll in order to know what to do. Of course, I'm an active player as opposed to a passive one, so I'll ask lots of questions and say, "Well, can i do THIS?" and i think that's what makes it work.
This an extremely fun game, even if it has classes, and levels, and a character sheet that makes my head bleed. Kudos!

As a result, I have a number of Character Sheets. Sadly, there are times when my room becomes the Bermuda Triangle of Character Sheets (Anybody see "The Triangle" on Sci-Fi channel? Rock!) So my BIG project for today is to go into the secret bit of my T.I. Webpages and post a character sheet in some form of cobbled together HTML so that my sheets are available at any web-capable computer and printable from same.

Here is where I rave for a bit:
Oh Lord Jobs, I have been a faithful servant. I have spread the word about Macintosh far and wide. I have given of my time and of my limited cash. I ask only that you release a new version of Claris Home Page. It is the easiest web page maker in the world and is thus an empowering technology, much like this here blog thingy. I am sure that if you build a spanking new version for the G5 that many will come. Scale it's learning curve so that as a person learns more about web design they can start dicking around with CSS and other crap like that. I am a poor and humble servant and do not know how to use Macromedia's DreamWeaver. I wouldn't know a style sheet if it ran up, and nibbled on my naughty bits.
PLEASE! HOW LONG MUST YOUR SERVANT WAIT! OH LORD, HOW LONG?

That said, while I love my CHP, it's getting long in the tooth. And i fear that designing the Spycraft sheet might in fact kill me.

Ah well. The quote that best suits this situation is this:
"If you would like a complete list of all the ways that technology has failed to make human life easier, please press 3."

Sono Finito

Fridays random Pictures (12/16/05)

2005-12-17T03:43:00.000-05:00

This portrait should hang on the wall of every old house in your games.

This is such a Feng Shui moment. I can just see me saying to my players, "You're all motorcycle cops. Animals have escaped from the zoo. Go!"

Which segues nicely into this...

You can sweet talk all you want Nancy, but I aint gettin on no Air Force One!

"Why must you do this to me?"

Being marketed to console gamers who only have hand to eat with. What next? I.V. bottles and Catheters?

My inner child wants this like a junky wants crack.

There is a certain Ineffable quality to this picture.

Friday News Roundup (12/16/05)

2005-12-17T02:28:00.000-05:00

Yeah I know, it's a bit late. It's been a hectic week. Work has been killing me.

A slight change of format to the FNR. Now that i know how to make the HREF tag for this sucker, i'll be posting links to things and headlines. Then a little discussion, as opposed to posting the whole freaking article. This i think will be a great deal less work intensive.

A former Doobie Brother has become one of the leading names in Counter-Terrorism

Talk about a varied career! Of course, this makes it all the more difficult on us poor GM's when a player brings us an Assassin Guitarist who used to be the Pope.(OMGBBQWAFFLEHOUSE!!!!111)

Chechnya, Quite possibly the Radiation capital of the world.

We should keep an eye peeled for superpowers from now on. Some Chechen dude gets bit by a radioactive mollusk and... No. I can't even continue that line of thought. I can feel my intestinal tract trying to reach up and strangle my brain.

Old Mayan temple found with new information about Mayan Society

I was of course hoping that there was details about their pacts with the Greys, and or ghoulish rites praising the Bat God, but it's only more dull anthropology.

Virgin to build privately owned spacefleet

Richard Branson is like a fucking comic book character. God Bless Him! Maybe we should send him to Chechnya in order for him to get kewl powers. In any case, he's keeping the dream that you and I may eventually get a chance to go to space in our lifetime. He may succeed, he may fail. but he's keeping the dream alive, and that's fucking important these days. My only concern is that he's only raised 225 Million for his space port. in another couple of years, you won't be able to film a summer blockbuster for that much money. 225 Million would only be able to make a Greyhound bus terminal in space.

Chinese Hackers going after American military targets

Didn't I see this Movie? Doesn't the Pentagon pay attention to pop culture? Don't they remember that SUN TZU was Chinese?
Seriously. Get your heads out of your asses Pentagon and get busy creating some of that "security" you promised us, in exchange for our freedoms. Which segues nicely into this...

Airport security doors foiled by turning the handle
Making a technology fool-proof and making it idiot-proof are two very seperate and distinct things.

Quite possibly the best close-up illusion i have ever seen
Seriously. watch the video. All the way through.

Five team Dysfunctions
Business and Managment blogs can have useful ideas regarding leadership. Since leadership can be an incredibly important component in the business of running a TT or a Larp game, i've started paying attention to this stuff. This might be a useful help to you and might even suggest plotlines designed to overcome these problems and allow the the players to have a certain amount of PC "Sticky" with one another.

60 pages on a internet forum of Larp Horror stories

Or as I like to refer to this stuff, "The Textbook on how NOT to run a Larp".

Jailhouse technology
How to build stuff while stuck in the hoosegow. This is the kind of information that is so neat to me that it's a bit like porn. I can't get enough!
Joseph Goebbells and his Swinging Nazi Band

You know it's stuff like this that knocks you on your ass. You walk around in your ordinary daily life, and you think you've got a pretty idea of how weird the world can be. It's a mostly manageable quotient of strangness...and then you find about THIS! It stretches the suspension of disbelief, and this ACTUALLY HAPPENED!

Bohemian Grove
Captains of government and Industry cavorting in the woods and doing weird rituals. Normally this sort of thing would have me reaching for my tinfoil hat, but i know too much about the Trilaterals, the CFR and the Bilderbergers in order to really disbelieve.

How the MIRT works
The Infrared strobe that cause traffic lights to change. I gots to get me one! I also got to get me one of those radar detectors that let you set the speed you want the radar to register.

That's right. Stay the fuck off my road!

Sono Finito

Fridays random Pictures (12/09/05)

2005-12-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

"Hi There. I'm looking for a new Chief of Staff..."

This requires a level of dedication and tenacity that i think we can all admire.

Closer...Just a little bit closer!

There are no words really...

For some reason this attracts me and horrifies me at the same time.

Please Hammer, Don't hurt em!

Friday News Roundup (12/09/05)

2005-12-09T22:03:00.000-05:00

The bulk of these articles are taken from Gizmodo, Bruce Schneier,Warren Ellis,BoingBoing, Wired News, Future Feeder and John C. Dvorak. I may need to learn enough HTML in order to create HREF tags. I am not a coder, so this is a bit intimidating.

Tell a Doc: 24-Hour Phone Doctors
DALLAS -- Peter Beasley is a busy man who currently has no health insurance. He's also a customer of TelaDoc Medical Services, a setup that allows him to call an unknown doctor and get medicine prescribed sight unseen.
Within an hour or so of his call to an 800 number, he gets a call from a doctor who discusses his case.
TelaDoc provides its members -- which the company estimates at 30,000 -- with access to a doctor 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
While members like Beasley praise the service as a convenient way to address nagging medical needs at odd hours, others in the health care industry say treating patients without seeing them in person is worrisome, perhaps dangerous. California's medical board is investigating TelaDoc's activities in that state.
TelaDoc chief executive Michael Gorton said the Dallas-based company is merely providing a needed service and is not meant to replace the family physician. The company began offering its services nationwide this year after an earlier test run.
"For the vast majority of Americans, being able to talk to a doctor in an hour is next to impossible," Gorton said. "Our motto is we're there when your normal doctor is not."
TelaDoc subscribers are guaranteed to hear back from a doctor within three hours of their phone call. After paying a registration fee of $18 and completing a medical history, an individual subscriber pays $4.25 a month and a $35 fee per consultation.
Gorton said ailments range from urinary tract infections to strep throat to allergies.
But doctors' groups and medical ethics experts question the notion of putting convenience first.
"Practicing medicine without seeing the patient is still a dangerous thing," said Arthur Caplan, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "From the doctor's point of view, it's not standard of care."
Dr. Larry S. Fields, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said he doesn't see the benefit of TelaDoc.
"As much as I'd like to put a positive spin on it, most patients can get to their family physicians just as quick by telephone," he said. Establishing a doctor-patient relationship should involve an office visit with a general exam and an ongoing plan for the patient's long-term health, Fields said.
While the American Medical Association doesn't have a specific policy on such services, there are some concerns for the patient, said AMA president Dr. Edward Hill. "Nothing we think can replace the face-to-face with a doctor."
Gorton said that doctors with his network won't hesitate to send patients to an emergency room if their symptoms warrant it. And he notes that many doctors have addressed the needs of unknown patients by handling after-hours phone calls for their colleagues.
He said that there are around 160-170 different medical licenses represented in 50 states with his service, which doesn't treat children under the age of 12.
Five states -- Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina -- require an examination, Gorton said. In those states, he said, patients get bloodwork and have their temperature and blood pressure checked to enable them to use TelaDoc.
The Medical Board of California has opened an investigation into the company. Spokeswoman Candis Cohen said that meeting the requirement of a good faith examination in California includes an in-person visit.
Gorton says he welcomes the scrutiny.
"We expect boards of medical examiners to look into what we're doing and we expect to come out of it squeaky clean," he said.
TelaDoc does not write prescriptions for controlled substances or narcotics. And uninsured patients with chronic medical conditions are limited in their use of the service, according to Gorton.
Beasley, 47, who is starting his own software company in Dallas, has had health insurance on and off for the past two years. He's used TelaDoc for treatment of poison ivy and to get a prescription eye ointment.
"It's certainly not the answer for anything life-threatening," he said. "For people that don't have health care or are in between jobs, I think it's a great add-on."

"Um Yeah...Uh Doc. How do i treat a bullet wound? WAIT! DON"T PUT ME ON HOLD!" This is a positive boon for players of Delta Green, who can now call up a doctor and get the suspicious rash in the shape of a Yellow Sign diagnosed by a professional. Hey, if you've got a camera phone you can even share the love. (Love= San loss)

Europe Has the Hot Hand
PONTEDERA, Italy -- The metallic fingers close around yours in near-perfect synchrony, then tighten their grip as you try to pull away. For now, it is a computer that orders Cyberhand to greet you at the robotics lab where researchers have spent the past 3 1/2 years creating the first prosthetic hand capable of eliciting natural sensory signals.
If all goes well, researchers say this bionic hand could be implanted on human arms two years from now, its wired joints discreetly covered by a synthetic glove

Cyberhand would allow the maimed to have "the feeling of touching things," says Paolo Dario, the project's coordinator at the Polo Sant'Anna Valdera institute in this central Italian town.
The hand is the fruit of cooperation between six teams working in four European countries -- Italy, Germany, Spain and Denmark. For Dario, it is also an example of Europe's enormous, but still relatively underfunded, potential in the fast-expanding field of robotics.
"We have a network, we know how to work together. We are ready to make a leap ahead," he said.
Financed with $1.8 million from a special European Union fund for emerging technologies, Cyberhand was cited as a success by European Commission officials in October when they appealed to governments and industry to give robotics more financial backing.
Increased funding is essential, they said, if Europe is to exploit robotics' vast economic potential and compete with projects in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.
Each year, the commission and EU nations combined spend $100 million on robotics research. Japan and Korea each spend about the same, while the United States spends up to $500 million -- largely because of the huge demand for military-related robotics, researchers and EU officials say.
In Dario's view, Europe's strength in robotics is in a broad approach that is also perhaps more sensitive to the social and ethical issues raised by the increasing use of robots to help humans with everyday tasks.
The Cyberhand team and other European robotics research groups have been more apprehensive than the Japanese about bringing robotic technology into everyday life, says James L. Patton, a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who has closely followed the Cyberhand project.
"They've been pioneers in launching those considerations: what is an acceptable practice for robots, how do we make robots safe, are they safe, psychologically how will they influence people and their behavior?"
In contrast, several robotics experts said, Japanese projects tend to be showier in hopes of making a media impact and attracting funding.
The Cyberhand team not only has tried to develop a hand that would provide greater grip and control for an amputee, but it also has been concerned about the hand's aesthetics.
Giovanni Stellin, one of the Cyberhand researchers, said many patients were ashamed or self-conscious about using the less sophisticated, pincer-mechanism, prosthetic hands developed after World War II and still on the market.
Cyberhand would be attached to amputees below the elbow and covered by several layers of synthetic material that would seek to copy the features of a natural hand by making the prosthetic replacement soft, compliant, and flexible.
Patton says it represents "the first prosthetic hand that really is fully integrated into the nervous system." Linked to the nerves by tiny electrodes and biomimetic sensors, it would let patients sense the position and movement of the hand as well as stimuli from the outside environment.
Though researchers in the United States have covered similar ground, they have not addressed the problems of electrodes, prosthesis, sensory feedback, control, and processing of commands all together, said Silvestro Micera, a Cyberhand researcher.
That type of teamwork is more likely to flourish in Europe, where technology partners are accustomed to working in transnational consortiums, said Micera.
What remains to be seen, Patton says, is whether the materials used for Cyberhand will be compatible with the human body, how a patient's brain will adapt and how the hand can be powered.
Another project touted by European officials is HYDRA, a project coordinated from Denmark that is developing the world's first shape-shifting robot. It is made up of modules, each containing its own processors, batteries, sensors and actuators, which can attach and detach from each other so the robot can change its physical form.
Such a robot could be used, for example, in relief efforts after an earthquake, said Henrik Hautop Lund, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark and HYDRA's coordinator. Having driven to a site, the robot could transform into a crawler to climb over debris, a snake to get through a hole, or columns to hold up a collapsed building and protect a survivor.
HYDRA has developed 100 modules, and Lund is looking for industrial partners who would invest in manufacturing the robot and put it to use. The project, begun in 2001, has received $2.1 million -- about two-thirds of its total funding -- from the EU.
Like Dario, Lund argues that Europe has an advantage in its more integrated approach to robotics. But he also notes the financial constraints.
Member states have failed to agree in recent months on the EU's 2007-2013 budget, so researchers still don't know how much support they will receive, sparking concern that projects could lose momentum.
"One of the problems Europe has had in its robotics research has been getting it out to market as product," said Ken Young, chairman of the British Automation and Robotics Association.
"While we may have a good research network at (the) academic level, I don't see the big industrial players getting involved to the extent they do in Japan and Korea. Ultimately it is these people who will take it to market and make it a success.... In the EU it strikes me we develop some great technology and then leave it for the rest of the world to pick up and exploit."

So not only are we one step closer to the realm of true cybernetics, but we're angling towards a shmelding on cybernetics and shapeshifting robots. If the politics weren't so fucked up, I'd say that this an exciting time to be alive. Shapeshifting robot limbs with touch recepetors. Fuck! I'd cut off an arm if i could get a new one able to turn into a swiss army knife.

At nearly $400 a pack, these stainless steel playing cards are probably too much to actually own (let alone shuffle). Nevertheless, it gives me great comfort to know that they exist and would cause an almighty kerfuffle at a Transport Security Agency checkpoint.

Have you ever gone from a state of not knowing about a thing, to being completely in lust with it in the space of two seconds? If you loved me my minions, You would see that i get this for christmas, along with the usual whores and whisky.

Sorry. Was channeling Warren Ellis there for a minute.

Wasps Could Replace Bomb, Drug Dogs
By ELLIOTT MINOR, Associated Press WriterSat Dec 3,11:49 AM ET

Trained wasps could someday replace dogs for sniffing out drugs, bombs and bodies. No kidding.

Scientists say a species of non-stinging wasps can be trained in only five minutes and are just as sensitive to odors as man's best friend, which can require up to six months of training at a cost of about $15,000 per dog.

With the use of a handheld device that contains the wasps but allows them to do their work, researchers have been able to use the insects to detect target odors such as a toxin that grows on corn and peanuts, and a chemical used in certain explosives.

"There's a tremendous need for a very flexible and mobile chemical detector," said U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist Joe Lewis, who has been studying wasps since the 1960s. "Our best devices that we have currently are very cumbersome, expensive and highly fragile."

The "Wasp Hound" research by Lewis and University of Georgia agricultural engineer Glen Rains is part of a larger government project to determine if insects and even reptiles or crustaceans could be recruited for defense work. That project has already resulted in scientists refining the use of bees as land-mine detectors.
Through the years, Lewis and a USDA colleague, J.H. Tumlinson, discovered that a tiny, predatory wasp known as microplitis croceipes had relied on odors to locate nectar for food and hosts for its eggs — caterpillars that damage crops.

While they don't sting humans, the female wasps use their stingers to deposit eggs inside caterpillars, producing larvae that eventually kill the caterpillars.
The scientists also discovered that plants being attacked by the caterpillars give off SOS scents to attract the all-black wasps and that the quarter-inch-long insects could be trained to associate other odors with food and prey.

"They have to be good detectors because their whole survival depends on it," Lewis said.

Rains said the wasps can be trained to detect a specific odor very quickly. The researchers expose hungry wasps to the target odor, then let them feed on sugar water for 10 seconds and then give them a one-minute break. After three repetitions of sniffing and feeding, the wasps associate the odor with feeding.
Since the scientists couldn't put leashes on their trained wasps, they needed a way to contain them while monitoring their reactions to odors.

Enter the Wasp Hound — a 10-inch-long plastic cylinder made of PVC pipe with a hole in one end and a small fan on the other. Inside is a Web camera that connects to a laptop computer for monitoring the behavior of five wasps housed in a transparent, ventilated capsule.

When the wasps detect a target odor, they converge around the vent, creating a mass of dark pixels on the computer screen. Otherwise, they just hang out inside the capsule.

They can work for as long as 48 hours, then they're released to live out their remainder of their two-to three-week life span.

"What we have ... is a technology-free organism that you can quickly program and use in a highly mobile way," said Lewis, who believes the Wasp Hound could be used to search for explosives at airports, locate bodies, monitor crops for toxins and detect diseases such as cancer from the odors in a person's breath.
"They're very cheap to produce and very sensitive," Rains said of the wasps. "Dogs take months to train and they need a specific handler. Wasps can be trained on the spot."

Rains believes the Wasp Hound could be available for sale in three to five years. He and Lewis are still exploring ways to breed more wasps and to train hundreds simultaneously.

"We've done enough on it to know it's technically feasible to do that," Lewis said. "It's just a matter of completing and refining the methodology."
Lewis believes many other types of invertebrates — bees, other types of parasitic insects, even water bugs — can be trained to sniff out trouble.

"It's opened a whole new resource for invertebrates as biological sensors," he said.

Other scientists also are working to harness the sniffing power of insects.
In 2002, the Pentagon considered fitting sniffer bees with transmitters the size of a grain of salt to locate explosives and relay that information wirelessly to laptop computers.

A British firm, Inscentinel Ltd., sells trained bees and mini-hives where the insects' response to scents from natural and man-made chemicals can be monitored. The company says the system can be used to screen for explosives, drugs, chemical weapons, land mines and for food quality control.

Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at Montana State University, is using bees for mine detection. The bees congregate over mines or other explosives and their locations are mapped using laser-sensing technology.

"Insects and their antennae have an olfactory system that is pretty much on a par with a dog," Bromenshenk said. "They're a whole lot more plentiful and a lot less expensive to come by."

Bromenshenk said bees may be more appropriate for open areas, while the Wasp Hound may be better in buildings.

"The difference is that we let our bees free fly," he said. "That's not good in confined areas like an airport."

Weird. I can see a whole host of lawsuits springing up from this though. A police dog might bite your face off, but it won't sting you and cause you to swell up like the Michelin Man and swallow your tounge. Still, a horde of wasps could search a large number of cargo containers much faster than dogs.

Printing Organs on Demand
Need a skin graft? A new trachea? A heart patch? Turn on your printer, and let it spit one out.
A group of researchers hope printers' whirs and buzzes will soon be saving lives.
Led by University of Missouri-Columbia biological physics professor Gabor Forgacs and aided by a $5 million National Science Foundation grant, researchers at three universities have developed bio-ink and bio-paper that could make so-called organ printing a reality.
So far, they've made tubes similar to human blood vessels and sheets of heart muscle cells, printed in three dimensions on a special printer.
"I think this is going to be a biggie," said Glenn D. Prestwich, the University of Utah professor who developed the bio-paper. "A lot of things are going to be a pain in the butt to print, but I think we can do livers and kidneys as well."
Prestwich guessed initial human organ printing may be five or 10 years away.
The work started as a way to understand biological self-assembly -- such as how an embryo develops -- in the lab, Forgacs said.
While printed DNA and RNA chips have been around for a while, they have until now been printed in two dimensions, Forgacs said. Also, organ printing scientists have figured out how to print not just molecules, but clusters of cells, he said.
Here's how it works: A customized milling machine prints a small sheet of bio-paper. This "paper" is a variable gel composed of modified gelatin and hyaluronan, a sugar-rich material. Bio-ink blots -- each a little ball of cellular material a few hundred microns in diameter -- are then printed onto the paper. The process is repeated as many times as needed, the sheets stacked on top of each other.
Once the stack is the right size -- maybe two centimeters' worth of sheets, each containing a ring of blots, for a tube resembling a blood vessel -- printing stops. The stack is incubated in a bioreactor, where cells fuse with their neighbors in all directions. The bio-paper works as a scaffold to support and nurture cells, and should be eaten away by them or naturally degrade, researchers said.
Though it can take less than two minutes to print a sheet of bio-paper with bio-ink, it can take about a week for such a tube to fuse, Forgacs said.
It's currently feasible to print tubes, Prestwich explained, because the printers output bio-paper in a sort of ever-ascending spiral, like a Slinky.
Helen Lu, director of the Biomaterials and Interface Tissue Engineering Laboratory at Columbia University, thinks organ printing could eventually work. Still, she cautioned that scientists must determine additional details such as how blood vessels are formed in skin, because simply implanting them might not be optimal.
The researchers are aware of the difficulties they face; Forgacs didn't even want to guess at the technology's possibilities.
"There are so many questions at this point to tackle, even at the simpler level, that I really don't want to break my head over what kind of organ we would build," he said.

Fuck. My printer won't even deal with 3"by 5" cards. This is so cool, i may implode. The only real problem with scientific advances like this is that they tend to be so expensive that the people who need them most can't afford them.

U.S. gets bad marks for terrorism preps
9/11 panel: Recommendations on U.S. security not being heeded
U.S. leaders did not understand the "gravity of the threat."
The United States wasn't prepared to meet al Qaeda's challenges.
Terrorism wasn't the chief security concern of the Bush or Clinton administrations.
Failures to thwart 9/11 highlight agencies' inability to adapt to new problems.
CIA effectiveness was limited by use of intermediaries to pursue Osama bin Laden.
Information and analysis wasn't shared across agencies.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The former members of the bipartisan 9/11 commission gave Congress and the president a report card Monday heavy in B's, C's and D's -- with five F's -- saying the nation was ill-prepared for another terrorist attack.
"Four years after 9/11 it is scandalous that police and firefighters in large cities still cannot communicate reliably in a major crisis," said Thomas Kean, the Republican who was chairman of the commission.
"It is scandalous that airline passengers are still not screened against all names on a terrorist watch list.
"It is scandalous that we still allocate scarce homeland security dollars on the basis of pork barrel spending, not risk."
The bipartisan panel, charged with reviewing U.S. security efforts before and after the September 11, 2001, attacks, produced its final report in July 2004, offering 41 recommendations.
The 570-page, 14-chapter report concluded that a "failure of imagination" kept U.S. officials from understanding the al Qaeda threat before the attacks.
More than a year after the report's release, response to the panel's recommendations has been inadequate, Kean and other members said.
"On 9/11 [Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda] killed nearly 3,000 of our citizens. Many of the steps we recommend would help prevent a disaster from happening again. We should not need another wake-up call."
The panel's report card gave the government 12 B's, 12 D's, nine C's, five F's, one A- and two incompletes. The A- was for tackling terrorism financing; the incompletes were for reforms under way for the CIA director and the terrorist travel strategy, due in two weeks.
F's were cited for the lack of an adequate radio band for first responders, poor airline passenger pre-screening, the "burying" of the overall intelligence budget within the defense budget, and coalition standards for terrorist detention.
The report card gave an F to Congress for allocating homeland security funds "without regard for risk, vulnerability, or the consequences for an attack."
The homeland security funds are allocated according to population, meaning that an area facing a low risk of a terror threat gets roughly the same amount of funding per capita as a high risk area, such as New York City.
As a result, funds are being misappropriated, Kean suggested, pointing to the use of funds to buy air-conditioned garbage trucks and body armor for police dogs.
White House, FBI defend progress
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush has "worked to address the recommendations of the commission" -- appointing a director of national intelligence, establishing a national counterterrorism center, tightening border security and implementing other policies.
"President Bush's top priority is the safety and security of the American people," McClellan said in a written statement. "Since September 11, President Bush has restructured and reformed the federal government to focus resources on counterterrorism and to ensure the security of our homeland."
The FBI said its progress has been "sweeping and continuous."
"The FBI has institutionalized our counterterrorism posture by making counterterrorism our overriding priority, shifting resources, and executing an intelligence-driven coordinated national strategy," it said.
It said it has more than twice as many agents, intelligence analysts and language analysts as it did on September 11, 2001, and four times as many members of Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
Long road ahead
The Bush administration has carried out one of the panel's main recommendations for overhauling the nation's intelligence system: the creation of the post of national intelligence director, charged with beefing up intelligence efforts and information-sharing among disparate agencies.
Kean and Lee Hamilton, the Democrat who was vice chairman of the commission, said the United States needs to quicken efforts to secure nuclear sites, and that only "some progress" was made on that front. The report card gave a D to what it called "maximum effort by U.S. government to secure WMD."
"We're talking about doing it in 14 years; nobody thinks we have 14 years," Kean told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Bin Laden "has said he wants to use nuclear weapons to attack the United States. So that's got to be a much higher priority."
The report card wasn't intended to praise or criticize, Kean and Hamilton said. "Our purpose is to be constructive."
It is up to President Bush and Congress to enact the necessary reforms, both men said.
White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley acknowledged that the job of implementing the commission's recommendations is incomplete, but that nearly all have been reviewed and accepted.
"The president reviewed them. We accepted 70 of them in whole or in large measure, and that is being implemented now," he said. "Obviously, as we've said all along, we are safer, but not yet safe. There is more to do."

The Message of the Left at the last election: "Sure, our guy is a dullard but look at how they're fucking things up!"
The Message of the Right during the last election: "FEARFEARTERRORTERRORFEARTERROR...Tax cuts."
And now look at us.
If i were a member of Al-Queada (Sp?) I'd wait, and i'd plan, and I'd sneak on board a bunch of planes on the aniversary of the last attack, hijack them, and plow them into more buildings. Because it's obvious that little to nothing has been actually done to preserve the security of the union. That shit costs money. The Illusion of security is so much more useful to the creepy guys who run our country because it can be jerked away at any time. This is the kind of headlin that makes me want to go out and buy a sniper rifle.

A plan to network enable your car — As long as you don’t have to reboot just before a crash.
On November 14 Network World published an article entitled “U.S. pitches wireless highway safety plan” which discussed the US DoT plan called the VII project. The Vehicle Infrastructure Integration (VII) prject aims to reduce highway fatilities and improve congestion problems by transmitting warnings and road condition data to drivers and automobile computer systems via a 5.9 GHz short range (984 foot) wireless connection as you pass “Roadside Units” (RSUs). Data is gathered from your onboard computer and combined with GPS data, the data collection and transmittal is to be anonymous. You can read more about the proposed system on the concept of operations page.
One week later Network World published a second article entitled “GM to roll out intelligent car alternative” discussing the GM V2V plan based on the existing GM OnStar technology in combination with 802.11a/802.11p networking technology
If you haven’t heard about 802.11p then read this.
The 802.11p protocol, which enables motor-vehicle communications, is due to come before the executive committee of the IEEE (agenda) in Portland, Ore. this week.
The IEEE 802.11p Task Group was established for Wireless Access in Vehicular Environments (WAVE). The Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) is a general purpose communications link between the vehicle and the roadside (or between vehicles) using the 802.11p protocol. ABI estimates that this sort of vehicular communications could see initial expenditures of $1 billion shortly. ITS America stressed the need to support the adoption of a single nationwide standard in the FCC rules
The new 802.11p protocol, just months old, improves on the range and speed of transmission on the dedicated 5.9 GHz licensed band, promising around 1,000 feet and 6 Mbit/s in average use, say reports

Yet another nail in the coffin of personal privacy. Is there anybody who believes this won't be hacked by nefarious individuals for nefarious purposes? If so, do you also believe in santa claus? I'm also of the opinion that it's just another step to law enforcement lobbies asking for the ability to code lock a vehicle via the network. In some cases, this could save lives. in other cases, it could be big trouble. Personally, I think it's about time to start making a list of devices that it's perfectly harmful to add a computer or a network connection to.

NISSAN ANNOUNCES SELF-HEALING PAINT
So you scratched your fancy paint job at the carwash, or scraped it on that limb you meant to trim in the driveway.
Someday soon, buffing out those little nicks won't be necessary.
Car paint is about to get smarter.
Nissan plans to begin offering a paint that repairs its own scratches and scrapes on some models of the X-Trail sport-utility vehicle planned for sale soon in Japan.
"The idea is nothing so new," said Kozo Saito, director of the Painting Technology Consortium in the University of Kentucky College of Engineering.
Research into a similar product, known as self-healing paint, is also under way at UK, said Saito, an endowed professor in mechanical engineering.
Minor scuffs, such as those caused by carwashes and off-road driving, disappear in about a week on cars that have Nissan's Scratch Guard Coat.
The Tokyo-based company says the coating, which contains elastic resin similar to a rubbery surface, is the first of its kind in the world. It developed the clear paint with Nippon Paint Co., company spokesman Kiyoshi Ariga said yesterday.
Car-washing machines account for most car surface scratches, according to Nissan. The Scratch Guard Coat lasts about three years, Nissan said.
Ariga said no decision has been made on whether Nissan will offer the scratch-proof paint, which costs $100 extra, on models sold outside Japan.
Saito said UK researchers will work with a paint supplier to test its self-healing material outside the laboratory setting, but that could take some time.
The Painting Technology Consortium has an annual budget of about $1.2 million and is funded by a number of private companies, including Toyota, Honda and Nissan.
The consortium, which Saito founded in 1993, also focuses on improving the efficiency of the painting process.
Saito said researchers are working on ways to reduce the amount of paint wasted in the spraying process.
One of his students has also developed a system that uses infrared technology -- rather than human inspectors -- to examine completed paint jobs. That system is currently in the patent process and is scheduled to be launched at Toyota Motor Manufacturing's Georgetown plant, Saito said.
Bruce Walcott, associate dean for economic development and innovations management at the UK College of Engineering, said he envisions a day when drivers will be able to press a button and change their car's color.
"Long term, paint is not going to be paint, per se," he said. "It's going to be something smart on there."

Nano-paint. I'm seeing scenes from the movie "Christine" in my head. Sign me up!

Sentencing expected today in Transylvania library thefts
A federal judge is expected to decide today how much time, if any, four Lexington men will spend in prison for the theft of rare books and manuscripts from Transylvania University's special collections library last December.
Warren C. Lipka, Spencer W. Reinhard, Charles T. Allen II and Eric Borsuk pleaded guilty to charges of robbery, conspiracy and theft of major art works earlier this year. Two of the men used a stun device on special collections librarian B.J. Gooch, tied her up, blindfolded her and then stole pencil sketches by John James Audubon, a first edition of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and two manuscripts from the 15th and 16th centuries.
Federal prosecutors have recommended sentences of 11 to 14 years for each man. Defense lawyers argue that the men should receive much less. This morning, U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman heard testimony from an electronics engineer who testified that the stun device the men claimed to have used on Gooch would not cause serious injury and was not a dangerous weapon. John Barnes, an expert hired by the defense, said he tried the stun pen on himself.
"It will make you jump," Barnes said. "It stung."
But Barnes said the only way the pen could be considered a dangerous weapon is "if you jammed it in someone's eye."
But prosecutors question whether the pen was used as claimed -- or if one of four stun guns found at the home of three of the men -- was used on Gooch. Stun guns subdue people with a jolt of electricity.
Defense lawyers say the men ditched the stun pen after the robbery.
If the Coffman finds that the stunning device is a dangerous weapon under the law, it is considered an aggravating factor under federal sentence guidelines and could add years to the men's sentences.

We have books in Kentucky? Why wasn't i told?
On a more serious note, This reads to me like the plot of Mage game. a group of people using non-lethal methods to steal rare manuscripts? Priceless! and in my own backyard no less!

The The Falkirk Wheel is a giant rotating boat lift and elevated canal developed by British Waterways to reconnect the Union Canal with the Forth & Clyde Canal, re-establishing east to west coast access for boats.

a cool new thing if you have the occasional boat chase in your game. Also, i just like the look of the installation. It looks like the sort of place where the X-men should battle the brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

Panasonic Starts 50GB Blu-ray Production
After much chatter and anticipation, Panasonic has finally started production of dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray discs. Ok, so actually, they're calling it a "pilot production"—but hell, if something gets made and they can call it rabbit hunting I'm fine as long as it's in high def. This tech miracle is taking place at the Japanese company's Torrence, CA-based factory and is really the first attempt by any manufacturer to drum up a dual-layer Blu-ray disc.

Dear Panasonic: If you know what's good for you, you'll create a backwards compatible player or you'll create a player that can easily and inexpensively transfer DVD's onto an HDVD format. I don't what you do. I AM NOT BUYING MY MOVIE COLLECTION AGAIN.

That said, 50 gigs is a LOT of space for a single disc. Think of the porn collection you could amass!

Tesco is launching what it claims is the world’s first musical sandwich.
The sandwich plays a medley of Christmas tunes when the packaging is opened. It features the same technology used in talking greetings cards.
“The concept of musical sandwiches is something we’ve been looking at for a while now and we thought Christmas would be the perfect time,” said Tesco spokesman Jonathan Church. “If they prove to be as successful as we think then we will consider a whole range of musical sandwiches. One idea already under consideration is working with record companies to launch songs by new artists on the market by way of the musical sandwich.”
Tesco’s musical sandwich is a traditional Christmas combination of turkey and cranberry sauce with pork and cranberry stuffing.

I'm pretty sure this is a sign of the apocalypse. if not the death knell of western culture as we know it.

With new legislation, Ohio Republicans plan holiday burial for American Democracy
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman

A law that will make democracy all but moot in Ohio is about to pass the state legislature and to be signed by its Republican governor. Despite massive corruption scandals besieging the Ohio GOP, any hope that the Democratic Party could win this most crucial swing state in future presidential elections, or carry its pivotal US Senate seat in 2006, is about to end.
House Bill 3 has already passed the Ohio House of Representatives and is about to be approved by the Republican-dominated Senate, probably before the holiday recess. Republicans dominate the Ohio legislature thanks to a heavily gerrymandered crazy quilt of rigged districts, and to a moribund Ohio Democratic Party. The GOP-drafted HB3 is designed to all but obliterate any possible future Democratic revival. Opposition from the Ohio Democratic Party, where it exists at all, is diffuse and ineffectual.
HB3's most publicized provision will require positive identification before casting a vote. But it also opens voter registration activists to partisan prosecution, exempts electronic voting machines from public scrutiny, quintuples the cost of citizen-requested statewide recounts and makes it illegal to challenge a presidential vote count or, indeed, any federal election result in Ohio. When added to the recently passed HB1, which allows campaign financing to be dominated by the wealthy and by corporations, and along with a Rovian wish list of GOP attacks on the ballot box, democracy in Ohio could be all but over.
The GOP is ramming similar bills through state legislatures around the US, starting with Georgia and Indiana. The ID requirements in particular have provoked widespread opposition from newspapers such as the New York Times. The Times, among others, argues that the ID requirements and the costs associated with them, constitute an unconstitutional discriminatory poll tax.
But despite significant court challenges, the Republicans are forcing changes in long-standing election laws that have allowed citizens to vote based on their signatures alone. Across the US, GOP Jim Crow laws will eliminate millions of Democratic voters from the registration rolls. In swing states like Ohio, such ballots are almost certain to be crucial.
The proposed Ohio law will demand a valid photo ID or a utility bill, a bank statement, a paycheck or a government document with a current address. Thousands of Ohio citizens who are elderly, homeless, unemployed or who do not drive will be effectively disenfranchised. Many citizens, for example, rent apartments where the utilities are paid by landlords. In such cases, the number of people living in utilities-included apartment rentals could actually determine an election.
During the 2004 presidential election, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, J. Kenneth Blackwell, also issued statewide threats against ex-felons and people whose names resembled those of ex-felons. Thousands of such threats were delivered to registered voters who were never convicted of anything, or who were eligible to vote after being released from prison. In 2004 a "Mighty Texas Strike Force" came to Columbus with a specific mandate to threaten ex-felons with arrest if they dared to vote.
It is legal for ex-felons in Ohio to vote, even if they are in halfway houses or on parole. But HB3's identification requirement, combined with the confusion Blackwell has introduced into the process, will intimidate such Ohioans from voting in 2006 and beyond.
HB3 will also reduce voter rolls by ordering county boards of elections to send cards to registered voters every two years. If a card comes back as undelivered, the voter must rely on a provisional ballot. But tens of thousands of provisional ballots were arbitrarily discarded in 2004, and some 16,000 are known to remain uncounted to this day.
HB3 also imposes severe restrictions on voter registration drives. It allows the state attorney general and local prosecutors wide powers to prosecute vaguely defined charges of fraud against those working to sign up voters. The restrictions are clearly meant to chill the kind of Democratic registration drives that brought hundreds of thousands of new voters to the polls in 2004 (even though many were turned away in Democratic wards due to a lack of voting machines).
Those electronic machines will also be exempted from recounts by random sampling, even in close, disputed elections like those of 2000 and 2004.
In 2004, scores of Ohio voters reported, under oath, that they had pressed John Kerry's name on touchscreen machines, only to see George W. Bush's name light up. A board of elections technician in Mahoning County (Youngstown) has admitted that at least 18 machines there suffered such problems. Sworn testimony in Columbus indicates that votes for Kerry faded off the screen on touchscreen machines there. Other charges of misprogramming, reprogramming, recalibrating, mishandling and manipulation of electronic voting software, hardware and memory cards have since arisen throughout Ohio 2004.
For the 2005 election, some 41 additional Ohio counties (of 88) were switched to Diebold touchscreen machines. Despite polls showing overwhelming voter approval, two electoral reform issues went down in improbable defeat. Issue Two, meant to make voting easier, and Issue Three, on campaign finance reform, were shown by highly reliable Columbus Dispatch polls to be passing handily.
The Dispatch was within 0.5 percent on Issue One, a bond issue, and has rarely been significantly wrong in its many decades of Ohio polling. Even opponents of Issues Two and Three conceded that they were highly likely to pass.
On the Sunday before the Tuesday 2005 election, the Dispatch predicted Issue Two would pass by a vote of 59 percent to 33 percent, with about 8 percent undecided. But Tuesday's official vote count showed Issue Two failing with just 36.5 percent in favor and 63.5 percent opposed. For that to have happened, the Dispatch had to have been wrong on Issue Two's support by more than 20 points. Nearly half those who said they would support Issue Two would have had to vote against it, along with all the undecideds.
The numbers on Issue Three are equally startling. The Dispatch showed it winning with 61 percent, to just 25 percent opposed and some 14 percent undecided. Instead just 33 percent of the votes were counted in its favor, with 67 percent opposed, an almost inconceivable weekend turnaround.
No other numbers were comparable on November 8, 2005, or elsewhere in the recent history of Dispatch polling. The startling outcome has thus raised even more suspicion and doubt about the use of electronic voting and tabulating machines in Ohio, which account for virtually 100 percent of the state's vote count.
The federal General Accountability Office (GAO) has recently issued a major report confirming that tampering with and manipulating such machines can be easily done by a very small number of people. Charges are widespread that this is precisely what gave George W. Bush Ohio's electoral votes, and thus the presidency, in 2004, not to mention the suspicious referenda outcomes in 2005.
HB3 will make it virtually impossible for any challenge to be mounted involving any votes cast or counted on electronic machines or tabulators -- meaning virtually every vote cast in Ohio.
Indeed, HB3 will raise the cost of mounting a recount from $10 per precinct to $50 per precinct. In 2004, Secretary of State Blackwell forced citizen groups to raise private funds for a recount, which he proceeded to sabotage. The process, which became a futile electronic charade, cost donors committed to democracy more than $100,000. Three partial, meaningless faux recounts resulted. To date more than 100,000 votes cast in Ohio remain uncounted, including some 93,000 easily-read machine-rejected ballots. .
During the 2004 election process Blackwell, manipulated the number of precincts in Ohio, and issued inaccurate information about their location and boundaries, making a meaningful precise number hard to come by. But with more than 10,000 precincts still in existence, HB3 would make funding an attempt at another recount in 2006 or 2008 cost more than $500,000.
Such an effort might also result in official retaliation. In 2004, Blackwell and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro -- both of whom are now Republican candidates for governor -- tried to impose stiff financial sanctions against attorneys who filed a legal challenge to the seating of the Ohio electors who gave George W. Bush the presidency. The Ohio Supreme Court disallowed the sanctions after the challenge was withdrawn. But HB3 would make such a federal election challenge illegal altogether.
With the electoral process in Ohio all but disemboweled, those hoping for a change of party in upcoming state and national elections are probably kidding themselves.
The 2004 election in the Buckeye state was riddled with deception, fraud, intimidation, manipulation and outright theft, all of which were essential to the triumph of George W. Bush. In 2005, four electoral reform ballot initiatives were allegedly defeated despite huge poll margins showing the almost certain passage of two of them. The most credible explanation for their defeat lies in electronic manipulation of voting machines, tabulators and memory cards which the GAO confirms have no credible security safeguards.
With campaign finance, voter registration, electronic voting, public recounts, district gerrymandering and overall electoral administration now firmly in the pocket of the GOP, and with Democratic opposition that is virtually non-existent on the issue of vote fraud and election manipulation, there is little reason to believe the Republican grip on Ohio will be loosened at any point in the near future.
In traditional terms, the scandal-ridden Ohio GOP would appear to be more vulnerable than ever. Governor Robert Taft has become the only Ohio governor to be convicted of a crime while in office. With an astonishing 7 percent approval rating, he has been compared to Homer Simpson by the state's leading Republican newspaper. Republican US Senator Mike DeWine appears highly vulnerable. The GOP has never won the White House without winning the Buckeye State.
But HB3 will solidify the GOP's iron grip on the electronic voting process and all that surrounds it. Unless they break that grip, Democrats who believe they can carry any part of Ohio in 2006 or 2008 are kidding themselves.
When it comes to 2008, can you say "Jeb Bush?"

If you want to steal a country's power, you don't do it with rockets and bombs and soldiers. You do it with legislation and lawsuits and the death of a thousand cuts. I used to think this sort of thing only happened in fiction. And that's why it works. Nobody can believe that it's actually happening. That how you steal a country. you make people beleive that it's not really happening. This sort of thing makes me wish that i still ran Abberant.

E-Hijacking
Today, 08:41 AM
"E-hijacking" is the term used to describe the theft of goods in transit by altering the electronic paperwork:
He pointed to the supposed loss of 3.9-million banking records stored on computer backup tapes that were being shipped by UPS from New York-based Citigroup to an Experian credit bureau in Texas. “These tapes were not lost – they were stolen,” Spoonamore said. “Not only were they stolen, the theft occurred by altering the electronic manifest in transit so it would be delivered right to the thieves.” He added that UPS, Citigroup, and Experian spent four days blaming each other for losing the shipment before realizing it had actually been stolen.
Spoonamore, a veteran of the intelligence community, said in his analysis of this e-hijacking, upwards of 15 to 20 people needed to be involved to hack five different computer systems simultaneously to breach the electronic safeguards on the electronic manifest. The manifest was reset from “secure” to “standard” while in transit, so it could be delivered without the required three signatures, he said. Afterward the manifest was put back to “secure” and three signatures were uploaded into the system to appear as if proper procedures had been followed.
“What’s important to remember here is that there is no such thing as ‘security’ in the data world: all data systems can and will be breached,” Spoonamore said. “What you can have, however, is data custody so you know at all times who has it, if they are supposed to have it, and what they are doing with it. Custody is what begets data security.”
This is interesting. More and more, the physical movement of goods is secondary to the electronic movement of information. Oil being shipped across the Atlantic, for example, can change hands several times while it is in transit. I see a whole lot of new risks along these lines in the future.

" Hmm." Said the fellow who always likes to play the netrunner...

Sono Finito

One more bit

2005-12-03T01:05:00.000-05:00
Future Feeder
Adam Kalkin’s Push Button House is a shipping container fully pimped out to reveal its lavish insides with the push of a button. “It works like a flower - you push a button and the thing transforms itself.”

I've used cargo containers in a number of scenarios. I once had a group of PC cops discover a nest of Setite gangbangers in a city of containers that had been welded together and sealed. This is just too neat to my way of thinking.