Previously, in Trip's Life...
31 October 2013 - Thursday
I began my vacation by sleeping in forever and then reading a bunch
of Mira Grant.
San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
and How Green This Land, How Blue This Sea are e-book-only
novellas in the world of the "Newsflesh" trilogy, set respectively before
and after the events of the books. One of them features wombats.
Parasite is the first of a new series, not related to
"Newsflesh", and not exactly about zombies, but kind of. Some bits are
kind of familiar from the other series, but I think that just makes it
Mira Grant. There are some bits that seem scientifically implausible,
but not more so than zombies, so whatever.
There were all kinds of things I hoped to accomplish during this
vacation, but the only one I managed today was buying new shoes (which
are just like the current ones, only less worn).
All my Halloweeny games were lost last year, but I went over to
Monkeycat Towers anyway and had dinner with Ayse/Ken/Dave/Ja Baby,
Marith, and all the Austrians (which is only four people, two of them
pretty small, but seemed like a lot). Then all the small creatures went
away, along with the Austrian grownups, and the rest of us played
Dominion until I
had to go home.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
30 October 2013 - Wednesday
I got time off tomorrow and Friday approved! That makes today virtual
Friday!
However, I am secondary on-call this weekend. Time to start using my
psychic powers on the customers!
The Arrivals (Melissa Marr) was not that exciting. It
didn't feel like it had enough to fill a whole book.
The Scorpio Races (Maggie Stiefvater) is not quite as
awesome as The Raven Boys, but it is about horse racing,
sea monsters, courage, and maybe some smooches.
Twelve paws!
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29 October 2013 - Tuesday
I could have slacked off this morning since I worked so late last
night, but morning is when we have the fewest people available, so I
came in anyway, and ended up spending five hours straight on Webexes.
Guh.
And tonight Avalon is with one of her other Internet boyfriends.
Things are very complicated.
The stories in The Mad Scientist's Guide to World
Domination (ed John Joseph Adams) are of variable quality, but do
stick to the theme of evil genius. I particularly liked the Seanan McGuire
one (of course) and the one with the catgirl (of course, but not just for
her).
Twelve paws!
Complicated by Avalon (Thu Oct 31 16:56:42 2013)
The scheduling is complicated anyway, sometimes. I am glad last night was a go. =)
Re: Complicated by Trip (Fri Nov 1 10:49:23 2013)
Me too! But I think really all of life is pretty complicated.
Make a comment!
28 October 2013 - Monday
Customers in Germany broke something that I had to start dealing with
in the morning, and didn't finish with until after 1am. I did get to go home
in there, and we did finish by fixing their problem, but ugh. Monday++.
Avalon was busy with her actual life in Toronto.
Twelve paws!
Yes but by Avalon (Thu Oct 31 16:58:14 2013)
Now I know that if a wine says it is a cabernet, it is cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon mixed. And I know what grows on the Left Bank of Burgundy and what grows on the Right Bank. And I know who is a very Right Boyfriend. =)
Re: Yes but by Trip (Fri Nov 1 18:51:28 2013)
What kind of wine is the same color as this blush?
Wine by Avalon (Tue Nov 5 17:50:51 2013)
Pinot noir
Re: Wine by Trip (Wed Nov 6 08:40:31 2013)
Wow, I didn't realize I blushed that impressively!
Make a comment!
27 October 2013 - Sunday
The plague levels are decreasing, so today we had Surprise Bonus Brunch,
with Austrians! Of course everything Ken makes is good, but the mild
Italian sausages from Whole Foods were also surprisingly tasty.
I did not get to see Ja Baby and the Surprise Austrian Friend, but I
am assured it was exceptionally adorable. And they played together so
Marith got to do something besides entertain Ja Baby!
After becoming replete, I had to go back home to do stuff. Like see
Avalon, who still makes me happy.
After the success of Soon I Will Be Invicible, prose supers
seem to have become a thing, and Vicious (V E Schwab) is part
of that thing. (I can't say "prose superheroes" because both the antagonist
and protagonist of Vicious are pretty clearly supervillains,
though not public ranting ones.) Does the best supervillain win? That's a
good question...
At the end of volume 17 of Battle Angel Alita: Last Order
(Yukito Kishiro), it looked like volume 18 was going to be the grand
finale, but in fact the great disaster was averted in like a page, and the
rest of the volume was people trying to find Alita in whatever new state of
being she has achieved (and failing).
It is finally cold enough at night that I turn on the little space
heater. The cats seem to approve.
Make a comment!
26 October 2013 - Saturday
No brunch, because Monkeycat Towers is a House of Plague!
Dave and I offered Marith moral support at IKEA. Soon she will have
a sofa and stuff!
- Cross Game 32-33: [SPOILER] is probably not actually
[SPOILER], but she seems like a perfectly nice girl.
- Toaru Majutsu no Index 4-5: Of course everyone thinks
they're doing the best thing possible in the circumstances.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 21-22: The plot thickens!
(No Nurse Angel Ririka, because Ayse is busy adoring her
friend who just escaped from Austria after a year.)
Kinslayer (Jay Kristoff) is the next book after
Stormdancer. There is some very creepy and horrible stuff in
that world, but my theory for the origin of the gasoline weed has not yet
been confirmed. But really, if you have something that inimical to normal
life, and a [SPOILER] is placed on the mantel in the first act...
Twelve fliffy paws.
Make a comment!
25 October 2013 - Friday
Made it to Friday, and I don't have to do any of the work this
weekend!
Avalon's library has delivered to her books that I recommended.
Hopefully I still remember them well enough to discuss them
intelligently!
FirstFable is
a very simple game designed to get kids hooked create a
new generation of gamers. It is not innovative, but it is simple, and
the character classes are knight, animal keeper, fairy princess, and
pirate, so it seems fit for its purpose.
Under
the Moons of Zoon is science-fantasy adventure in the vein of Barsoom,
but it's not very well done. Since I don't know any Italian, I can't
complain about the rules needing editing for grammar and idiom, but the
setting is not that interesting and the rules are an old-school
hodge-podge.
I read all of Robot Hugs. You
could too.
Twelve adorable paws!
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24 October 2013 - Thursday
Dumb Cow Orker R apparently couldn't be bothered to read the training
schedule our boss came up with and decided to present half of one of
next week's lessons. The order of lessons isn't that important,
but holy crap, how hard is it to read a web page?
Mountain Echoes is the eighth and apparently penultimate
book in the "Walker Papers" series by Internationally Acclaimed Author C E
Murphy, which is good because the main character is running out of past to
overcome, has pretty much achieved her romantic goal[*], and has
nigh-nigh-infinite power. So, next volume will presumably be the GRAND
FINALE!
[*]Yes, I understand why, but I still think there were more
interesting options.
Catherynne M Valente is mostly known for fantasy, but Silently and
Very Fast is definitely SF. However, most of it is set in a
dream-like, even hallucinatory internal virtual environment, so it is
fantastic, even if not fantasy.
I finally finished reading Doorways to Extra Time (ed
Anthony Francis, Trisha Wooldridge) which I picked up because someone I know has a story
in it. None of the other stories were astounding, but none of them were
stinkers, so it did okay for an anthology.
Itras By is sort
of like a diceless, European, laid-back version of Don't Rest Your
Head. So not at all like it, really, except for being set in a surreal
city of surreality.
Paw count still twelve? Okay, good!
Make a comment!
23 October 2013 - Wednesday
HAPPY HAPPY AYSE-DAY!!
And the chest freezer she has been looking forward to was
successfully deliverated!
Oh no! As of today, there is no more Jinian T Cat. :( She was
very old and had been in poor health for a while, so it is not surprising,
and she got to be with her best human at the end, so it is probably as good
a way to go as could be hoped for, but I am still not in favor of cats
dying. :(
I hope Ja Baby is not too distraught. She has been told that eventually
Jinian would become too sick to live with them any more, but I have no
idea if that helped. :(
Avalon-hugs make up for some bad things.
I liked the stories in The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us
All better than other Laird Barron I've read, possibly because
the monsters are less blobby and formless.
Oz Reimagined (ed John Joseph Adams, Douglas Cohen) is
pretty much what it says on the tin. Some of the stories (including the
Seanan McGuire one) are "see the violence inherent in the system",
others are alternate experiences that could have given rise to the Oz
stories, or adventures in variant versions of Oz, or whatever. I liked
McGuire's story best, unsurprisingly.
I picked up Stormdancer (Jay Kristoff) because it had a
cover quote from Patrick Rothfuss, and did not go too far astray. It is
steampunk, but Japanese instead of European, with creatures of legend, and
the environmental and social damage of an industrial revolution are major
elements.
Twelve paws that show no signs of dying any time soon, thank
goodness!
You forgot by Avalon (Thu Oct 31 16:59:43 2013)
To say you got her the freezer.
Re: You forgot by Trip (Fri Nov 1 10:48:48 2013)
Too much like bragging!
Make a comment!
22 October 2013 - Tuesday
Yep, even more training.
Look, new iPads! I wonder if I want one.
Who do I think I'm kidding?
Yes, cats, I am telling Avalon you say hi!
The Wide, Carnivorous Sky (John Langan) is horror with
monsters and experimentalism, like the zombie apocalypse told in the
form of a stage play.
I'm not sure if Indexing (Seanan McGuire) is actually
finished, since it is a Kindle Serial and could sprout another chapter at
any time, but the first plot arc is definitely complete, so I will review
it now.
It is awesome, at least partly because the seed idea is so obvious
once someone else has thought of it, but as far as I know no one except
McGuire has thought of it (or at least they haven't published). Also,
Sloane is great. Horrible, but great. And of coure that's who
the villain is.
Although the book is called Fantastic Erotica: 2008-2012
(ed Cecilia Tan, Bethany Zaiatz), I would rate it as pretty (in)decent
erotica. But undeniably with spec-fic elements to all stories! Mostly it is
by people I've never heard of, but there is a story by N K Jemisin.
Make a comment!
21 October 2013 - Monday
Ugh, Monday. Back to the training mines. (It's not even a training
montage.)
No Avalon for me! She is with one of her other boyfriends.
I have been looking forward to tremulus ever
since I discovered that it was too late to join the Kickstarter, because
how can you go wrong with Cthulhu + Apocalypse
World Engine?
The reality is not quite as awesome as I had hoped, but still pretty
good. It did not leave me with a clear idea of what to do when a player
chooses to find a clue as the outcome of the Poke Around move, and some
of the monster stuff either cares too much about humans or is too
defeatable. However, these are minor quibbles.
Muahahahahahaha.
Fade to Black (Francis Knight) is explicitly fantasy, but
otherwise is very much like near-future-dystopian SF. The main character
ends up with a bit too much specialness for my taste, but it's not his
fault, and he mostly doesn't let it go to his head. I also approve of
how the romance subplot was resolved.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
20 October 2013 - Sunday
Suddenly, no gaming! Jeremy is sick.
Adam and Dave were already en route, so the three of us had brunch
and sat in a park for a while and went to see Cloudy With a Chance
of Meatballs 2, which was surprisingly imaginative and also full
of terrible puns.
Hm, maybe I should not have kept Avalon up so late on a work night,
after making such a big fuss about her taking care of herself. I am
repentent! But smug.
The Grim Company (Luke Scull) is pretty grim fantasy about the
resistance in a world in which a cabal of dark lords slew the gods and
stole their MPs. The PCs are a pretty mixed bag, and as of the end of
the book, also pretty doomed.
It's fantasy, so there will probably be another book.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
19 October 2013 - Saturday
No brunch, only Zuul.
New manga!
Monster Musume (Okayado) is harem cheesecake, but it has a
snake-girl (also a harpy and a centaur so far, but I like the snake-girl
best). Yes I am horrible.
But, I am not as horrible as
Love in Hell (Reiji Suzumaru), which has lots of Hell and
very little smut love.
Arrows of
Indra is an OSR game (meaning, house-ruled 0e
or 1e
D&D) based on Indian mythology (the Mahabharata, etc). Castes
are not character classes, but the spirit is similar.
Arnhack is not even listed on RPGGeek, possibly because there is not
really anything to it.
- Nurse Angel Ririka 2-3: Now we have one side's
explanation for the horror that is about to befall Earth and why a
Nurse Angel is the appropriate magical girl. Ririka's human boyfriend
is still pretty cool.
- Cross Game 30-31: Recap and reincarnation! (Well, not
really. Probably.)
- Toaru Majutsu no Index 3: Yay, ritual magic!
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 20: Now that one
source of angst has been cleared up, two more must arise to take its
place.
Twelve fuzzy paws!
Make a comment!
18 October 2013 - Friday
Yay, Friday!
I went to Lee's and turned in my
Previews order form so they don't have to get grouchy at me for calling on
Tuesday quite as much.
Box Office Poison (Philipa Bornikova) is the further
adventures of a suspiciously lucky lawyer in a world full of vampires,
werewolves, and elves. In this episode, actors and conservative nutbars are
added to the mix.
The Hollow City is another book with a mentally-ill
protagonist from
Dan Wells, but this time it's paranoid schizophrenia instead of
antisocial personality disorder. The antagonists are about equally
creepy, though.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
17 October 2013 - Thursday
Ugh, training. I think the stupidest of my new cow orkers has been
late every single time, so we keep having to repeat the first half hour
of the session for him, and often more than once. I'm not sure he gets
it even then. The other new cow orkers have not displayed amazing
stupidity yet.
Fragments (Dan Wells) is the sequel to
Partials, and follows so directly from the ending of the
earlier book that I cannot say much about it without spoiling.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
16 October 2013 - Wednesday
Hurray, Avalon-smooches!
Equoid (Charles Stross) is a new short piece in the
"Laundry" setting. Biology doesn't have to be extra-dimensional to be
horrible!
A Stranger in Olondria (Sofia Samatar) is secondary-world
but arguably not fantasy (just because someone sees a ghost doesn't mean
there is a ghost). It reminded me somewhat of Le Guin (or at least what
I remember Le Guin as being like) but I find it quite dull. Not bad,
just not very interesting. I guess it is for people who are not me.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
15 October 2013 - Tuesday
The library attacked me and forced these books into my backpack! That's
my story and I'm sticking to it!
Adventures
of the Space Patrol is a heartwarming game of the Space Patrol helping
people. It is by the same person who translated Golden
Sky Stories, but an original work, and based on the Fate
Accelerated system. I quite like it, but I noticed that all the
female pregen characters are described as young and attractive, while the
attractiveness of the male characters is not brought up at all (and the
male characters include both a little kid and an old geezer). Five years
ago, I probably wouldn't have noticed this at all, never mind found it
problematic.
Not that I have any moral high ground here.
The backer preview of OVA
is pretty rough, and fairly simple. Roll some d6s based on the values of
your abilities (all rated on the same scale), take whichever set of
matching values gives you the highest total, compare to target number,
profit. But it is just a preview.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
14 October 2013 - Monday
Another work week? With training? No thanks, I just had one.
What do you mean that wasn't a question?
Ayse recommended Black Wine (Candas Jane Dorsey) very
highly, so I snagged it from Amazon (which is horrible, but really
overwhelmingly convenient). I was not as astounded, probably because I am a
grotty little genre reader. It is well-written, and reminds me a little of
Jim Grimsley in the way the setting unexpositedly has a mix of magic and
various tech levels. There is a lot of terrible stuff (probably triggery to
many people) because a major theme is the difficulty of going from a
horrible violent culture to a fairly sane one, and horrible violent culture
is horrible and violent.
Only 857 years late, I have finally read all of
Digger (Ursula Vernon), and it is awesome all the way
through, although there are sad bits. Wombats & hyenas FTW! Shadow
Babies FTAugh!
I will probably read it again when I get the giant paper version. Or
maybe use it to crush my enemies.
Twelve paws that show no signs of digging a hyperspace tunnel or
developing a complex mythology, thank goodness!
Make a comment!
13 October 2013 - Sunday
No gaming this week. Only lethargy. And cats. And Avalon!
Mage's Blood (David Hair) technically falls into the
"fake-Europe fantasy" but the setting is complex enough (including foreign
entanglements in fake-Middle East and even fake-India) that it does not
seem like an inflatable D&D setting. Or maybe I just like it because the
weird old guy gets the hot young chick.
Vast magical power corrupts... vastly and magically?
The Dream Thieves (Maggie Stiefvater) follows directly from
the cliffhanger last line of The Raven Boys and explores
its implications, which are full of DOOOOOOOM and magic and extremely
alarming people.
I don't think I'm describing this well, but I'm not sure how to
describe it more without spoilers.
Make a comment!
12 October 2013 - Saturday
Marith is away in Parentland, so for brunch we had scrambled eggs
with peppers and mushrooms, spicy fried potatoes, and avocado. But then
we spoiled it by having French onion soup for dinner, which she would
have liked. We liked it too!
Ayse was too busy/sleepy for Nurse Angel Ririka again.
Possibly we should be adding a fourth series back to the main lineup and
assume NAR will be a once-in-a-blue-moon thing. If we do
that, Marith and I both vote for Legend of Korra.
- Cross Game 29: Ah, the mid-plot setback that the heroes
must overcome in order to get victory in the end.
- Toaru Majutsu no Index 1-2: So far it looks like pretty
generic shounen.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 18-19: They could
have made us wait a lot longer for that and it would probably have
been better.
The Raven Boys (Maggie Stiefvater) is unusually numinous YA
fantasy set in a small Virginia town full of class differences, ley lines,
and assorted family dynamics (some of them fairly horrible, some of them
just confusing). This is not the sort of magic you wield, this is the sort
of magic you try to lure in a helpful direction.
Ayse was comparing it to the other good YA fantasy we have read
recently, Sarah Rees Brennan's "Lynburn Legacy" series. tRB
has much more numinous magic (does that mean anything beyond
"unexplained"?) and goes into more detail about the brokenness of the
protagonists, but has much less witty banter and fewer clever plans. I
guess that makes it more mimetic. It is also better written from a
technical perspective.
Fortunately, there is room in this world for multiple
serieses that I like a lot!
Azumanga Daioh (Kiyohiko Azuma) is still pretty swell,
although I think I may have read it almost enough times.
It is getting cold enough that the cats always want to sleep next to
me.
Raven Boys by Avalon (Wed Oct 16 15:17:22 2013)
I liked that book. =)
Re: Raven Boys by Trip (Thu Oct 17 08:28:27 2013)
I liked it very much too! And the second one (which I will write about when I get caught up that far)!
Make a comment!
11 October 2013 - Friday
No training today, only Zuul customers.
Not much Avalon tonight, but I will probably survive!
Reading instead.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
10 October 2013 - Thursday
HAPPY HAPPY MARITH-DAY!!
Today I did not have to do the training, but I did have to keep my
stupid cow orker from running off the rails. I think I kept him from
imparting too much factually incorrect information, although he did
spend too much time talking about things that weren't on the lesson
plan (such as it was).
Someday the rest of Avalon's life is going to complain that I am
stealing all of her time, but I will see how long I can get away with it
for.
The Tyrant's Law (Daniel Abraham) is the third but not last
in "The Dagger and the Coin". Various quests and plots of the viewpoint
characters grow, bear fruit, or crash ignominiously to a halt, and by the
end of the book everything is even more screwed up. Also, possibly the
world is doomed, or will be doomed by the countermeasures against the
original doom.
I want to say something about one of the viewpoint characters, but I
don't think he is actually intended to embody the theme, "why nerds
should never get power or sex".
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
9 October 2013 - Wednesday
Even more training! Also customers.
Hurray smooches!
In Untold (Sarah Rees Brennan), all the clever, awesome
characters from Unspoken continue to be awesome and clever.
With dooooooom!
I'm not sure what Holly's deal is, though. Is the fooling around just
an escape from [SPOILER], or are they connected? Maybe this is obvious
to people who are not idiots.
The Lost Stars: Perilous Shield (Jack Campbell) is the
second in the spinoff series from "The Lost Fleet" that follows renegade
authoritarian-dystopians in their ongoing attempt to set up a
functioning society without being reconquered or eaten by aliens. I
totally did not see that last plot twist coming, although possibly I
should have, but I hope [SPOILER] has a motivation beyond pure
megalomania.
Twelve fliffy paws!
Hooray smooches by Avalon (Sun Oct 13 11:22:45 2013)
Oh yes =)
Make a comment!
8 October 2013 - Tuesday
More training, not conducted in a significantly different fashion. The
n00bs say they are learning stuff...
Avalon-smooches! Hurray!
The next book in the series is out, so I reread
Unspoken (Sarah Rees Brennan) to prepare for it. Kami is so
awesome. Angela is awesome. Rusty is awesome. (Jared is crazy, but I'm
sure if I were a girl, he'd be awesome.)
Now I am properly looking forward to Untold!
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
7 October 2013 - Monday
Yuck, Monday. Also, training of n00bs, which I was supposed to be
doing but which was mostly done by my boss, who talks really fast and
never shuts up. At least he's not an idiot like the previous boss.
No Avalon for me today! She is with another of her boyfriends.
Autumn Bones (Jacqueline Carey) is the second in the
"Agent of Hel" series, about a very nice young woman who happens to be
half-demon and responsible for keeping supernatural goings-on in a small
Wisconson town down to a dull roar. In this episode: mushy stuff! (Duh,
it's Carey), and undead doom of various sorts.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
6 October 2013 - Sunday
Adam ditched gaming with some goofy excuse like being too sick to get
out of bed, which sort of threw a wrench into Jeremy's planned
adventure. Nevertheless, we did successfully play
Immortal
Empire, and my character's backstory even came up! I forgot to claim
Fate points for it, though, because we all still pretty much suck at the
Fate point economy.
Adam better show up next time! We have things that need stealing!
Absurdly valuable things that could get someone killed!
Hurray for Avalon!
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
5 October 2013 - Saturday
Today we celebrated Ja Baby's birthday with sushi! Also Marith gave her a
camera that was a big hit. (Yes, they make digital cameras for
preschoolers. I feel old.)
- Persona4 25-26: The triumphant conclusion! It was not
actually terrible.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 17: Well, we did see
a body, but...
Then Marith had to fall over.
Ame-Comi Girls (Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray) seems to be
an alternate DC Universe in which all the superheroes and supervillains
are female. This is not much of a change for, eg, Wonder Woman or
Catwoman, but means Power Girl fills Superman's role, Batgirl patrols
Gotham with a female Robin, etc. The world needs saving and might get
it.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
4 October 2013 - Friday
Yay, I made it to Friday!
Sniff, no Avalon. She is all busy with life and stuff.
Beyond
the Wall and Other Adventures is definitely OSR in mechanics (three
classes, levels, hit points, etc), but does have some more modern elements
(increasing AC, BAB). It is explicitly intended for the subgenre of
"intrepid young people set forth from their village", so although there is
a generic character creation system, the recommended method is to use the
playbooks of various standard archetypes (tomboy daughter of the local
noble, village witch's apprentice, strange kid who lives in the woods, etc)
which are a cross between character sheets and customized lifepath tables
that determine stats and skills as well as history, and implicate the
character of the player to your right in your early misdeeds. It seems like
a good way to set up characters, but unfortunately then you have to play
old-school D&D...
Anima Prime is
one of the subgenre of anime RPGs (really FF7 in this case,
but same principle) that use the dice to simulate dramatic elements or
fight choreography instead of character abilities.
Archipelago
is sort of like Polaris,
with the dicelessness and the significant phrases, only not inevitably
tragic. In fact, it's pretty open-ended about what kind of stories you can
tell; the name is just from it originally being used to play something very
much like Earthsea (also mentioned as an inspiration for
Beyond the Wall, synchronicitously). For the most part, each
player just narrates their character's progress toward the destiny they
have chosen from the ones offered by their fellow players, but the other
players have some ability to throw spanners into the works, and the players
who have ownership of various aspects of the setting (geography, magic,
history, whatever seems in need of coordination) can veto obviously
unsuitable play.
Archipelago is more personal and less historical than
Microscope but
I get a similar vibe from it.
Dial S
for Superhumans is a supplement for Truth & Justice
with a bunch of superheroes and supervillains produced by a contest of T&J
players. They are okay, but do not streth the boundaries of the genre.
Twelve fuzzy paws!
Make a comment!
3 October 2013 - Thursday
Blblblblblblblbl.
Today, Avalon has managed to not light any of her house on fire, but
is very sleepy.
Always/Never/Now
is kind of like Lady Blackbird,
an adventure with pregen characters and a simple system included.
(Actually, it's explicitly inspired by LB and shares a few
mechanics.) However, it is not steampunk × Star Wars, it
is straight-up cyberpunk. I did not read the scenario, which is apparently
more structured than LB and therefore could actually be
spoiled, but it seems to involve the PCs' old head conspirator reappearing
after having been mysteriously absent for a decade.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
2 October 2013 - Wednesday
Huh, looks like the office is still full of humans. Weird, I thought
they would have fixed that by now.
Oh dear, Avalon's kitchen caught on fire! Fortunately it was just a
small bit of grease and easily dealt with, but it sounds much too
exciting!
Hurray, Aztecs! Well, not really; New Fire is set
in a mythic version of Meso-America, with different names for many
things, but it seems reasonably authentic (with a cultural consultant
and everything) and is full of chocolate-and-blood flavor. There is a
huge amount of detailed setting description, which is necessary for the
authenticity but might be a bit unwieldy for effete modern gamers who don't
want to read hundreds of pages of setting before making characters. In
contrast, the system is pretty minimal, and based on the expectation
that people will just narrate what happens until someone says "ORLY?"
and then people dice off to see who gets to narrate and how much the
other side gets to dictate. It is expected that periodically one or more
PCs will choose to die gloriously, either in heroic action or on the
altar, because, well, Aztecs!
Dime Stories is pretty much the epitome of "Western in
space": prospectors and riffraff in a boomtown on a desolate planet that
just found unobtainium deposits, and you can be an alien or a robot or
something. No spaceships on-screen; that would be like going back East
and giving up on the inevitable fortune.
Kaoru Mori is at it again, with a fifth volume of A Bride's
Story full of insanely detailed clothes! She is a loon! But it is
very pretty.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
1 October 2013 - Tuesday
HAPPY HAPPY JA-BABY DAY!!
Once someone with l33t plumbing sk!llz got to my shower, it took
literally about thirty seconds to fix. (Bit of debris in the shower head.)
But! Now I am soggy and — well, whether I am less disgusting is in
the eye of the beholder, but at least now it's not so much in their
nose.
Working from home is still unproductive, but at least I can skip that
tedious commuting business and go directly from working to seeing
Avalon.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
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