Still here!

Hello everyone!

I'm hoping to get some geeky posts going soon. Started writing up a bit more Mage, at least. Finding it hard because pretty much the only time I get to write is after Ziggy's gone to bed, and I'm so tired then! But I have to do e-learning for my new job, with several courses before I start on Monday (eep!), so he's having to learn to leave me to work when I'm on the laptop, and that I'll play with him again soon after. If we can get that embedded, I'm hoping to be able to do a bit more writing again - the stories I was working on in the background have also all fallen by the wayside and I'd love to get back to them, and I hate how much I've neglected this place.

Are there any topics anyone would be especially interested in a post on? Can't promise anything, especially anything soon, but it woud be good motivation for me.

My dad has bought himself a (steampunk) plague doctor mask... I'm not sure how that'll go down in the village where he lives, though it does attract retiring artists so hopefully they won't be too shocked...

 
Otherwise, we continue well here. Tired, sometimes bored, and desperately missing having visitors, but well. A very kind friend bought me a copy of Tabletop Simulator so I'll be able to join Husbit when they get together for Saturday night board games. Discord is proving an adequate host for Mage. (I've set up a Discord server for this blog, while I was trying to get my head round Discord. It isn't worth looking at yet, but if I get the time I'll make it shiny enough I'm comfortable offering a link.) I have my rig for when the weather's nice (Ziggy loves it as much as I do). 

I'm still anxious about a lot of things (family, friends and finances in particular), but I'm mostly feeling calm, peaceful and hopeful. It makes a nice change!

Hope you're all well. Let me know your topic suggestions.

Stay safe; stay sane; look after yourselves!

Quick Update

Normally after RPGaDay, I'm a bit burnt out for a while but doing it as weekly rather than daily posts hasn't had the same effect this year (though maybe also because I'm still on maternity so wasn't trying to fit it in around a job). This year, my delay in further posts is because Ziggy has an uncanny ability to wake up as soon as I turn my laptop on - and at the moment it's very difficult to type with him around as he wants to eat the mouse and the power cable, or bang on the keys...

He's currently napping beautifully, so I'm sneaking on quickly!

Kitty is still going. She's become quite adept at getting around with 3 working legs, but can't figure out how to claw up the furniture any more (yay!). Our neighbours even saw her jump a fence the other day, though she insists to us she can't get over the stairgates. She's losing weight rapidly, no matter how much we feed her, but while she stays content we'll continue to look after her.

Ziggy adores her, but isn't very good with his love. She likes to sleep in basically a blanket fort on the sofa, and he'll lift the blanket up to flush her out, even pulling the blanket right off if she doesn't respond (and we don't intervene quickly enough). She'll sit down next to him, though, and then give us evil looks if we let him touch her. She doesn't mind him stroking if we hold his hand and control him, but he hasn't learnt the importance of gentleness yet. He's getting bigger and more mobile, so it is getting harder to protect her from him, and she seems to want to troll him anyway, walking right past him when the easier route takes her the other side of the room. I find that fascinating.

I'm in the middle of writing up a Mage post, but it's slow going because of Ziggy - I get a sentence, maybe a paragraph done at a time. I'm also using his sleep time for knitting, researching, and playing City of Heroes (or, more accurately, logging into CoH and moving my characters to new day job locations. If I'm very lucky, I might get to do a mission with one of them).

Researching is to do with the novel I think I might actually manage to write. I read Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth and she mentions that there are no (or few) books in which a midwife - or even a nurse - is the main character, and something in my brain went "challenge accepted". This being me, I'm looking at a fantasy setting. Most of the fantasy I've read is heavily influenced by medieval Europe, so I thought I'd start by learning more about medicine and midwifery there. My local library were intrigued by the challenge and tracked down a few books they thought might help, but couldn't find anything specific (the best match, a history of nursing, was held in a reference library in a different county so they couldn't fetch that). I've got a book on women in medieval society, a book on medieval society and the manor court, and one about science in history, that includes Ancient Greek and Egyptian medicine so that sounds useful.

I've started with a chapter about sex, marriage and motherhood in the medieval women book, and have been interested by some of the misconceptions they held about the female body and also about misconceptions the modern world has about the role of sex in marriage (we think, or at least I did, that sex was something a man considered his right to take from his wife, but in fact sex was a debt each owed the other: the man also was expected to provide sex to his wife when she wanted). A lot of it stems from Christian influence that won't be relevant to my story but is still interesting. I want to create a more egalitarian society, but there are concepts I'm reading about that I want to include. I had the bones of the story, and the shape of the beginning and the end, and this is giving me ideas to help flesh out the middle. I only have the books for another couple of weeks, though, and start my new job next week, so I'm hoping I'll be able to renew the loan a few times as I'm not going to be able to get through them otherwise!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 18 - What art inspires your game?

I'm going to take a broader definition of "art" than I think's intended, as I can't think of any specific painting, drawing, or sculpture that's been used for inspiration. Films and short stories, on the other hand!

In Deadlands, we've spent a lot of time in Shan Fan, a city of Chinese, rather than European, immigrants and their descendents. Which means lots of martial artists, both mundane and with the "chi" arcane edge. There's a neat hindrance in The Flood book called "the cup overfloweth" which characters with the chi edge can take, and it makes their powers really obvious, in the style of the sorcerors in Big Trouble in Little China, which I've never seen all the way through, but Husbit's made sure I've seen enough to know what he's referencing. 

In Aberrant, there was a fight scene between Adam and some bad guys (the first fight of the rampage that landed him in jail) that was intentionally choreographed after a fight scene in the first Kingsman film (only with super powers rather than guns).

In Exalted, we had a whole training sequences inspired by various Jackie Chan films (the one I remember most vividly involved giant pottery jars we had to fill and empty with tea cups, but I'm not sure which film it was and my google-fu is failing me).

I mentioned short stories above. Husbit and I own a lot of short story anthologies, which can be great for inspiring adventure. There's something for any genre; here's a few collections I think are worth looking at:

• Cyberpunk: Stories of Hardware, Software, Wetware, Evolution, and Revolution - which does what it says on the tin
• The Mammoth Book of SF Stories by Women - a collection of stories by women and non-binary individuals of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, so giving a huge range of voices and viewpoints (The Mammoth Book of... books are often good and cover pretty much all common RPG settings)
• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James and The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers - both pre-date Lovecraft and I'd say should be compulsory reading for anyone wanting to run Cthulu-type games
• The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton has some really creepy ideas for a ghostly, horror or supernatural game
• There's a great collection of Ambrose Bierce's ghost and horror stories, that includes a few of his American Civil War stories which makes it great for Weird West settings like Deadlands (but the book is on a random shelf upstairs and I can't remember or successfully google the title)

EDIT  TO ADD:

As I was mentally prepping this post, there were also novels to mention! Jim Butcher's Dresden Files have influenced our GM as he prepared his setting for Mage; I've not read the books, but he has leant me the first so as soon as I manage to finish rereading Snow Crash I'll get onto them. I've heard good things for years.

But the book that's inspired me is Heir to Sevenwaters by Juliet Marillier. One of the male characters in that is the son of a fey lord or king or prince, who has gone around impregnating human women in the hopes of having a son to inherit, but until this character has only had daughters. This fascinated me - this idea that only a male heir was worthy, and wondering what happened to all the daughters. And that's basically where Svetlana comes from.

#RPGaDAY2017: Day 28 - Biggest source of quotes

This is the topic I've been looking forward to the most, because I want to talk about Yonderland and save you from the shadows, which is nice.

Most of the quotes in our games come from obvious sources such as Python, inevitably, and Red Dwarf (Cat probably figures the most: "Fish!" "Today's fish is trout a la creme. Enjoy your meal"). Previous games show up ("Did it move? Hit it!"... aren't in-jokes the best?).

Personally, I quote songs a lot. Any time anything sounds like a song I know, I can't help it! 

GM: You wake up. What do you do? 

Fern: Grab a brush and put on a little make up. Hid the scars to fade away the shakeup. Why'd you leave the keys up on the table? Here you got create another fable. 

Other player: We'll have to dig it out

Fern: Dig through the ditches and burn through the witches that slam in the back of my DRAGULAAAAA.

Other player: I hide in the shadows

Fern: I've been watching, I've been waiting, in the shadows, for my time. I've been searching, I've been living, for tomorrow, all my life.

It must be very annoying. I try to rein it in, but with little success.

Of our group, only Husbit and I watch Yonderland but we adore it. We saw it described as "Monty Python meets Labyrinth" and thought it couldn't live up to that but we'd check it out anyway - and were hooked! It's by the Horrible Histories (warning: TV Tropes link) guys - another show only Husbit and I watch, and quote excessively - but with puppets instead of animations, and an ongoing plot rather than sketches.

It starts with Debbie and her husband Bob Peter preparing their twins for their first day of school, then runs through a montage of Debbie being very bored, watching daytime TV ("What's in the box?") before meeting Elf and learning about the portal in her cupboard that leads her to Yonderland, where she's their Chosen One, prophesied to save them from the shadows and Stuff.

Of the Horrible Histories cast, Martha Howe-Douglas plays Debbie and the guys play nearly everyone else, with a few other supporting actors and a small army of puppeteers. It's full of quotable lines: idiomatic misunderstandings ("Never say never" "She does really she just said it twice, right?"), mickey-takes of real world stuff (the aforementioned "What's in the box?", from a stupid, pointless and annoying gameshow called "Deal or No Deal?"), things that are repeated between episodes ("Let us cast off these cumbersome robes")... I was hoping to find you a nice compilation clip of catchphrases but got distracted by the official videos - this is the cast discussing their favourites - has to be said, Husbit is a huge fan of the one Ben Willibond and Jim Howick pick, while we use the crone's groan a fair bit!

It's funny and fun and family-friendly. 

~~~

RPGaDAY was started by Dave Chapman and is currently curated by RPG Brigade. To join in yourself, follow the questions in the graphic and blog, vlog, tweet, or otherwise share your responses with the hashtag RPGaDAY2017.

Luck

A quick aside re bendiness: the physio wanted me to see a rheumatologist, which I'm very lucky work will pay for, but from a GP referral, not my physio. So I had to see my GP, who sent me for blood tests - I've ended up having three lots. She also put me on amitriptyline, which, now I've been off it for most of a week, I have to admit did reduce pain and improved how much I slept and took away my IBS but at too high a cost: I fet drugged and dopey all the time and couldn't think and had splitting headaches and nearly told my project manager to fuck off because I couldn't remember how to politely point out I was busy and now was not a good time for small talk. I also had really vivid dreams, which I'm never sure whether to put as positive or negative effect. Anyway, she let me come off after a fortnight so it's been out of my system nearly a week. I feel so much better and I am in a writing mood.

I want to talk about luck.

I trained as a maths teacher (although never went into teaching for a long list of reasons that protected me from the horrible realisation I wasn't emotionally strong enough to go into the profession I most admired), and remember being asked by one of the people training us if we believed in luck. I was the only one who said yes. Cue surprised looks, until I explained it depends how you define "luck": they were defining it in the superstitious sense, whilst I was using it as shorthand for startling coincidence or a statistically unlikely streak of events. 

It makes sense to me to use it this way: I know that you can roll a d20 three times in a row and get a 20 each time (and stick your crossbow bolt right through the big bad's head for an auto kill in the first round of combat - paragraph 8 of Absalom), or reach 40 on an exploding d6 (and find a replacement for that monofilament whip the bad guys took off you earlier). The laws of probability demonstrate that someone, somewhere in space and time is going to roll a balanced d6 and get a 6 every single time - hell, in an infinite universe, there'll be a planet somewhere whose laws of probability look very different to our own because the 6 will come up every time. 

I also know that, short of using weighted dice or learning to trick roll (which apparently isn't particularly great anyway), there's not really anything you can do to manipulate the chances of getting the result you want: lucky underwear might give you the confidence to approach that new friend, but it's not going magic the dice into doing what you want, so is manipulating luck the realm of superpowers?

It's certainly a very cool superpower, one I'd love. Control over chaos and entropy would be incredibly powerful and could stand in for most other powers - in fact, could be used to increase your chance of having any other power consistent with the rules of the universe you occupy. It's a power I'd be interested to explore in a supers game one day.

In fiction, I've only come across this idea a few times: the character Misadventure in City of Heroes (how I miss that game!) and Aornis Hades (spoilers in link), from Lost in a Good Book. Interesting that both are villains - maybe it's too much of a deux ex to give to the protagonist, but is interesting for them to overcome. Supporting this, the only times I can think of heroes having access to extreme luck is for short periods, such as the luck virus in Red Dwarf, or Felix Felicis in the Harry Potter series.

You can manipulate luck, and black cats and ladders have nothing to do with it. I'm thinking about Blood Bowl, where a good tactic is to force your opponent to rely on luck. You can buy rerolls and use up to one a turn to reroll a failed attempt (or if a ball is bouncing around and the wrong one of your players catches it, a successful attempt), and many skills you give players give them built in rerolls for certain types of skills, that can be use the same way. So when I take halflings to a tournament, I tend not to bother taking rerolls of my own (playing without rerolls takes practice but is worthwhile) and instead take an inducement called the halfling chef, who has the opportunity to remove up to 3 rerolls from your opponent and give up to 3 to you in each half (roll 3d6 during the first kick off of each half, and each 4+ is a reroll given to you and a reroll taken from them - it used to be a stolen reroll, so if you rolled 3 and they only had 2, you only got 2. I prefer the new way!) Immediately, you've manipulated things to fall in your favour, as the likelihood is your opponent is used to relying on those rerolls so their play style will be affected (one reason why learning to play without rerolls is so useful). You can also position your players to force your opponent to make the highest number of dice rolls you can - particularly if you can manipulate it so the types of rolls aren't favourable to them: halflings dodge everywhere on a 3 with a built-in reroll, so forcing them to dodge is less frightening for them than forcing them to block opponents, where their low strength means they'll probably be rolling two dice with the opponent choosing which outcome applies.

You can do it in roleplay games, too, playing to push odds in your favour. You might struggle to hurt a dragon, but creating a dragonbane net may at least snarl it up enough to make it easier not to die in the attempt. Lords of Gossamer and Shadow takes this further, removing the element of luck altogether and encouraging the players to find ways of bringing the odds into their favour.

In real life, we can't remove the element of chance so easily, but we can still stack the odds in our favour, or find the odds stacked towards us by chance. Research has shown that wealthy people are more likely to become more wealthy not because they are greater risk takers but because they have the money to take those risks. My intelligence, creativity and appearance are all quirks of genetics that have nonetheless given me benefits in life, along with being born into a loving, inquisitive family (although that may be tied to the afore mentioned genetic quirks). It spirals too: I got a job I love by the luck of intelligence and knowing the right person (my brother, in this case), but being in a job I love and am good at has helped me gain confidence in my abilities so that I am better able to take opportunities that arise: now I've found a path I'm happy on, I'm manipulating things to keep the luck that got me there flowing.

Optimism and pessimism also come into play. I'm generally considered an optimistic person: for instance, I feel very lucky to have a job with insurance that will cover the cost of me seeing a rheumatologist; I don't feel unlucky to have been born with a condition that requires the visit, or if I do, I do so by focusing on the parts of the condition that I like having - the suppleness, the youthful appearance, the high pain threshold - and still consider myself fortunate. My younger sister is a better example: some of her friends think she's very unlucky because bad things always happen to her but I think she's very lucky because sh's always fine. (She shared that opinion until the parachute accident: she accepts she's lucky to be alive, but the dislocated shoulder had long term repercussions on her career.) My anecdotal experience suggests being optimistic doesn't come from having good luck, but rather the perception of being lucky comes from being optimistic.

Luck is the way random chance falls. You can manipulate it, but never completely eliminate it. It affects you in ways beyond your control but the most important part of whether you are lucky or not is how you see the world.

More dice!

One of my colleagues may have discovered I own quite a lot of dice. He may then have got himself more dice than he needed for Christmas, and decided the sensible thing to do would be to give the excess dice to me. This might mean I now have a drawer full of dice at work...

My dice collection has grown extensively since I last discussed it. I was pretty good with the dice my friend gave me: the prettiest have come home with me, and the rest are in my drawer waiting for me to find a use for them. Maybe by finding other people who want some, or maybe we can use them instead of cards for playing 'planning poker' now we've moved to an Agile/Scrum working method. Or maybe some other use entirely will arise.

 

And talking about dice is nice and easy because I don't need to worry about laws of narrative or telling a good story or anything else that, while enjoyable, involves more thinking than I have right now.

 

So, here's my complete Blood Bowl collection:

 

There's a griffin die you might just be able to see toward the top left - I thought I'd taken a better shot of it, but can't find it if I did. I must have picked this up by accident years ago and have been trying to track down it's owner since I found it in my collection. If anyone knows whose it is and can help me return it I'd be grateful!

 

My collection breaks down roughly as follows:

Blocking Dice

Nothing new here.

And these are from the Australian Open. I thought I had a set in a bone colour too, but it seems I was wrong. We've not actually been to the Australian Open: these were an ARBBL spot prize. I've met several Aussie players, though, between the 2 World Cups I've made it to, and if I ever make it to Aus/NZ, I'll definitely be looking to play some Blood Bowl while I'm there.

Misc Dice

Mostly d8's for scatters as explained before, also the injury dice. The d12 is useful at tournaments for determining which player on the pitch is affected by eg a thrown rock: the d16 is of less use because there's a max of 11 players and often at tournaments players aren't numbered, as most are resurrection rather than progression events. This one was a gift sent to make me smile.

 

NAF Dice

Also tokens. Dice for being a NAF member, tokens for making it to the NAF champs... Actually, the round one was for the Amsterdam World Cup. D16 for finding a numbered player on a full roster, eg for a thrown rock or to award MVP.

 

Halfling Dice

I talked about these before, but I still really like them. Halflings are a team I really enjoying playing with. I don't recommend them for a beginner, but they are fantastic if you're not expecting to win.

 

World Cup Dice

Given to me by various people at the Amsterdam and Lucca World Cups. There was another d6 which has progressed instead to my roleplay bag because - being a skull in a stetson for the 6 - it feels like a great Deadlands wild card die.

 

Local League Dice

Top photo includes Team Chaos (purple), Bubba Bowl (teddy bear), Exe-Bowl (black and gold), Chelmsford Bunker/Hawk'd dice (both from my friend Hawk), ARBBL (pumpkins), our own Exiles (black&white), and the Double Skulls podcast (luminous green). The bottom photo are Lutece dice - being French, they aren't particularly local, but I do have many of their dice so I wasn't sure where to include them. Was hoping to get to their tournament this year, but it clashes with a friend's wedding. Would like to one year, though - I hear good things, et j'aime l'opportunite de parler en Francais.

 

Traded Dice

I want to get some more Exiles dice made up, and some personal ones (with a Fern leaf or storm cloud symbol on the 6 - my NAF name being Tempest) so I can do more trades.

And on to the roleplay dice: 

 

I love my dice bag, a present from a friend at uni. The little pouch beneath it is the one that holds my haematite dice - you might be able to make them out in the picture, they're very small and a dark grey metal. The wooden frame encasing the felt flame is for rolling dice in: we did a £10 limit secret santa in our Pathfinder group, and this was hand made for me as I often sit at an angle that makes rolling dice on the table a bit awkward - and also because I'm anxious to use my haematite dice for fear of damaging them or the table. I'm thrilled with it.

 

I was surprised to realise that the entire extent of my percentile and d12 collections are those from sets. For percentiles, this is likely because I want the colour/style to match, or I'll just use two distinct d10's and roll one at a time or state which colour is tens and which units. For d12's, Husbit explained they're the least used dice: systems that use die type usually have 12 as a cap, so you'll have few if any stats that high, and whilst it is a damage die in D&D, he couldn't from the top of his head think of any weapon that used it.

 

I'm not sure how I've ended up with so many d4's and d8's, though. I mean, partly it's my work friend's fault because there were lots of pretty d4's and some pretty d8's (and no d12's at all, and only one percentile, with no matching d10), but I've still got more than I've ever had reason to use. I feel like I want to play a game that uses lots of d4's. Or maybe use them as a burglar deterrent...

 

 

Loot the Tree!

When I was at school, we were occasionally asked which season was our favourite. I couldn't pick, and ended up feeling like this was in some way a flaw on my part. I still can't pick, but no longer feel it's a flaw. All seasons have things about them I love; all have things I enjoy less. And they're joined, they need each other.

One of my favourite things about the winter is the cool weather that has been distinctly absent this year.

Another thing is Christmas. I feel like people who have Christmas (or a similar celebration) in a warm climate must miss out, somehow, but my Australian friends assure me that summertime-Christmas is superior in their eyes, so it's ok. But for me, part of the joy of the celebration is that getting together with family and friends and sharing the long, dark nights and the cold, dark days and filling them with light and warmth.(Although I also know many people who prefer to take Christmas as alone time, to spend with themselves, looking after themselves, and I can understand that too. That way leaves those who have to be alone in the midwinter feeling less lonely than my way.)

Anyway, one of the nice things is the way things become more relaxed at work. In the past, I worked for a company employing lots of contractors, and the office would be filled with bottles of wine and boxes of chocolate from the contractors, to be distributed to the staff for Christmas - a thank you for sending work the way of the contractors, and a lovely perk for us. This year, I'm working in IT rather than proeprty management, but a similar difference in tone descended on the office, aided by one colleague with his Star Wars Lego advent calendar - we had a lot of fun with that.

Spot the interloper...

I was particularly fond of the Jawa/Ewok alliance

Even my local shopping centre looked to be getting in on the act, with what definitely looked like lightsabres hanging from the ceiling.

That's no moon!

I've not seen the new film yet, so would be grateful to avoid spoilers. Our work's Christmas party clashed with the opening night. A few went to the film instead, some left early to catch a late showing. I opted to party - wonderful excuse to wear my favourite dress.

Anyway, the purpose of this post was actually to talk about Christmas. I said last year that I normally go over to my Dad's on Christmas Eve, and we followed that tradition again this year. I got there early and, having forgotten my key, ended up having tea with my old headteacher who lives round the corner - he came to collect a load of logs a few minutes after I arrived. Was really nice to see him again, actually, even if he will always scare me slightly.

Then it was back to my Dad's for real. I'd brought all our presents in my treasure chest (my Dad says it's actually an old boarding school tuckbox, much like the one he used to have), and was pleased to find the returning gifts would also comfortably fit.

Arrivals!

Departures...

Christmas Eve was fun: couple of Wallace and Gromit films before dinner, then Little Sister got us playing a game where we all wrote down the names of 4 people (fictional or otherwise) the others in the room were likely to know, then had one minute to give clues to the person to the left for them to guess as many as possible until the slips of paper ran out - then repeat using charades, then repeat using a single word clue. One pass only, but you could return to it, and we decided you scored points for your guesses and the correct guesses of your clues. Turns out my sister's psychic, because in the first round I was trying to describe Ada Lovelace to her and she hadn't a clue, but in the second round she guessed both Ada Lovelace and General George Patton just from the expression on my face as I read the clues (she's dyslexic, so accusations that she could read the names backwards through pieces of paper with other writing on the back are dubious). I really enjoyed that game - not just because her uncanny ability to read me meant I won. Little Brother then got us to play a round of Saboteur (I was disappointed that there were no shoes), which again Little Sister and I (and Husbit) won by being very successful saboteurs. Then we filled stockings and went to bed.

To add to her awesomeness, Little Sister fishtail-plaited my hair Christmas morning

Christmas morning saw the start of looting gift-giving. Stockings first: we have the rules that items need to be fun, cheap and practical (ie, not go straight in the bin), so I got novelty pants for Little Sister and Step Mum, and coffee/tea for most other people. Little Sister got her husband socks. Lots of socks. A stocking more or less full of socks. Which entertained the rest of us, anyway. Then Little Brother drove off to pick up his new girlfriend, who'd very bravely agreed to spend the day with us when she'd only met Little Sister&Husband before, and we went to the next door neighbour for mulled wine and nibbles and to stay out of Dad's hair as he cooked lunch.

Pleased to report that Little Brother's new girlfriend is really nice. She's smart and has a similar sense of humour to the rest of us, which meant she fitted in well.

I've gone right off turkey recently, so had the veggie option - a nut roast my Step Mum had doctored. Much better choice and will probably be fake veggie again next year (I quite like being fake veggie). Then presents under the tree before Husbit fled to the relative sanity of his family and we continued silly games with mine: I received a game called 'Say Anything', which is a bit like Cards Against Humanity (and would work well in combination with it...), but more child friendly. And eventually I also left for presents with Husbit's family, then home to Kitty and our own tree presents before collapsing asleep to start again on Boxing Day.

We've got some fun plans for New Year and the week after our Pathfinder group will be exchanging secret santa presents to finish the season. By then, hopefully the cold weather will have arrived properly and I can be looking forward to spring.

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 31, Favourite Non-RPG thing to come out of RPGing

It's the final day! I've really enjoyed taking part, even if I have ended up putting everything else on hold.

To answer today's topic, I'm going to start with two stories and end with some exposition, but my answer is the one that seems most common (and I think for good reason).

~~~

Story the first.

Once upon a time, there was a Games Workshop store with two female regulars. The elder was at that age where she was starting to try to think of herself as an adult and the younger suffered the social ineptness of a stereotypical nerd. They didn't really know each other, the elder being a fan of Battlefleet Gothic and Warhammer Fantasy, whilst the younger only played Lord of the Rings.

The store was proud to have two female members, and nagged both into attending a tournament organised for all stores in the region. The tournament was to be held at the Games Workshop HQ, which meant a long coach journey that would be shared with the regulars of the nearest store.

Although the elder girl had many friends at the store, they'd all managed to get out of attending the tournament so she was stuck on a coach full of people she didn't know, and the younger girl's mother, aware of her daughter's social awkwardness, had tasked the elder girl with looking after her even though they didn't know each other. Sigh.

So it was that the two sat next to each other with little in common. Bored, the elder girl turned her ear to the people behind her - regulars from the other store. The staff at her store had brought her into the roleplaying circle 2 years earlier (something she remains grateful for), so she immediately recognised what was happening behind her - even if it was D&D which she'd never played and had been warned off because it was "too overpowered". She twisted in her seat and was blown away by the sexiness of the GM.

So she asked that she and the younger girl be allowed to join the game, and was happy to help the younger girl (who'd never roleplayed before and was worried her mum might not approve) settle into the game - an epic quest to find the blend of secret herbs and spices that made Kobold Fried Chicken just so tasty. 

And the elder girl and the GM lived happily ever after.

~~~

Story the second. 

Opening shot: a large room filled with stalls of many kinds. Crowds of people push between them. The banners on the walls and stalls should reveal this as a university Fresher's Fayre.

Camera zooms in to one young woman who has just entered. We see a brief look of consternation flash across her face before she corrects her posture. This is somebody who has never had many friends but knows she can change that here: she just has to find 'her people'. 

Camera pans to show a short woman in a fur-trimmed medieval style dress. The woman has thick, dark hair that falls in curls to her waist, a tanned complexion darkened further by the cream dress, and a smile as beautiful as she is. With her are several other people - mainly women - painted in various shades of body paint and wearing a mix of fantasy outfits and carrying latex weaponry. Although our protagonist has never LARP'd, when she sees this group she knows she's come home.

She beelines to them with a confidence born of relief and trickery, does her best to make a good impression in her endeavour to be taken into their protection - and it works.

As well as WARPSoc ('Wargames and Role Play Society'), she signs up for RocSoc and PunkSock, and recognises many of the people she'd seen in costume at the RocSoc 'Fresh Meat' Fresher's Ball so circles near them for security - and they look after her. Dancing too near one tall guy, she gets a face full of spikes from his wrist. He immediately hurries her from the dance floor to buy her a drink. No damage done except minor bruising that fades quickly, and she has a new friend who will for the next 3 years look after her in the moshpit and who shares her enthusiasm for living in dreams. On the walk back, a young woman walking ahead up a hill drops her large boots and they land on our protagonist, who, drunk on the pleasure of having new friends, laughs. Two years later, the other woman will recount the tale of how she dropped her boots on a fresher, and our fresher will burst out laughing, delighted to discover she's friends with the woman who was so apologetic and made her feel so welcome to the town that night. Particularly amused, as this woman is the housemate of the guy with spiked bracelets.

Our protagonist leaves university three years and many adventures later, a more confident woman than when she joined. She may not be happier yet, but she has learnt the lessons that will eventually get her there, and she has better friends than ever before in her life, and more friends than ever before.

~~~

So my favourite non-RPG things to come from RPG'ing are my friends and my partner. Finishing as I started, this post is actually being written today instead of in advance like all others besides Day 1, and I can see that friends and partners are far and away the biggest response to this. I think it's because the friendships you make when roleplaying are deep-seated. You go through a lot together: it might be in fiction, but it's still an emotional journey. Not only that, but you find the ways you are like-minded, which builds a deeper connection.

There are other wonderful things I've attained that roleplay has helped with - confidence, lateral thinking and problem solving, writing - but all of those come back to the friends who helped me develop such skills.

Roleplay always comes back to the people.

 

#RPGaDay2015 - Day 30, Favourite RPG Playing Celebrity

I want to pick Vin Diesel because it means I get to watch dancing baby Groot again.

Although my favourite scene of the film is this one:

He might be a tree, but Groot displays the most humanity in the film.

Vin Diesel comes across as an awesome guy, someone I'd love to play with (and, shallowly, he's really good looking and has such a sexy voice!), but I wanted to look a bit deeper than the 3 names that came to mind when I saw this topic (the others being Felicia Day and Wil Wheaton) so did a bit of googling. I was not surprised to see names I recognised from my musical tastes - Marilyn Manson, Tom Morello, Alice Cooper - because there does seem to be a large overlap in the Venn diagram of metalheads and roleplayers. And I've met Claudia Christian aka Commander Susan Ivanova of Babylon 5 at the only convention I've been to so I feel I need to give her a mention - although I didn't manage to get into the game she played in. I was taken by uni friends for my birthday and my other half - a massive B5 fan - was at home 200miles away and knew nothing about it until she borrowed my phone to ask where he was. I think I'd rather play with Tom Morello or Marilyn Manson, though. Or Vin Diesel.

But which celebrity would I most like to roleplay with? The authors Ursula K Le Guin and Patrick Rothfuss. They, with Terry Pratchett, make the trinity of authors I best adore. A game with them would create some incredible stories. Patrick Rothfuss definitely roleplays; a quick search doesn't reveal whether Ursula Le Guin does or ever has, but I suspect she'd be fantastic to play with - and wonderful to listen to.

Vin Diesel can join in too ;-)

 

Horror A Day!

I've been taking part in the #HorrorADay over on Twitter and thought I'd sum up here.

Day One - First Horror Movie Watched

It's not strictly speaking a horror movie, but the first film I saw that I remember really scaring me was Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I was 5 and it was shortly after my Mum died and I came in on the scene where the room's closing in on them and the bugs and spikes and skulls... and eventually ran out screaming over the fire pit. I hid in my room reading The Famous Five.

Day Two - Favourite Horror Themed Game

I've played in some fantastic homebrew horror RPGs, but have to pick the board game Arkham Horror. I love it because it's co-operative and you really have to work together (I love Pandemic for the same reason). I also love it for the groups I tend to play it with (check out nogamesnoglory, one of these friends).

Day Three - Favourite Horror Novel

I picked 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King. I've discussed this briefly before, here, but basically I particularly like this because of an intense fear of vampires that stemmed from The Legend of Croglin Grange. The fear stayed with me for many years, even with cloves of garlic on my window cill and a stake close to hand by the head of my bed... 'Salem's Lot spoke to that fear and made it ok, acceptable almost. Also, one of the books my Dad had leant me to try and help me get over it was The Natural History of the Vampire by Anthony Masters and King references this text within his novel. 

Day Four - Favourite Horror Movie Soundtrack

I don't generally notice the soundtrack unless it's part of the plot (as in Guardians of the Galaxy); I do like the Richard Cheese cover of Disturbed's Down With the Sickness that's used in the remake of Dawn of the Dead, and Shaun of the Dead has some wonderful moments too. Also, the siren song in The Wicker Man sung by Britt Ekland is wonderful.

Having said that, I think the music in The Woman in Black was very effective in helping build terror levels.

Day Five - Favourite Horror Author

I've probably read more Stephen King than any other, but not sure. I absolutely adore M R James's collected ghost stories; similarly those of Edith Wharton and Ambrose Bierce. I'm currently re-reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and think she's wonderful and have recently discovered  John Ajvide Lindqvist.

Day Six - Favourite Actor in a Horror Drama

Hmmm... no, I still find this really difficult. I do like Shaun Pertwee in Dog Soldiers, though, so maybe I should leave it at that...

Day Seven - Most Memorable Character to Survive a Horror Drama

I went with Carey Elwes's character Dr Lawrence Gordon in Saw, but maybe Christopher Lee's Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man. 

Day Eight - Favourite Subgenre of Horror

I have a real soft spot for a well crafted ghost story that probably overrides everything else, even my intimate fear of vampires.

Day Nine - Most Memorable Monster/Villain

The Gentlemen from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 4 episode 'Hush'. This was the episode that first made my Dad pay attention to the show, because he found them creepy.

Day Ten - Favourite Director of a Horror Presentation

Joss Whedon. Buffy the Vampire Slayer got me through my teens, and the season 5 episode 'The Body' is so very powerful. I might one day do a post about why I think the episode is so wonderful, but this isn't the time.

Day Eleven - Favourite Historical Period

Despite my love for M R James and ghost stories of his era, I think modern day fiction and settings are my favourite. Having said that, did enjoy a zombie homebrew RPG set in Celtic Britain one of my friends ran. That was cool.

Day Twelve - Scariest Scene in a Horror Movie or Book

That bit in The Descent where the terrified caver swings her camera round and it pans past her friend and the monster is stood right there behind her... It's a moment that haunts me!

Day Thirteen - Favourite TV Series with a Horror Theme

Back to Buffy. There are a lot of fantastic shows out there, but Buffy will always have a special place in my heart.

Day Fourteen - Last Good Horror Story Read

When I got to this stage on Twitter, I went with John Ajvide Lindqvist's short story collection Let the Old Dreams Die and highly recommend it. Since then, I've started re-reading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova and it is wonderful.

Day Fifteen - Last Good Horror Movie Seen

I saw the remake of The Haunting many years ago and didn't enjoy it very much, so was sceptical when Husbit sat me down to watch the original. It is so, so much better; a really creepy, tingling film. There's a sense of dread pervading everything whose cause is never quite clear.

Day Sixteen - First Horror Story Read

My Dad read the short story The Legend of Croglin Grange to me when I was little, and triggered a fear of vampires in me. I moved from there to M R James, but think the first novel was Christine. I'm not certain, though - it was a long time ago!

Day Seventeen - Favourite Slasher Movie

I think Scream. It was the first slasher movie I saw and it really scared me. It wasn't until I'd seen others that I discovered the humour in the film and could appreciate the way it pokes fun at the genre with love.

Day Eighteen - Favourite Gothic Horror Story

I don't think I can pick just one. Frankenstein is an obvious answer, as is The Vampyre, but maybe The Monk is a better choice - it's probably the darkest gothic story I've read.

Day Nineteen - Most Memorable Science Based Monster

The Id from Forbidden Planet. The film is based on my favourite Shakespeare play (The Tempest) and I found the monster suitably scary when I watched the film as a child.

Day Twenty - Most Memorable Supernatural Monster

I was torn between the obvious Vampire that we've established I have a... complicated relationship with and the Gentlemen from Hush discussed above. I went with the Gentlemen, forgetting I'd already used them, so maybe I should go with the vampire from Croglin Grange.

Day Twenty One - Favourite Horror Themed Artwork

This print by David Jones based on Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner hangs in my Dad's hallway. Growing up, it terrified me. Now I kind of love it.

Day Twenty Two - Favourite Horror Anthology

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M R James. I read James long before I was introduced to Lovecraft and believe his stories are part of why I felt so let down by Lovecraft: all the good things people claimed of Lovecraft's writing are carried out so much better, so much mroe efficiently by James and without the same endless repetition of only 3 or 4 storylines I ever found from Lovecraft.

Day Twenty Three - Favourite Horror Host

Because I've never watched nor read anything with a horror host, I have to cheat slightly and go with my brother's friend's dad, who threw an amazing Hallowe'en party each year. We'd start at mine with a group of my brother's friends and a set of silly games like apple bobbing and chocolate pretzels on a washing line to be jumped for, and then I'd take them trick or treating (I'm only 3 years older than them, but Dad trusted me and their parents assumed Dad was with us and they knew if they misbehaved or told their parents they wouldn't be allowed to come again so it always worked out ok - and anyway, I always went as a vampire slayer, so they were perfectly safe) and we'd finish at Louis's place for scary stories and more silly games and fun.

Day Twenty Four - Most Memorable Object used in a Horror Story/Movie

Back to 'Salem's Lot and a scene I've always found very vivid, in which the younger main character wards off a vampire using one of his plastic action figures who's holding a cross.

Day Twenty Five - Favourite Horror Parody

Having already used Scream for something, I picked Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (which I do recommend), but then I was reminded of Shaun of the Dead, which as my hangover move of choice probably should win this round.

Day Twenty Six - Favourite Horror Comic/Magazine

Not reading either, I went with Preacher. It was leant to me on my 18th birthday and I devoured it. Creepy and horrible with some brilliant ideas but not always comfortable reading.

Day Twenty Seven - Favourite Director of a Horror Movie

John Carpenter feels like the obvious choice, but actually I think I have to give this to Neil Marshall for Dog Soldiers, which is one of my very favourite films, and for that scene in The Descent that so successfully terrifies me.

Day Twenty Eight - Favourite Horror-Themed Guilty Pleasure

Lemon and slime flavoured Jaffa Cakes! They're only available at this time of year and are so very yummy.

Day Twenty Nine - Best Horror-Themed Purchase

Possibly the Deadlands settings for the Savage World RPG. We've only played through part of it so far, but I like it and it's creepy and fun. 

Day Thirty - Most Memorable Spooky Attraction

I'm going to go back to my brother's friend's dad's Hallowe'en parties. He was American and this was a little before American Hallowe'en really took off in the UK so these were a bit special. I remember his wife (who was British) arranging a series of boxes in which grim and ghoulish things were placed - eyeballs (peeled grapes) and worms (congealed spaghetti) and so on. The last box, you reached in and screamed as her hand grabbed you from within!

Day Thirty One - Favourite Hallowe'en Costume

This blog gets its name in part for a stunning dress my friend Mary made me, originally designed by another friend who very kindly allowed me to steal his idea. I've worn it as a fairy queen to a Hallowe'en party before.

My favourite costume remains the Vampire Slayer though. No femme fatale, no victim: sometimes flawed, but ultimately powerful.