John W. S. Marvin

Obamacare Comes Home

2011-02-14T14:48:00.000-08:00

My son was recently rejected for health insurance for a pre-existing condition. While he's under 26, my insurance company's window to add him isn't until late summer.
So now Connor is part of the Federal Medical Insurance Pool, part of the Paitient Protection and Affordable Care Act, AKA Obamacare. This pool covers people with pre-existing conditions until 2014, when insurers can't deny coverage because of these conditions.
Now when I hear tea baggers talk about killing health care reform, I know what's at stake. My son's medical insurance.

Game Book: Rogue Trader: Edge of the Abyss

2010-11-25T13:24:00.000-08:00

Rogue Trader: Edge of the Abyss by Fantasy Flight Games

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a great book for Rogue Trader games masters.

I liked Edge of the Abyss. There is enough there that is useful that will help me GM exciting RT games. My favorite bits:

Legends, myths, and lies. Great mood setters and examples of documents your players might come across.

The Breaking Yards at SR-651. What a great place to make repairs, meet pirates, and do business.

The Eldar: My players love the Eldar and Dark Eldar, even if their characters do not. They want more Eldar adventures, and these four Eldar (or 3 Eldar, 1 Dark Eldar) factions will help get that kicked off. I love the light cruiser.

The Rok 'Gol: A chaos worshiping race that looks like the Geiger designed monsters from Alien? That shows up when the players are at any archeological dig site? Works for me.

The Stryxis: My players are already fascinated by this race. Enough details and fluff to use them in many encounters.

Chaos Reavers. Yes please. I'm already using the Brotherhood of the Horned Darkness as the power behind several rival rogue traders. Time to ratchet it up and bring out the big boys.

Kasballica: Great. I've already built in a shadow war between the Kasballica and the Ameranthine Syndicate.

Vaults of the Forgotten. I'll mod it before I use it, but it's a fun action / horror scenario. You could substitute the Ameranthine Syndicate for the Kasballica if that's the way your campaign is moving. And I really like the hooks. The PCs are minority investors with the control being in the hands of criminals.

Most of the rest isn't bad, just not as useful to *my* campaign. I wish they had cut all the space they devoted to rival rogue traders (there are enough in "Lure ot the Expanse") and really fleshed out the Disciples of Thule and the "mysteries" of the other worlds. Vehicles for each race would have been nice. Worlds that would have helped my campaign:

a sample Pirate haven
a high tech, but non-Imperium, planet to trade with
a Thulian forge world

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Game Book: Rogue Trader: Into the Storm (long)

2010-08-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

Rogue Trader: Into the Storm

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

There is only one reason for players of Rogue Trader not to get Into the Storm, the game's newest supplement. If buying the book means not making rent, then don't. (I paid $50.00 for my copy, bought by a friend at Gencon). While not perfect, this a ridiculously good expansion of the game, and the only player-friendly supplement for Rogue Trader outside of the core rulebook.

Given they all share the same basic game system, Into the Storm has useful crunchy and fluff bits for both Dark Heresy and Deathwatch. Much is Rogue Trader specific, but players of the other two 40k games would find a lot to mine from. Players of other science fiction role playing games might find it an interesting read, but the rules are intrinsically tied to the Games Workshop's Warhammer 40k setting. This is neither a nice nor a realistic setting, but is a damned cool one.

Some of the standout materials are the expansion of character creation and customization, the vehicle rules (perfect for Dark Heresy and Deathwatch games), and the ability to play as an alien on a Rogue Trader vessel. The aliens covered are the Ork and the Kroot.

The hardbound, 256 page (2 pages for the index, 2 pages for ads) book is a handsome piece of work, with a generous helping of well done color and black and white illustrations. There are eight chapters.

Chapter I: Advanced Origins doubles the choices for a player character background. There are new character Home Worlds, Birthrights, Motivations, and so on. An optional Lineage is added to the Origin Path, letting the character start play as Disgraced or Witch Born among others. All this change does not invalidate anything a player may have come up with using the core rulebook; these are additions, not replacements.

This chapter also includes an alternative method to create a starship. Instead of rolling for Ship Points to spend, players can build one up using an Origin Path for starships.

Chapter II: Koronus Carreers adds the Kroot Mercenary and the Ork Freebooter as player character options. The Ork is surprisingly well done, and the opportunity to play a battle crazed green spore creature working for the "humies" has a lot of role playing potential. Not to mention the bird-like Kroot, who can assimilate traits of their enemies by eating them. Each alien gets their own Origin Path.

Also in Chapter II are Alternate Ranks, where a player character can deviate from the skills and talents of their chosen profession and spend a rank pursuing a specialty, such as becoming a Flight Marshal (think Starbuck) or and Ork Mekboy (who can turn any piece of useful equipment into something much more useful for a short period of time -- then turns into worthless junk). Elite advances add smaller customizations at a lower price.

Chapter III: Extended Armory is a big toy box. Not just weapons and armor, but also medical equipment, drugs, bionics, and special equipment for Orks and Kroot.

Chapter IV: Starships Expanded has new hulls and components for starships. Now the players can build all sorts of ships, and the GM can throw new designs at them. There are example Rogue Trader vessels, including the Sovereign Venture, from the free Rogue Trader Quickstart adventures.

Chapter V: Vehicles, covers ground, air, and small spacecraft. How fast they move, how many people or how much cargo they can carry, and how they can shoot at (and ram) one another. High speed chases, aerial dogfights, crashes and more are covered. 14 sample vehicles are listed, included iconic 40k examples such as the Aquila Lander, the Rhino armored personnel carrier, and the Ork Warbike.

Chapter VI: Expanded Psychic Powers not only adds more powers for Navigators and Astropaths to choose from, there are new extended actions for both professions to use in Starship Combat. No longer do the three eyed Navigators and the blind Astropaths have to sit there and look pretty while the pilot, gunners, and auspex operators get all the glory. Now they can use their psychic powers to tip the balance the next time a pirate fleet tries to take on the player's starship.

Chapter VII: Enhanced Game Mechanics is the chapter where they put all the new rules that didn't fit in the other chapters. Social Interaction Challenges can be used to sway planetary rulers, sign trade agreements, broker peace treaties, and more. The mechanic is very similar to Exploration Challenges from the core rulebook and fills the same purpose as the 4E Skill Challenge, albeit with more player control.

Endeavours get some extra attention with the addition of Background and Meta Endeavours. A Background Endeavour is one where the players hire the work out. It's beneath them, they would rather be swashbuckling across the stars than hauling ore, so they let their hirelings take care of it. Sometimes the hirelings screw up. Royally. Meta Endeavours string together many endeavours to create an entire campaign. While interesting, that's not how my game rolls. I don't have every game session planed out for the next two years of playtime. But the concept made me think harder about the theme and direction of my campaign.

Expanded Acquisition Rules spell out what happens when player characters throw too much money and influence around. Bad things, like attracting the attention of thieves or even the Inquisition.

Ship Roles creates a job description that player characters can choose to fill. While the Rogue Trader will take the Lord Captain slot, the rest of the players have many choices, such as First Officer, Choir-Master Telepathica, and Ship's Confessor. Not all roles suit every type of player character, but there are plenty of choices. Each role gives the Gamesmaster another way to involve the players in running their ship and each player a bonus to a useful skill.

Chapter VIII: Port Wander is an extensive gazetteer of this enormous space station. Maps, history, major movers and shakers, shady meeting places with shady characters, adventure hooks, and dark secrets. This chapter tips into Gamemaster material at times. Having the less detailed Footfall gazetteer in the adventure Lure of the Expanse at least keeps the secrets out of player hands. Still, this is an excellent example of what to put into a Rogue Trader setting. There is a sidebar on the use of Port Wander in Dark Heresy games.

Problems: Some of the tables don't include everything they should, such as the ships components table leaves out a plasma drive. Some of the examples confused me more than the rules they were meant to illuminate, like the first Social Challenge example. Where did that -10 on the Blather test come from? (After a long time, I think I figured it out. It should have said in the example.) I'd rather have a 4 page index than 2 pages of ads. But these are nits.

Overall: Highly recommended.

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Meet the new Bosses

2010-08-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

In order to up my productivity, and get my book done, I've taken on a new boss. Instant Boss.
http://appsapps.info/instantboss.php

This allows me to work, take a short break, then reminds me to get back to work. So far, so good.

My other boss is Bupropion. I use Bupropion as an ADD medication. It has changed things, but gives me bad dry mouth, which my dentist does not like. I no longer have any craving for caffine in the afternoon, and my contribution to Starbuck's bottom line has dropped 98%.

Yet I can still goof off, so I'm not sure I'll stay on it. I hate the dry mouth, but I'm drinking a lot more water.

So far, Instant Boss is a keeper.

Book Review: The Grand Ellipse by Paula Volsky

2010-06-24T14:27:00.000-07:00

The Grand Ellipse by Paula Volsky

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book takes Around the World in 80 days and turns it into a race not only to see who can complete the Grade Ellipse first, but also to see if anyone can stop a brutal empire is on the road to enslaving the world.

While the point of view shifts between characters, Luzelle Devaire, adventureress in a mock Victorian world is the heroine. Volsky does a fantastic job of showing us a woman in a man's world who will just not give up. If she wins, she has a shot at saving her country and is guaranteed control over he own life.

The exotic world that mixes gas light technology with the fantastic is the backdrop of Luzelle's race for freedom. Among her many competitors there are two men who she is attracted to, each from opposite sides of the war that is about to engulf her nation.

Great fun, with high stakes and a character you come to know better than she knows herself.

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2010-05-25T14:37:00.000-07:00

A Song Of Ice And Fire Roleplaying: Adventures In The Seven Kingdoms by Robert J. Schwalb

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the upcoming HBO mini-series based on A Game of Thrones, there is buzz again about George R R Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series.

The other day, my gaming group tried out the quickstart rules for this roleplaying game, and I was quite impressed. At no time did I feel lost, that I was just playing a generic fantasy role playing game with no purpose but to slay monsters. We were all members of the same house, a young lord, who has taken over the house at the age of 14; his uncle, the proud knight; his bastard brother who dreamt of one day becoming the master of horse; the young squire, who has hidden her gender in service to her dream of becoming a knight; and so on.

So I picked up the rulebook. I have the ugly orange cover, but the rules are well done, and my original feeling that this game will ground you in a noble house is born out. There is a chapter telling the players how to design their own house. Players will get to decide on building castles, towers, and other buildings to hold their lands. They will have to chose between devoting resources to defensive fortifications, political influence, lands, law, population, military power, and wealth.

Like any role playing game, there is a chapter on combat. There are also chapters on intrigue and large scale warfare. Seduction, poisoning, lies, and the rest of the staples of court intrigue are covered.

The rules follow the books very closely. You can create a character like any of those found in the books. You can be a cripple who has had his third eye opened and can see through the eyes of his dire wolf, like Bran Stark. You can be a noblewoman who stays within the boundaries of her class and gender while striving to protect her house and family like Catelyn Stark. Or a dwarf (human) nobleman with a big mouth and bigger wit like Tyrion Lannister. And so on.

Besides gold and experience, the players also work for glory. Glory is a resource for their house, which can be spent to improve the house's fortunes.

The cover art is annoyingly bad, but some of the other illustrations are fine.

If you wonder about roleplaying in a fantasy world based on a series that is not complete, this game is set just *before* Game of Thrones. This is a very low magic world, which is quite refreshing.

Recommend for George R R Martin fans who are also gamers. Or should it be the other way around?

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Terrior 2010

2010-05-04T11:09:00.000-07:00

This weekend McMinnville hosted the first Terrior writing conference. Ursula K. LeGuin was the opening speaker, who presented a rather funny take on storytelling, and why it's better to make things up as opposed to stick to the facts.

"Fact is hard to come by, and is very controversial. You are more likely to connect in a shared reality with your reader if you write Fiction."

She went on to liken life expeience to compost. "You never know what will come up. You think you're planting a petunia, and up pops an eggplant. This is good. Go with your eggplant."

On falling book sales: "The majority of people have never read for pleasure and never will. That's OK. There are more readers than writers, and it's your job to find a way to write and get paid for it."

There were many other speakers and workshops, and I took away useful ideas from each one I attended. The offical site: http://artsallianceyamhillco.org/pages/programs.html#Anchor-Terroi-29856

Dark Thursdays

2010-04-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Alison asked me if we could have one day a week where we don't use electronics for entertainment and noodling. Sounds like a good idea to me. No chasing Robot Chickens in Azeroth, no hunting wargs in Middle Earth, no TV, no Radio, no YouTube, no email, no Facebook. Even no Blogging. My kindle gets a dispensation, as reading is a good thing.

Thursday is the day. So if you send me a message, you'll have to wait until Friday for a reply.

Game Book: Lure of the Expanse

2010-04-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

Rogue Trader: Lure of the Expanse by Fantasy Flight Games

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This a campaign for the Rogue Trader role playing game. In order to use this, you'll need a copy of Rogue Trader as well. This review is aimed at Games Masters who may be considering Lure of the Expanse, and contains spoilers for players. Stop now if you are a player!

My guestimate is 15 to 20 sessions would be played out before the end of this campaign. The approach is modular, so you could skip parts, or just cannibalize pieces for use in your own adventures. Or you could add your own customizations.

The plot is a race to claim a world of immense wealth, somewhere out there among the Heathen Stars. There are nine Rogue Trader dynasties, including the player's, competing for the prize. Each of the NPC Rogue Traders has their own agendas, modes of operations, and personalities. They all start out as rivals, but may become bitter enemies or even allies. The book covers how they will probably act at major plot points of the campaign. There is no reason to believe all nine Rogue Traders will be alive at the campaign's end, but it could happen.

This hard bound book is full of immersive, high quality, art that sets the mood for your role playing games. The illustrations are both color and black and white.

The book is broken into three parts:

I. Eye of the Needle. This which sets up the action with an adventure on the asteroid-city of Footfall full of intrigue and prophesy. There the players meet their rivals. When they leave Footfall, they have their first run in with the Eldar in ship to ship combat.

The play then progresses to the Heathen Stars, where the prophesy has led them. There are optional encounters in transit, many of which highlight the role of one of the players. For example, one deals with a warp storm that threatens the ship, and the player who is the pilot gets a chance to shine. Should your group not include a pilot, you may decide to skip this encounter and focus on the ones that most directly include your players.

At the end of the journey they find a planet with Eldar ruins and a broken star map to the treasure world. Local flora, rivals, and the Eldar will complicate things for the players. Each rival is given a course of action, but it is up to the GM to decide which rivals arrive on planet when the players are there and how they react to any player overtures or attacks.

II. The Heathen Trail. In order to complete the star map, the players must take readings from a number of other worlds found on the map. How many is up to the GM. If the GM has a world of their own design they want to insert into the campaign, this is a perfect place to do it. Each world has an Eldar structure where the reading must be taken.

Five worlds are given, and on each there is an Eldar device where the players must take the readings. The GM is advised the players need to take readings on at least three of them, but if everyone is enjoying themselves there is no reason not to have them do all five. The players could find a rival has beaten them to a world and destroyed the structure needed to take the reading. Some rivals are more likely to be encountered than others. And the Eldar would like to stop the players if they could.

On some worlds, the players could go in, take the reading, and leave. But on all the worlds there are optional side adventures that can lead to more profit for the trip. Each of the worlds is unique and entertaining in their own way.

Should the players skip a world or two, they could always return after the campaign.

III. The World Beyond. Here the treasure planet called the Dread Pearl is described, along with it's treasures and dangers. The world has been hidden by warp storms for 10,000 years, and now the storms clear.

The remaining rivals swoop in as well. The book describes the likely actions of the rivals, the native humans (descended from a lost ship thousands of years ago), and the Eldar. Treasure is all about.
Some of the rivals try to co-opt the natives, one bombards them into submission from orbit, and another herds them into slave ships. So much for paradise.

This is a lost Eldar Maiden world, and the returning Eldar wake their planet up. The GM is given almost unlimited power to throw at the players as countless Eldar Wraithguards awake to cleanse the world of the human taint.

The Eldar summon back the Warp Storms to prevent the world from falling to the humans, and the players must get off world with as much treasure (and perhaps rescued natives) as they can before the world is sealed for another 10,000 years. Options are given that allow for a variety of exciting escapes from the Dread Pearl.

Overall The book includes the ships of each of the rivals, as well as an Eldar craft. The adventures allow for space combat, diplomacy, investigation, exploring alien worlds, chances to engage in criminal enterprises, and some serious role playing with the rival Rogue Traders.

There are a few places where a little more guidance would have been useful, particularly in how the players could upgrade their own ship with the salvage they can do during this campaign. I just know my group will want to try that.

If you GM Rogue Trader, you will want this book. Even if you just pick bits of it, you'll want this book. Highly recommended.

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David Levine returns from Mars

2010-04-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

David Levine spoke last night at Powell's Technical Books on his recent trip to Mars. David is a science fiction writer, and was chosen to be the crew journalist on mission 88.

Wait? What? Mars?
David went on a simulated Mars expedition run by the Mars Society. He wore a space suit, did science, wrote a blog from Mars, and fixed leaky toilets. The site of the Mars landing is really in Utah, far away from anything. The "astronauts" use only what they bring with them into "space" and have to constantly improvise repairs and workarounds.

One of his takeaways is how much of a "protagonist" he and the five other crewmembers became. If something went wrong, they fixed it right there. No waiting, hoping someone else would take care of it. That's part of the simulation, since Earth is a long way away, and repairman won't come visit.

It was obvious he and his crew mates bonded. Which was well, as the shower wasn't working. Sponge baths only.

Book Review: Silver Borne (Mercedes Thompson, #5) by Patricia Briggs

2010-04-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Silver Borne (Mercedes Thompson, #5) by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Here's what I said when I just started the book: I really need to understand how Briggs manages to make these books so wonderful. My life is better when I'm reading one of these.

Now that I've finished it, I'm not so enthralled.

It's almost as good at the previous books, lots of very interesting things happen, many are unintended consequences caused by Mercedes' adventures in the past, and there is some great character development.

I wavered between 3 and 4 stars, but the plot was a bit of a let down.

This is the fifth book that starts off with Mercedes in the cross hairs. I would love to see a plot where she is proactive.

Most urban fantasy heros have noir professions that lend themselves to being proactive. Wizard for hire, private investigator, police...

It's cool that Mercedes is a Volkswagon mechanic, but that doesn't create a reason for her to go out and seek trouble. Five books where trouble seeks her out is a little much.

I liked the set up to the climax. I liked the aftermath. But I missed the climax. Without giving anything away, I didn't really believe Mercedes' solution worked. I kept reading a few paragraphs thinking it had failed. Then "oh, that worked."

Anyway, I enjoyed reading this book, will read the next, but I hope this was a transition to a more proactive Mercedes Thompson.

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Book Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

2010-03-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Recomended.

Silly me, I saw the movie before reading the book. And the film followed the book fairly closely, at least until halfway through. Without spoiling either, they end with differing moral dilemmas.

I don't read a lot of books with omniscient narrators, but it worked for this novel. It did feel a little cold and distant. But I needed some distance from the brutal center of this mystery.

I enjoyed the setting in Sweden, it made me think about how women's rights have, and have not, advanced world wide. The Swedish title is "Men Who Hate Women," for good reason.

Nit: Why couldn't the English translator leave it in metric? My world model for Sweden does not include square feet or Fahrenheit. He/she did leave kilometers in when the action shifted to Australia. Is Australia more metric than Sweden?

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Cherie Priest Reading

2010-03-26T22:56:00.001-07:00

Cherie Priest read at the Beaverton Powell's from her book Boneshaker. It's a great Steampunk read, and she's a great speaker. She's very enthusiastic about Steampunk, history, writing, and wild ideas.
I left fired up to work on my Mongolian Steampunk short story. It's been languishing on my laptop's hard drive, and it's time to make it publishable.

Nhoj Fail

2010-03-18T16:12:00.000-07:00

/cry

Dear John W.S. Marvin:

Thank you for applying to the Clarion West Writers Workshop for 2010.

We are sorry to let inform you that you were not selected for this year's class. We had a large number of applicants, and because the workshop is limited to eighteen students we could not find room for all of the promising writers.

We wish you the best with your writing and hope you have a productive summer.

Thank you again for your interest in Clarion West.

Sincerely,

Neile Graham

Oh well, I didn't like the focus on short stories while I'm trying to finish my novel. I'm bummed, but what can you do? Work harder and get this novel done!

My Republican Edits Aren't Working, Time for Universal Plot Care

2010-03-15T14:51:00.000-07:00

I've been getting consistent feedback on my novel from my critique group. And I've been trying to fold my fixes back into the new chapters before I hand them out. But I keep getting the same broad strokes feedback: Humor's great, Plot's not strong enough.

While watching the news on the Health Care Reform debate, I heard a Republican say "Let's just do small things, one at a time, that we can all agree on." And President Obama say "We need comprehensive change or it just won't work."

So, channeling my inner Obama, it's time for bold, comprehensive, edits.

Buntho Critique Group

2010-03-13T22:26:00.000-08:00

I put up a new website using Blogspot for my Science Fiction and Fantasy critique group. Check it out: http://buntho.blogspot.com.

We are named Buntho because we came out of a Ursula K. Le Guin Portland State class. In her critiques, Le Guin would give the reactions of a clueless, literal-minded reader named "Buntho."

Clarion West

2010-03-09T12:22:00.000-08:00

I applied to Clarion West Writer's Workshop. I sent in the first three chapters of Voodoo Coffee and a synopsis. I'll hear if I got in or not sometime this month. Fingers Crossed!

2010 Clarion West Writers Workshop

Our instructors for the 2010 Clarion West Writers Workshop are Michael Bishop, Maureen McHugh, Nnedi Okorafor, Graham Joyce, Ellen Datlow, and Ian McDonald, the 2010 Susan C. Petrey Fellow.


Michael Bishop	Maureen McHugh	Nnedi Okorafor	Graham Joyce	Ellen Datlow	Ian McDonald

Book Review: Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

2010-03-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first novel in what has become my favorite urban fantasy series. If you have never read urban fantasy, this would be a great place to start.

Mercedes Thompson is a Native American shapeshifter and Volkswagen mechanic who get involved with some dark deeds when strangers attack an employee of her's. The strangers and the employee are werewolves, and as we follow Mercedes in her dealing with the dark forces that have invaded her life, we learn of her unique childhood. She was raised by werewolves in Montana.

We also get to meet the local "alpha" werewolf and his punk rock daughter, and a host of interesting minor characters. The setting is in the Tri-Cities, Washington. It's modern, and while the public do not know about werewolves or Native American shapeshifters, the magical fey have gone public. Instead of magic being unknown by the public (Jim Butcher), or common place (Kim Harrison), it is in the process of coming out of the closet.

While the cover may indicate otherwise, this isn't lady-porn. Mercedes has a past, has some men (non-human, but male) in her life, but sex and romance support the story, they do not take it over.

The plot, character building, and backstory never get in each other's way, and the book just kept building to a major confrontation. Really nice writing.

Loved it.

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DELL FAIL

2010-02-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

If I ever even hint of buying anything from Dell again, please shoot me.

I ordered a nice I7 gaming rig in September 09. It was to include a free upgrade from Vista (boo!) to Windows 7 (yea!).

The shipment was delayed over and over again. By the time I got it in November, Windows 7 was already out. But I had (and still have!) Vista. Boo!

So in November, I go to the Dell website and register for my free upgrade. I thought, "that's pretty sneaky, if I hadn't gone here, I wouldn't have gotten the upgrade." Little did I know.

The web site told me I was registered, and I would get an email from Dell when my Windows 7 upgrade was available.

Come Febrary, I'm starting to wonder what's going on. So I use the Dell chat customer support. I call customer support. I get a different message each time I call.

Friday I'm told "No problem, we can take care of you. Expect an email telling you how to get your upgrade soon."

Today, Monday, I get a call while I'm out. Alison can't understand what the man is saying.

So I call the number and after lots of hold time I get told I'm too late. I needed to have called in January. For the upgrade I've been waiting for since November. For a computer that should have shipped with it pre-installed.

I hate Dell.

Tattered Fates, Post Play

2010-02-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

Back in May 09 I read and reviewed the Dark Heresy adventure Tattered Fates.

We finished it last night. Overall, it was a lot of fun.

Choo Choo My players didn't complain too much about the railroading of starting the adventure already captured. I think it was because it was already done, "off screen," so we didn't have one of the those long fights where the players have to lose.

High Times Finding the dying Inquisitor was a high point, as was wandering around Xicarph wondering what the hell was going on. The best part was watching my players decide which baddie to trust. The criminal boss at the big fighting pits? Or the more powerful, but creepier Spider Bride? They went back and forth on that issue, but came down with the fighting pit boss. The Spider Bride was just too creepy.

Lows The low point was the Widower. The game mechanic to kill the Widower was an interesting one. If the players did less than 20 hit points in a round, there was no effect. If they did 20 or more, the Widower died. I had heard the Widower was too easy to kill, especially if the party has a powerful pysker (we do). So I bumped it to 30, and he still went down before harming the party.

Why? Well, it really made sense for the Widower to take out trash talking Heron Mask first. I should have had him sneer at the Beloved and rip open a player, but I thought a demonstration of his power would be exciting. Oh well.

Then there are the players. They like to unload on the first round and go for a quick kill. Burn Fate Points, use special weapons and ammo, whatever helps.

Then there are the weapons my players had. The adventure starts off with them bare knuckled and fighting hand to hand, and gives ideas on where the players equipment might be stored, should the GM want to give it back.

I considered not giving anything back, but the psyker had his brain, and the rest of the adventure threatened to be the psyker and his little friends. So I had most of the equipment sold off, but not the melee weapons. As I my players reach the upper levels, I'm really opening up the equipment choices to keep the others competitive with the psyker, so there were two power weapons in the mix, including Greel's power scythe from the House of Dust and Ash.

What I wish I had done: Changed the Widower to die only on the second round where the hit points exceed the threshold. Maybe even the second consecutive round.

2010-01-19T16:58:00.000-08:00

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very funny book. If you like Terry Pratchett, you'll like Unseen Academicals.

The plot concerns what happens when a violent street sport not unlike football/soccer gets the attention of not only Lord Ventinari, the beloved dictator/assassin of Ankh-Morpork, but the wizards of the Unseen University and an ancient goddess. But what it's really about is Mr. Nutt, a strange creature who calls himself a goblin and works at the university making the candles dribble just so. Mr. Nutt has some interesting abilities that shake Discworld to its foundations, or at least its elephants.

Like any Terry Pratchett book deciding what it's really really about is never easy. Sport as a replacement for war. Identity. Moving beyond history. Kindness verses love. And really good pie.

There are plenty of fascinating characters, such as Trev the fast talking young man who has fallen for Juliet who can't make great pies. And Juliet's best friend Glenda who can. Plus you get to cheer on the wizards of Unseen University as they put together their own foot-the-ball team.

Any guesses on who plays goalie? Hint: Oook Oook!

Another great Discworld book. Keep them coming.

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Support Doctors Without Borders in Haiti

2010-01-14T13:51:00.001-08:00

Interactive Fiction Review: Dragon Age: Origins

2009-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

There are plenty of reviews of the computer role playing game Dragon Age: Origins, but I wanted to take a look at the software as a piece of interactive fiction.

5/5

The main story arc of a fantasy hero or heroine facing down a world threatening evil is the spine of any story you can experience in Dragon Age: Origins. It is the personalities, relationships, and the details that are under the player's control. Your choices determine what kind of person the hero is, good or evil, pure or corrupt, innocent or hedonistic rake hell. And what kind of hero you have brings out different qualities in the supporting cast of the story.

Conversation is by "pick a line." The screen shows a close up of the person you are talking to. You click on what to say at the bottom of your screen. If the game designers don't provide an option, you can't create your own. Most of the time there is a "cut to the chase" option, where you focus on the main story problem, a few probing questions that can give you deeper understanding of the situation, and a snarky insult or two.

Once you say something, the supporting character replies in smooth animation, and you hear it spoken by a voice actor and see the text at the top of your screen. It can be as short as a "No." or as long as a song.

Sometimes your options include actions, such as "Kiss her" instead of dialog. When she deflects your kiss with a joke, you have the option of laughing it off or showing her how serious you are. It's amazing how easy it is to flirt if your dialog is all chosen from a menu. There is no problem telling in advance which response is going to piss her off when you see it in text, juxtaposed with some serious heart-felt sentiments. If real life were like this, my dating days would have been much less stressful.

The graphics are very good, and can show a lot of emotion. Morrigan appears cold and callus almost all of the time, but every once in a while her face registers a deep sadness and regret if what you tell

her pierces her defenses.

Most of the time, the choices that you have made in the past are reflected in how people treat you and what your current choices are. You get so used to that, that when it doesn't happen, you are thrown out of the illusion and are slapped in the face that you are just dealing with a piece of software. The worst example of that I ran into was in the elven ghetto called the alienage. I had just defeated a secret conspiracy, came out a back door, and ran into a blind man who wanted to give me a quest to look for a secret conspiracy. I wanted to say "I just did it!" but that was not an option.

As the supporting cast reacts to you, their attitude changes. If they like you a lot, it might lead to romance depending on the person and your reactions. Anyone who likes and trusts you more becomes more powerful in the action scenes. You can find or buy gift items and then give them to your friends to further improve their mood. Different characters respond to different gifts in unique ways. Their dialog will often include throw away lines that are clues to what items would please them most.

At it's heart, Dragon Age: Origins, is a game. You can't not save the world, except by putting the game down. You can't just do the interactive fiction bits and not play the game. But if you like the game anyway, the story will drag you into the interaction. Which is done well enough to make you forget you are playing a game.

My wife walked by while I was conversing with a character, saw them speaking, and asked "Are you watching a movie?"

No, I was in the movie.

Book Review: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

2009-12-28T16:32:00.000-08:00

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like urban fantasy, but it's dominated by women writers and after a while the girly-girl and lady-porn aspects can distance me. Well, at least the girly-girl scenes. :)

I picked this up because Jim Butcher is the best selling male author of urban fantasy, and he has a male protagonist. I'm writing an urban fantasy, and I have a male protagonist, so there is my motivation.

Great, book, with powerful, muscular writing. Not a girly-girl scene in sight, and plenty of great fantasy-noir action. The magical action choreography was riveting, and there were parts where I found myself unable to sit and read -- I was so pumped up I had to stand and pace while reading.

The protagonist, Harry Dresden, is a Wizard/Private Eye in Chicago, and people are turning up dead in gruesome ways and it looks like Harry better find and stop the killer or he will be next.

The world building is well done, if a little inconsistent. Vampires, fairies, wizards and more exist in the shadows of our modern world. Magic and technology do not mix well, and Harry's mere presence causes machines to fry. In this world, most people do not believe in magic, but there is plenty of proof and plenty of believers, so I had to shut down the part of my mind that insisted this magic stuff would be on CNN 24x7.

While some of the initial character motivations were lost to me in the world building of the first few chapters, once the plot was rolling, I couldn't put the book down. Lots of quirky minor characters, including a horny spirit who lives in a skull in Harry's basement, gave the book a wise guy fantasy feel. Harry's cluelessness with the ladies was ladled on a bit too strong, but I have the feeling Harry will be working on this problem in the rest of the series.

Quibbles aside, I loved this book. I read it on my Kindle, and wanted to read faster and faster, so I was alway pressing the next page button before I finished the current page. I need to stop doing that.

If you like noir and fantasy, check out Harry Dresden.

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Game Book Review: The Radical's Handbook

2009-12-15T15:31:00.000-08:00

Dark Heresy RPG: The Radical's Handbook by Fantasy Flight Games

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This supplement to the Dark Heresy role playing game covers radicals. A radical, in this game-world, is someone in the Inquisition who uses the tools of the enemy to get things done. Deamon weapons, xenos tech, anything proscribed, as long as it gets the job done.

The book includes game mechanics for players who wish to stray down the radical path, and for game masters who wish to use radicals against their players. There are alternate career ranks like Sin Eater and Tainted Psyker, and elite advance packages including Deamon Vessel and The Exorcised. And plenty of radical toys for players or adversaries.

Also covered are many different radical cults: including those that believe they can enslave chaos to do the Emperor's work, those that believe have damned themselves by using chaos, and there is no salvation, and radicals who believe that the Imperium is stagnating to death and must be forced into radical change.

A topic that is not covered, but I wish is were, is what happens to an Adepta Soritas who goes radical?

There is some repetition of material between this and Disciples of the Dark Gods, such as deamon weapons. While the book is useful to players who wish to be radicals, it has many spoilers. A GM who is worried about this might want to change a few names, and not to protect the innocent.

This book would be useful for an Dark Heresy GM. Radicals make great opponents, even to other radicals. For those who want to run a radical campaign, this is indispensable. Plenty of great artwork, and a fun read for any Dark Heresy player or Games Master.

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Book Review: Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

2009-12-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Magic to the Bone by Devon Monk

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I met Devon Monk at Orycon last weekend. She was on an Urban Fantasy panel, and she's sharp and sounded like she knew what she was about. And she sets her Urban Fantasy in Portland. I'm writing an Urban Fantasy set in Portland.

So out came my Kindle and 42 seconds later I had Magic to the Bone.

It's a fun, fast read. Allie Beckstrom is a Hound, a person who uses magic to track down other magic users, like the person who almost kills a young boy in Johns Landing. She runs into Zayvion Jones, a close lipped man who has been hired by her father to watch her.

Violence, romance, and some very intense magic ensues as Allie tries to stay alive. And when she uses magic, she often looses memories. Large parts of her life are gone, and the more she uses, the less she can recall. A serious price to magic.

The book is in first person, from Allie's point of view, except for a few scenes in third person that center around a strange prisoner called Cody. Since it's in Allie's PoV, it's very jarring when she can't remember what happened a few pages ago. The reader feels the price she pays.

I would give this four stars, except for the ending. I enjoyed the entire book, but the ending did not grab me. Will the other books have endings more to my liking? I liked this enough to want to find out.

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Book Review: Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

2009-11-05T18:49:00.001-08:00

Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Wow. I loved reading this book.

It concerns a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, a warrior who is hired by a seemingly benign organization, called the Culture, to push wars the Culture can't stop one way or the other. He acts as a warrior, general, spy, and commando as needed.

He is wanted for a major mission, but he has vanished. Sma, a woman who is his handler goes out to find him for this critical mission.

The structure of the book is part of the reading pleasure. There are two alternating sets of chapters that thread together. One chapter thread is in the book's present and each chapter moves forward in chronological order. These chapters are titled "One," "Two," and so on. The intervening chapters are exploring Zakalwe's past, and they are moving backwards in time with each chapter. These are titled "XIII," "XII," counting down as they go further into the past.

And Zakalwe has a deeply troubled past.

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Book Review: Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett

2009-10-17T17:59:00.000-07:00

Eisenhorn by Dan Abnett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Originally published as three novels, this is well written fiction set in a game world: the gothic science fiction game setting known as Warhammer 40k. I hate the idea of game world novels, but this book is surprisingly enjoyable. The author added two short stories between the novels, and I have to say, the first short story blew me away. The second was very good as well.

While the novels are SF thrillers, the short stories are mystery/horror, and my favorite parts of the collection.

The taught pacing kept me turning pages and staying up late. My main criticism: I found the ending a bit underwelming. It made sense, wrapped up the main threads, and was well written. But after a wild train ride with plenty of high points, it was just one more. I wanted something bigger.

That said, quite an enjoyable read. The emotional highs and lows were well done and carried me along. The action scenes were fast and furious.

If you like gothic space opera, you'll like it. If you have any interest in the Warhammer 40k world, read this book. If you play Dark Heresy, you *must* read this book.

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Gnomes Love Me

2009-10-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

My Rogue Trader review got a mention in the latest Gnome Stew.

Thank you Martin and Gnomes everywhere.

Game Book Review: Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook

2009-10-04T23:18:00.000-07:00

Rogue Trader RPG: Core Rulebook by Fantasy Flight Games

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the new Warhammer 40,000 role playing game from Fantasy Flight Games (FFG). I'm looking at the collector's edition, but aside from the binding, the paper, and the case it comes in, it's the same content as the normal edition.

I can think of two types of people who may be interested in this book, and I'll try to address each of them. Number one, people who are interested in playing the game, either as a player or a Games Master (GM). Second, since this is an offshoot of Dark Heresy, another game set in the same grim future, would Rogue Trader be useful as a source book for that game?

What's special about this game? The players start out with their own starship, and in charge of a crew that numbers in the tens of thousands. They have so much money, they don't bother to count it. They are outside the Empire of Man, and a law unto themselves (mostly). There is starship combat, exploration, black market dealing, and buying and selling of entire worlds. Big scope.

All the rules for playing the game are here in this one book. This core book is for both the GM and the players. You can count on plenty of supplements being published in the future, but they are not required. You can buy this book, some dice, and play for years.

The rule set is based on the same rules used in Dark Heresy. And the Dark Heresy rules were based on the rules from the second edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role Play. Which is interesting, because FFG just abandoned those rules for Warhammer Fantasy Role play and are coming out with a total redesign for a third edition.

In any case, players familiar with Dark Heresy will feel right at home in Rogue Trader. In fact you can bring your Dark Heresy characters right in and they will work in Rogue Trader adventures. Combat works the same way, the skills and talents overlap considerably, and equipment is interchangeable. Psychic power has gotten a makeover, and is more similar to the rules for everything else, abandoning the dice pool for the same percentile dice roll used for navigating a starship, shooting a bolt gun, or charming an ambassador. There are conversions from Rogue Trader psychic powers to those in Dark Heresy and back again.

Rogue Trader is a fine sourcebook for Dark Heresy GMs. They could use almost everything in this book. Not the profit and commerce rules, but pretty much everything else. Dark Heresy characters at the end of rank five are about as powerful as starting Rogue Trader characters. A heretic Rogue Trader would be an interesting and powerful high level challenge for a group of Dark Heresy acolytes near their top ranks.

For people unfamiliar to Dark Heresy, the basic rules are simple: roll percentile dice to do anything, trying to roll you skill or under. If you roll well under or well over, special things happen, either for or against you. Complexity comes from what skills you have, how they are modified, and what toys (more on that later) you get to use. Like most role playing games, the complexity is layered on, and the game starts out with a limited number of choices and then grows more interesting as new avenues open up. Note that anything Warhammer 40,000 is not realistic science fiction simulation. Over the top cool beats realism 100% of the time in this Gothic future.

What if you know nothing about the Warhammer 40,000 world? Unlike the new fourth edition of Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks, this book is fun to read. It is drenched in deep background. I think you could pick up the main thrusts of this grim and Gothic future with just this book. If you want more, there are plenty of books, games (computer and tabletop), and websites full of 40K backstory. Certainly for a player, this is all you need. GM's will probably be drawn to finding out more. I'm sure FFG will be cranking out supplements for some time full of information.

I am impressed with the starship combat rules. Every player character has important work to do, every round. The rules cover ramming and boarding action. The rules are abstract, cinematic, and evocative. But if you get a direct hit on your opponent's warp drives? Try not to be too close and get sucked into the warp, perhaps forever.

But is it pretty? The art is fine, about on the level of a good graphic novel. Sometimes a very good graphic novel. Which is about par with most of art in Dark Heresy. However, it doesn't have the truly great art found mostly at Chapter Heads of Dark Heresy.

Problems:
There is no way to land on a planet. The players can design their own starship, but the book doesn't mention shuttles.
The rules cover how skilled the starship crew is, but not how that skill could be improved.
They mention retainers, which sound like high level crew members, but there are no rules to cover them.
There are suggestions on what to do if no one wants to play the Rogue Trader, but not the other top crew positions. What if there is no player navigator? And the crew is fairly unskilled? The ship might never go to its intended destination. That's when I think a high level NPC would be hired, but the GM will have to wing this.

Role Playing Game Checklist

Character Creation: Yes, including a varied background that allows characters to share past history with each other.

Character Origins cover Home World, Birthright (childhood), Lure of the Void (why they are driven to leave the Empire), Trials and Travails (past history), Motivation, and Career.
The career paths are: Rogue Trader, the captain; Arch-militant, the combat monster; Astropath Transcendent, the blind telepath; Explorator, the bionic engineer; Missionary, the fanatic priest; Navigator, the three eyed mutant who can guide the ship through the warp; Seneschal, the expert who can uncover the secrets; and Void-master, the pilot. There is plenty of room to customize each career, and all of them are useful in personal and ship to ship combat.

Cool Toys: Oh, just starships and chainswords (chainsaw-swords) and power armor. And alien artifacts, and, and, and...
Cool Powers: Every career has it's own shtick, a way to do something cool no one else can. Both the Astropath and the Navigator have psychic abilities.
GM Bits: A chapter on how to GM, three chapters on background, a chapter on bad guys and aliens, and a starting adventure (players should not read!)
Player Controlled Storytelling: Not much, not required, but some. Players are encouraged to come up with descriptions of their home world. Players can take the initiative and help create endeavors to increase their wealth, power and prestige. On a scale of 1 (4E) to 10 (Burning Wheel), I'd give Rogue Trader a 3 or a 4, depending on how it's played.
World Background: Well, Galaxy background. Three chapters devoted to it, and the rest of the book is drenched in world building. The game assumes the players will be exploring the Koronus Expanse, a sector of the galaxy that gets it's own chapter.
Monsters and Bad Guys: 36 pages of Adversaries and Aliens. You can also bring in any from Dark Heresy.
Sample Adventure: Yes, which introduces the players to the Koronus Expanse and touches on a some of the high points of the game. It looks like a fun one.

Overall: Great game. I'm still having fun with my Dark Heresy game, and will use this as a sourcebook until I, and my players, are ready to move over. I'm looking forward to it.

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Book Review: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

2009-09-17T15:21:00.000-07:00

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read the Yiddish Policeman's Union first, and I really didn't want to like Kavalier & Clay better. Because I loved the Yiddish Policeman's Union, and because people said I had to. I'm so contrarian. They tie. For first place.

Both books deal with the Holocaust from an American perspective. This one deals with two Jewish wiseguys who help start the comic book business from offices in the Empire State Building. One wiseguy, Clay, is American, the other, Kavalier, a Czech refugee from Nazi occupied Prague.

The book is about many things. Secrets, love, the Holocaust, the Empire State Building, magic, Jews, Harry Houdini, the Golem of Prague, sex, and Comics. It is written as history, with fake footnotes and all. As if the Escapist, the comic book the characters create, was real and has fans and collectors today.

After the Yiddish Policeman's Union came out, much was made of Chabon writing genre fiction. After being awarded a Pulitzer for Kavalier and Clay and everything! Some people were upset. They obviously didn't read Kavalier & Clay closely. It drips with love of comics, magic, science fiction, and their fans. There are a few brief moments of magical realism in Kavalier and Clay, and references to Lovecraft pop up in the oddest of places.

Wonderful.

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RPG: Mouse Guard Impressions

2009-09-14T15:23:00.000-07:00

I GM'd Mouse Guard for my old Seattle RPG group this past weekend. On the whole it was a great success. It took about an hour for all of us to get into it, and understand the rules.

When GMing, the rules tell you to find two challenges for the party, and just go for it. What they don't mention is what if the party succeeds? On failures, you can add all sorts of fun twists, but successes just succeed. Keeping the GM turn rolling for two hours could require a lot more than two encounters.

I used the sample mission "Find the Grain Merchant," and the sample characters. I used two others from other missions as I had six players. I added a lot more complications, as the game would have been over (the GM part) in about 30 minutes otherwise.

The Player Turn was interesting. Using the examples in the book, I could see that the players could keep the adventure going by spending points, but I'm still unsure how many points they would need to go and get into trouble and find the conspirators. The rules are very clear on how to spend points to heal. They need work on how the players can go off and create story.

All six players enjoyed the game and wanted to play more. Always a good sign. I suspect a rereading of the rules and some searches on forums will be in order before I play again.

Book Review: Light by M. John Harrison

2009-09-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

Light by M. John Harrison

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The Good: M. John Harrison's descriptions are so evocative, so immediate, they thrust me headlong into the scene. The pacing continually picked up as I read the novel, by the end I found myself hitting the next page button on my kindle before I finished the last line or two on the page. Pacing was relentless. The ending was a knockout, and brought revelations that astounded me. Wow.

The Bad: If I hadn't read this for my book club (Other Worlds Book Group, in Lake Oswego, Oregon), I probably would have put it down and never finished it. It's an ensemble book, and of all the point of view characters, I found it a slog to read all but one: Seria Mau Genlicher. A serious anti-hero, she grabbed my attention from the start. The others made my eyes blur, and wonder why I wasn't doing something productive, like playing World of Warcraft. Thank god for Harrison's stunning descriptions, that's all I had to hang on to. About a fifth of the way through the book, the slog stopped and real enjoyment took over. Rebeca, from my book group, didn't get to that point until midway through the book.

The Ugly: What could be more boring than sex or serial killing? In this book, not much. An alien race that looks like Irish junkies who masturbate every 20 minutes sounds like a set-up for some edgier version of Douglas Addams, but in Light it's just more evidence of how dreary everything is. We get a serial killer who claims he's driven to kill, but really seems unconnected.
Do women exist who don't greet men with an offer/demand of instant sex? It's hard to find them in this book, and given how distant, gray, and emotionless almost all the sex is depicted as, you have to wonder why they bother.

And Yet: I ended up loving this book. The ensemble starts to work, often by the introduction of minor characters, like Anna, who bring focus and insight into characters who failed to grab me at the start.
The structure of the book is a real strength, with jumps from the present day to 400 years in the future, that tie together seemlessly.
The cloud of despair lifts as the pace throttles up to full tilt, and by the end the book is awash in a gonzo intensity.

If you start this book and find yourself wavering, keep going. If you're going to go into Light, go deep.

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Book Review: Bullies Bastards, & Bitches by Jessica Page Morrell

2009-08-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

Bullies, Bastards And Bitches: How To Write The Bad Guys Of Fiction by Jessica Morrell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If you have antagonist problems, this is a great book covering techniques to build compelling bad guys & gals & monsters. I took two workshops with Jessica Morrell at Willamette Writers, but not one on antagonists. But this book was there! I enjoyed her so much I picked up two of her books, and this is the on I read first, because my novel needed bad-guy help, STAT!

Well done, and covers a variety of baddies, including anti-heroes, bad-boys, bad-girls, serial killers, sociopaths, and more. There is a chapter on how to match a hero to a villain. The last chapter covers writing bad-guys for young adult or younger markets. Plenty of good advice and techniques to create a believable and frightening antagonist.

RPG review: Mouse Guard

2009-08-21T12:06:00.000-07:00

Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game by Luke Crane

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

If I was a fan of the comic (I've never seen it), I might give this five stars. I didn't really buy this rpg for the game world, I bought it because I had read that it was a simple introduction to Luke Crane's game design. He has rabid fans, and many people consider his Burning Wheel game the best roleplaying game ever designed. Mouse Guard is a simpler version of the Burning Wheel system.

So, as long as I was at Guardian Games, shelling out the big bucks to get on the waiting list for Space Hulk, I picked up a copy of Mouse Guard.

Wow. I can see what makes people crazy for this.

The mechanics of the game demand real roleplaying on the part of the players. They encourage things like using your character's trait, such as Fearless, *against* yourself. As in I'm so fearless, I'm going to race across the raging river, not even trying to keep myself from being swept away. Which gives you a bigger chance of being swept away. And that's a good thing in this game. You get rewarded for making things harder on yourself by playing true to your character's persona.

To really stand things on their head, the Games Master (GM) only runs the adventure for the first half of the game session. Then he turns it over to the Player Characters (PCs) who get to drive the story, repair the damage done to them by the GM, pick fights, and finish player goals they didn't complete during the GM's turn. The more times you used your own personality traits to hurt yourself during the GM turn, the more things you get to do in the Player's Turn.

You also get rewarded for roleplaying your characters core beliefs and instincts. Cool stuff.

There is a lot of player involvement in the action and story telling. This is as a far cry from a game focused only on combat min/maxing as I've ever seen in playable game.

Mouse Guard won't be for everyone. If you want hard and fast non-negotiable rules to test yourself against, this is not your game. Often table discussion is required. Does everyone agree that my mouse's use of fearless really can harm my chances of crossing the river safely?

If games like Nobilis are based on GM-Fiat, Mouse Guard has a lot of Group-Fiat. The GM can lay the law down now and again, but for the most part, everyone gets a say.

Oh, and you're a mouse with a sword. Not everyone will like that. I read a bunch of the Redwall books when my son was a lad, and it reminds me of that world. You are a tiny mouse, not a man sized mouse. Tree roots are big obstacles. Owls are ten times your size. You grab your sword, and defend the mouse territories. It's not what you fight. It's what you fight for.

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TS Luikart shows the love

2009-08-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

In my last blog I talked about modding one of TS Luikart's adventures from Purge the Unclean. On the FFG forums, he made my day:

I think your mods are excellent John. I'm likely to recommend them. I'm afraid Baron Hopes ended up getting a bit more... muddled than I would have liked. I hope in the fullness of time to, let us say, "set the record straight" and fill in the full scope of the story.

At any rate, I suggest any GM that intends to run PtU should check out John's ideas. I'm especially fond of the "blood-flamethrowers".

There is some subtext there, I expect the editors and he clashed a bit.

RPG: Scenario Modding on Baron Hopes for Dark Heresy

2009-08-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

A bit of background:

When I'm Games Mastering, I love published adventures. They have pretty pictures, nice maps, game stats all done up, and, hopefully, great settings, plots, and characters. I take these works, and then I put them on the operating table and modify them.

Yes, I also love crafting my own adventures. But that takes time. It can take 5 - 10 hours of design time for 1 hour of play time. And it can be fun. So I do it, just not all the time.

Modding an adventure lets you keep what you like and fix what you don't.

Baron Hopes is the last of three adventures for Dark Heresy in the Purge the Unclean book, by T. S. Luikhart. I really enjoyed the first two, and the slight mods I did on them were personalizations, where I brought in back stories of my players and tied them to the game. I like T. S. Luikhart's work, but no one is perfect.

WARNING: Spoilers for Baron Hopes, don't read this if you are going to be a player in this adventure.

These earlier adventures had the players going head to head against a criminal heresy called The Serrated Query. Baron Hopes, as written, had the players going against an ex-ally of the Serrated Query. With a leader who was invulnerable to harm unless the players somehow figured out the one thing that could harm him. No clues were provided for the players. So the GM either had to tell them, let them die, or have some non-player character (NPC) solve the adventure for them.

The Serrated Query hook in Baron Hopes just fades away, and there is no arc to to that long standing feud. There is also a zombie apocalypse, and I had recently run one of my own design (Scrivner's Star), and didn't think we needed another so soon.

The Mod: I brought back the Serrated Query, big time. They did not take kindly to Morirr, the villain in Baron Hopes, and after years of study found his weekness: The blood of his arch enemy, Barron Ulbrexis. So they found tissue samples of the Barron, and cloned him. They have a four year old boy they are pumping for blood. Ick! They have modified flamers that inject the boy's blood into the flame.

The Serated Query also did not take kindly to what the players had done to them in previous adventures, so they have been working in the shadows. Their plan is to get the players and Morirr to tear each other up. Then kill any survivors. They have no idea that Barron Ulbrexis is still alive, and working with the players.

I have the party trailed by a SQ agent with a "blood-flamer" who is also an old enemy of a party member. Eventually, they capture the agent and get some ideas on what's going on, and get the "blood-flamer." This shifts Morirr to a secondary threat, as the SQ come in force at the climatic battle.

The Serrated Query are lead by a major leader, and backed by elite troops. They also bring in help from Dark Eldar Corsairs whom the players had tangled with before. This helped create a sense of resolution.

The Serrated Query also had a floating space helmet that opened like a clam shell. It floated over to the Psyker player character, where he saw the two mono blades at neck level. The helmet's mission was to cut off the Psyker's Head, affix it to in-helmet life support, and float away as he screamed. It took the player a burned Fate Point to get out of that one.

I still used the nice maps, the cool characters, and the subplots of the adventure. One of the cool characters is very obnoxious and loathsome, so I had his boss have a vendeta against one of the player's families. He gave orders to shoot off the player character's legs, and when that was impossible, he told his men to just kill the player. Killing this side-show boss seemed to please my players emensely.

So, if you are a GM, and have a published adventure, don't let what is written railroad you into a game not to your liking. Take scalpel, hacksaw, and chainsword, and release your inner Frankenstein.

(Any Dark Heresy GMs who want the crunchy details, let me know.)

Edit: I put the crunchy bits up on the FFG forums: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=101&efcid=3&efidt=178159
Scroll down to my second post.

Book Review: Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

2009-08-11T16:15:00.000-07:00

Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This retelling of Virgil's Aeneid from Lavina's point of very is blissfully mythic. I prefer ancient world to medieval fantasy, because people in the ancient world experienced life through a mythic mindset, more so than in the middle ages, or so it seems. You could say the Australian aboriginal dreamtime was real, because those people used it to navigate their world, and the mythic world of Vesta, Juno, and Mars was real because the Latins' mental model of the world revolved around them.

Ursula Le Guin really worked at her research, and made pre-Roman Italy come alive through the eyes of Lavina, a king's daughter. When young Lavina gets a message from a dying poet of the future (Virgil), she realizes she is part of an epic fate. Her older, wiser, voice as a narrator comes from not from an old woman, but from her story. This is a story narrated by the story itself.

The reader need not know the epic poem, everything needed by the novel is layered into the tale. The writing is powerful, the story incredible, and the characters both exotic and approachable.

I can see why this won the Locus award for the best fantasy novel of the year.

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Writer's Point of View: This is way too impressive. Choosing to have the story tell itself is such a great concept. While the pacing is slow, it feels prefect for this world where even kings walk from town to town. Since the Aeneid didn't go into detail on Lavina's life, there is plenty of room for tension. Yet the foreshadowing is upfront and inescapable. Lavinia learns of the poem of her life before she becomes part of the poem. Le Guin brings the ancient world to life by illuminating the differences of the pre-Roman Latins with the Greek influenced Virgil. By showing us the rituals used to great the new day. By showing us how sacred a thing fire was in those times. Showing, not telling.

The phrase "associate with your betters" comes to mind when reading such a well crafted book. I can only hope for a little osmosis.

Willamette Writers Conference 09

2009-08-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

I am exhausted and energized, the mark of a great conference. Had a great time with Oregon City poet and illustrator Anne Paris and Portland science fiction writer Garth Upshaw. Mary Rosenblum was there, but was running around like a speed demon from talk to talk. We kept waving to her as she passed the bar.

Workshops of note were Jessica Morrell: The Sizzle: Tension and Suspense in Fiction and Blood, Roses, & Mosquitoes: Writing with Details. Eric Witchey's Short Fiction for Fun, Money, & Skill, The ABC's of Saleable Fiction, and The Mystery of Voice. Mark Schorr's Criminal Thinking for Writers. Jessica was a one-woman grad school for writers, Eric embodied the evil genius of writing, and Mark showed you what makes an evil genius tick.

I picked up a few craft books, and am looking forward to cranking out more and better writing each day.

And Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown asked me to see the first 50 pages of my novel.

Game Time: Vote for the Ennies!

2009-07-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Vote for your favorite games. Dark Heresy, Mouse Guard, and A Song of Fire and Ice got my votes. What about you?

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

2009-07-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this now, prior to seeing the movie. I was not captivated by the series enough to gobble them all up as they came into print, but I enjoy them enough to read them before seeing the movies.

One plus to reading this now, is that I knew Dumbeldor is gay. Which Rowlings never says in the books, but has said in interviews since the series ended. So I got to see the little clues.

The plot carries the story. Harry, for me, is still just the sum of his dire problems. I feel like I know the character of many of the supporting cast better than the protagonist's. I was disappointed that the tragic aspect of Luna has faded and she's just a joke again. The plot, however is strong and kept me turning the pages.

Even at 650 pages, it's a two day read. Now I can see the movie.

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Book Review: Arthus by Christie Golden

2009-07-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft: Arthas: Rise of the Lich King by Christie Golden

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Arthas, the central, defining bad guy in the World of Warcraft on line roleplaying game, and the good guy gone bad from Warcraft III is one of the strongest characters ever introduced in a computer game. He sets out to save his family, protect his lover, and serve his people as their prince. He ends up destroying everything he touches or is touched by.

This novel of his life is about as good as you could get and stick to the very convoluted script already set down in the game, and memorized by the gamers.

As a straight fantasy novel, there are too many characters, too many details that divert from the story, and little to no tension.

However, the central story is a great one, and Christie Golden does a great job of putting the reader in Arthas's head. Arthas is the main point of view character, but there are some scenes in other PoVs, such is Jaina Proudmore's.

If you have played either of the games, it's great to live though the life of one of video games best loved and loathed anti-hero. If you play WoW, read this book. It's a quick read, and loads of fun.

If you are a parent thinking about this book for your child, the Arthas / Jaina love story is very PG, and all the fun stuff happens off camera. The readability level is in the Y/A zone, albeit with a lot of (game driven) minutia. But your kid probably knows that minutia already.

If you just want a good fantasy novel, there are many better ones.

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Apollo in Slow Mo?

2009-07-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

Now that we just had the 40th anniversary of the first time humans ever landed on another world, it made me think. Reading the stories of that era, one thing that struck me was how fast moving it was. Apollo 11 in 1969 to Apollo 17 in 1972.

Only the last mission, Apollo 17 carried a scientist. While amazing science was done on earth with the moon rocks returned by Apollo missions, there really wasn't a lot of time to maximize the scientific discoveries between missions. We are now fairly certain that the Moon was formed when a Mars sized planetoid smashed into the Earth 4.5 billion years ago. When we study the moon rocks, we also study the earth. Cool stuff.

My thought experiment. What if we had spaced out the missions, to study the science and technology between missions? Say every five years, back to the moon? And after the first mission, always bring a scientist?

I'm sure there were economies of scale pumping out a mission every few months, but that was also a problem. The mission was to get to the moon. NASA did that. But when you rush, you miss things.

Book Review: Ten Second Staircase by Christopher Fowler

2009-07-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

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