luckykaa

Been pondering RPGs a lot recently.

I feel a need to play one.

I feel I should try running one at some point. I'm a little inexperienced at this having run a total of 2 sessions. Am really not experienced enough to know what's involved in making a good game. It does somewhat depend on players. My habit of living in a different country from everyone I might play with complicates this a little as well, of course. Still, I may return.

So, people...  would you like to play a game?

And if so what? What do people like? What settings and systems do people like?

My other thought was more cerebral. Dice mechanics. I was going to analyse them, but then I found someone had already done so. Particularly liked the ideal DoS distribution.  One thing that matters to me is that it should be possible, however unlikely, for the lowest skill to beat the highest skill through sheer dumb luck. A weakling, flailing around manages to hit the barbarian right where it hurts.

For Anchor I played with a system that should have fit the ideal distribution reasonably well. Roll multiple six sided dice. The higher your skill, the more dice. Highest die is the one that matters. Didn't work. Too many wins. Might work with multiple D20s but that reduces its accessibility. Not everyone has dozens of polyhedral dice.

I'm sure there is a better system.

Glad I'm back at work!  That Christmas break was just hectic!

23rd - car was being fixed.  Saw Sherlock Holmes.  Radio stopped working.  Got stuck in traffic.  Had dinner with parents. 

24th - Tried adding blue streaks to hair.  Didn't work. 

Annual Christmas Eve meetup with old school friends.  Had been moved to the afternoon because that's more convenient for those with kids.  Those with kids didn't turn up and a couple of those without couldn't make it so that left three of us.  Met up with those who couldn't make the afternoon in the evening.  Met up with eglantinedreams and friends after spotting a last minute invitation on facebook.

25th - Christmas, and all the insanity involved there.  Also received code for radio:) 

26th - Boxing day.  The more relaxed version of Christmas without the expectations and with lower stress. 

27th - School friends arranged pub lunch.  Some of them actually made it this time!  Ate Venison.

28th - Tried to play new Zelda game.  Discovered that new Zelda games needs the new Wii Motion Plus remote.  Most annoyed by that one.  I'd have asked for the version that came with it had I known. 

Board gaming at aperrott and ingaborg's.  Lots of fun there.  Met extended family people, played Civ and Clans and Metro.  Helped dispose of additional food. 

29th/30th - Finally! Time to myself.  Spent the time playing video games!  Made Eggs Benedict.  Also made mushroom Stroganoff. 

31st - Decided to retry adding colour to hair.  eglantinedreams had offered but thought I'd give it another go since what's the worst that can happen?  Red this time which doesn't need pre-lightening.  Worked a lot better.  invited to parents place again.  What the hell.  Free food:)  and I love my mum's cooking.  Played Mario cart with nephew.  I think it's a bit hard for him actually.  Went to Bearhaus to celebrate New Year.  Met people not seen for some time.  Was told by the_ladylark I need to book for Discworld ASAP if I want the chance to go.  Hair was much admired:)  Walked back to parents place to sleep shortly after midnight.

1st Jan - Woke up far too soon after going to bed.  Provided much needed Kindle tech support to my mum (specifically the free books available from Gutenberg)

Drove back.  Received text from friends who suggested we do stuff.  Went for pub lunch.  Played a new game - CowPoker.  Fun but required balancing a lot of numbers which was way too much for us after a late night.  Went to eglantinedreams' place for more gaming.  Very nice Chinese takeaway which did excellent fake-meat. 

Played Munchkin Booty.  Was told I am deliciously well spoken:) and was encouraged to go for a different British accent for being British.  Went for Bristolian.  Couldn't manage a Dutch accent.

Also played Therapy.  Was psychoanalysed several times and people seem to think I'm pretty positive and hopeful, which is odd because while I am, I also see myself as a whiner who complains about everything.  There was a question, asked of flannelcat - who does he think is the best actor.  Pointed looks from eglantinedreams on that one to make sure he put down the right answer!  He did and therefore escaped with his life.

2nd Jan - Last minute invitation to omylouse's birthday bash.  Went to pub.  Ate Venison.  Again.  This time in pie form.

So that was Christmas.  Am now back and fought through the rain (and avoided the Dartford crossing since the bridge is closed, and half the tunnel is sent in the opposite direction.

Been way too negative.  I need a positive update

Spent last night at flannelcat and penguin_worship's eating birthday cake, fixing cupboard doors and telling stories that went in a very silly way.  "Once Upon a Time" is an awesome game once you get the hang of how interrupt cards actually work. 

It's a fun little game that works really well for groups that like telling stories.  The stories tend to be a little less coherent than the ones from Nano-fictionary since the cards you get are random and there's very little opportunity to exchange and replace, but it's delightfully chaotic at times!

Been whacked by a bug.   This is never fun. 
( Whining about illness )

Have an interview with SCEE tomorrow.  I'm getting sick of all this games stuff.  Still, it's a contract and it's at a convenient location. 

Need to decide what to wear.  Suit or something that I feel comfortable in...  I think I'll go for smart casual.

So that's about it since last update.  Been ill.

Actually that's not everything...  Have the one player, zero collision version of android game written.  Yay!

My plan was to simply tidy up my flat this weekend.  I managed to put a few things away, and do some vacuuming.  The place is tider than it was so that's a success.  I got distracted though.  I have a costume plan and I had to buy raw materials.  This involved raiding the 99p shop.  I'm building myself a new rocket pack. 

There's nothing wrong with the old one.  It's just all a bit steampunk with brass pipes going all over the place.  Now, that's cool and all but my plans are much more 1930's serial.  Now, I have two rocket boosters.  Unfortunately I have no idea how I'm going to attach them to straps and attach them to my back.  Still, work in progress.  Am happy I found some rocket nozzles accidentally when I used up a can of spray paint.

Gaming was fun.  Hadn't seen ingaborg  or aperrott for ages.  Now I have and drank their tea and ate pizza. 

Played Carcassonne.  I won.  I did the devious tactic of subtle aggressiveness (collaborate with those who aren't going to win so you can share cities, arrange things so you get extra guys in the fields. 

I seem to keep being accused of being a furry.  I'm not convinced I am but given a fondness for cat ears and a fixation on leopard print, people don't seem to believe me.  The fact that I play WitW doesn't help much.  Did manage to explain the attraction of a Wind In The Willows based LARP to ingaborg by adding the important key point.  It's post-apocalyptic Wind In the Willows.

Am also pleased to have assisted lemming_man in DIY.  My assistance was generally of the form of chatting and keeping him company as he did bits of work that required one person but he seemed happy with this so I consider this a success. 

Actually I didn't woke once.

Saw people.  Played Majhong with one_true_bee , ingaborg , and blue_sun_scribe .  Alos played a game fo Set.  Nobody took credit for suggesting that

Got to bed late because people were finishing a game.  Plus side is I stayed in late because I only had to travel from Woking

Still failed to run a game of Puppetland.

My helmet has vanished.  It is presumably in the possession of either masterofapath or forbiddendanish .  Alas both of them claim the other has it. :(  It was a nice helmet.  Ex-prop from Band of Brothers apparently. 

So, it the process of creating stories and worlds, good food, good company and gaming, as prescribed by flannelcat , and as a result of a verbal slip, we decided to play a game of swearwolf. 

The same as Werewolf but with more swearing.

"Fuckin' 'ell!  E'd been eaten by a fukcin' werewolf!"

Saw The Day After tomorrow fuelled by sugary alcamahol.  It was amusing but not the thrill of bad jokes that I was hoping for.  

Went to Modelworld with omylouse and lemming_man  and masterofapath and tictactoepony  and randomly bumped into shebit there.  It was all fine but seemed far too similar to the last couple of years. 

Still trying to persuade the extended HONHOI crowd that they wish to play Puppetland.Did manage to bully people into Apples to Apples though. 

Saw Dollhouse.  Not quite sure what to make of it.  I seriously doubt that the pilot really gives any indication of what the show will be about.  I really don't think it's going to succeed.  It's too hard to summarise in a single sentence. 

Seem remarkably unenthused about everything this weekend.  Maybe it's me. 

I seem to have 3 XBox 360 games and am getting another after Christmas.

Really would be nice if I had the console to play them on. 

So, I arrived at a not too early time because Christmas in the Parentals household tends to involve a lot of waiting whilst father spends all his time doing the cooking. 

Anyway, had fun.  Received an assortment of presents of various levels of interest.  Am intrigued that all the relatives insist on using nephew Chilli's real name rather than Chilli.  His great gran goes for the compromise "Chilli Joseph".  Seems to work. 

Ate Dinner.  Yum.


Showed my parents how to play Settlers of Catan.  Non-gamers are a pain.    Anything with remotely non-trivial rules and they suddenly get scared.  Still, my dad enjoyed it.  Mum dropped out early (established player drop-out rules - put all the resources back.  Leave all their pieces on the board).  Slightly unusual in that the high probability tiles were all wheat.  Seems to have resulted in a lot of devcards.