morsla: (lookin)
I'm still tinkering away at game ideas for Arc. Lots of them, actually. I'd really like to run about half a dozen different scenarios set in real-time, so the setting at the end of the convention has been laid down by the teams that have already played through the game. That may be a bit difficult to do, though.

The most persistent idea at the moment takes a group of characters inside a large Western city - underground activists, conspiracy nuts, guerilla artists. They're all reasonably well educated - they finished school, they watch the news sometimes, they use the internet or read newspapers. Most of them have never travelled overseas, but they like to think that they know a reasonable amount about the world outside their country of origin...

...except that they don't, becauses most of it no longer exists.

The television news still shows convincing interludes about elections, riots and sporting matches in foreign countries, but none of it's real any more. Over the past two years, war has scoured human life from the land. Ancient cities in the middle east are now radioactive wastelands, oceans of glass where the sand dunes lay. Families read emails "from" loved ones abroad, never realising that the messages are written by computers. Travellers do not return home. The authorities continue to blanket the nation with calming misinformation, praying that the facade holds long enough to get away with genocide.

It's an impossible dream, but it almost worked. Until a few people stumbled across clues about What happened, and started asking Who and Why...

Never did I see a second sun
Never did my skin touch a land of glass
Never did my rifle point but true
But in a land empty of enemies
Waiting for the tick-tick-tick of the want
A uranium angel
Crying “behold,”
This land that knew fire is yours
Taken from Corruption
To begin anew
morsla: (Default)
It's been too long since I wrote a tabletop game for a convention. The most recent was Silent Streets at Retrocon 2004. I'll be a ConOrg at Conquest, in Sydney during RetroCon, and in Europe during UniCon this year... so I'm setting a course for Arcanacon 2008.

I like making props for games. Sound clips, newspaper clippings, surveillance photos, newsgroup posts, travel documents... I love making all the minutiae that can add detail to a story. I also like scenarios painted in many different shades of grey - settings where a dozen background factions blindly do what they think is right, based on the biased information they have. Every game plays differently, as the players steer the camera through their personal stories.

I AM TRYING TO BELIEVE
So, when I stumbled across this RPG.net thread about the viral marketing campaign that's slowly unfolding for NIN's next album, I was hooked. Recorded phone messages. 'Lost' USB keys with important files. White noise samples that display as ghostly images on a spectrogram. Strings of code that become IP addresses or phone numbers. Plus, when the album finally comes out I'll have a soundtrack :)

I don't know how much of the Year Zero material I'll use directly, but I think it's about time I put together a paranoid conspiracy game. Plus, with almost a year to add detail to it I'll be able to manufacture disinformation to my heart's content...

If you have some spare time, take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(album) and follow a few of the links. The campaign has an impressive scope so far, and it's still unfolding.


Sender: water@iamtryingtobelieve.com
Thank you for your interest. It is now clear to me that Parepin is a completely safe and effective agent developed to protect us from bio-terrorism. The Administration is acting purely in the best interests of its citizens; to suggest otherwise was irresponsible and I deeply regret it.

I'm drinking the water. So should you.

Geek^2

Nov. 27th, 2006 12:10 pm
morsla: (Default)
[livejournal.com profile] aeliel and I are writing some background material for an Exalted game. It draws heavily on archetypes from Greek myth, and mixes them up with any other influences that have caught our eyes... At the moment, we have a twisting, tangled mass of relationships between the Gods - the beginnings of a creation story, a (highly subjective) celestial heirarchy, and stories that tie the gods and mortals together.

The main characters in the game will be the Chosen - mortal heroes, exalted by the Gods. Any action they take will have the potential to anger one or more Gods (by harming their interests/children/land), but may let the characters gain the favour of rival Gods. Godly favour is a good thing to have - you can call on it when you need help, and you need it to learn Charms that fall into that God's domain.

We're also likely to run a freeform at Arcanacon or Conquest, where the characters will be the 25 Gods :) There's far too much intrigue there to let it go to waste.

I'd like to use a Wiki to build the background material for the game, giving the players a chance to add their own detail (adding or expanding on locations, characters, etc) as the game comes together.

There seem to be dozens of free Wiki sites out there, and I have absolutely no experience using any of them... can anyone recommend one?

The plan is to have a publically viewable wiki, with a password needed to edit material. The password will be available to anyone with an interest in adding content to the game - primarily the players, but also anyone who likes this kind of thing. I'm looking for a free site on a wikifarm, as it seems easier than hosting one myself.

WYSIWYG editing isn't particularly important, although it could help to encourage people to add content...

So far I've had a quick look at:
http://www.wikidot.com/ - seems to have a lot of features.
http://pbwiki.com/ - I've seen a few sites use it, but I've also heard complaints about a lack of features
http://www.wetpaint.com/ - looks interesting
http://www.wikispaces.com/ - don't know anything about this one
http://www.schtuff.com/ - includes tagging, custom permissions, etc
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki - the Wikipedia interface. Software only (not a free host).
morsla: (Default)
A Broken City

Hong Kong. 2043.

The city of steel and glass has fractured, showing a broken mirror to the demons of the Yama Kings. Strange creatures walk the streets, and the court of the Kuei-jin sends forth no champion to oppose its aggressors. This can not, and will not be tolerated.

Five immortals return to the city they once helped to build, seeking old friends and older enemies. Much has changed, but much has stayed the same.

A Broken City was originally run at Conquest 2002, as a Kindred of the East game. It returns using the Weapons of the Gods system - rewired for supernatural cyberpunk horror.




You know the drill - 5 players per session, in any of the Saturday and Sunday sessions at Retrocon 2 (June 10-12). The game's pitched at people with zero knowledge of either Weapons of the Gods or Kindred of the East, although fellow KotE lovers are more than welcome - you'll probably appreciate hooks hidden in the back story, and there are precious few games involving the descendants of the Ten Thousand Immortals these days...

It's a game where demon realms break through into banking districts; where 'civilised' devils and ice-cold killers carve out the thin red line between a city and its ruin. If you like your wuxia in bullet time, you should play this game.

It's also build on the bones of the first nonlinear game I wrote with [livejournal.com profile] bishi_wannabe - so feel free to play it again, if you played it last time it came out. Goddamn it's been a long time since I got to run anything in this setting.
morsla: (runes)
Why do I find out more in chance conversations during coffee breaks than I manage in whole days spent at my desk? Working in my office, I'm easy to find (right near all the other staff), easy to see (I have a bright red shirt on), and apparently easy to walk straight past...

So. There's still a vague possibility that I'll work here after Friday. There is virtually no chance of full time work, nor is there any chance of work beyond December. Actually, limited duration part-time work suits me fine, as it would tide me over until the end of the year while I forged a new path. I now have to see it it also suits the various puppeteers Up Above.

I noticed an amusing fact... well, I find it amusing, but I have a cynical sense of humour at the best of times. Why do we offer fixed-term contracts instead of the more traditional "indefinite" appointments seen in some other divisions? A common element between all the divisions is external income - part of the money comes from the government at a fixed rate, and the rest has to be scraped together from elsewhere. Guess which bright sparks have placed their staff salaries in the fluctuating "external" funding stream? That's right... due to a large shortfall in external income, we're losing all our contract staff. The bean counters expect them to sit around for the next few years awaiting a phonecall saying "we signed a new commercial deal - there's money for you to come back to your job!" Ahahahaha...

Bureaucratic Incompetence leads to Anger. Anger cuts through Apathy. Without Apathy, I'm getting up and doing the things I've thought about for the last few years on this downward spiral. Thankyou, incompetent bureaucrats - if you hadn't stomped on my job with those jackboots of yours, I might have stayed even longer on a sinking ship.

Now I'm writing again, and it feels good. Game-writing, mainly, but it's somewhere to be creative... I dug up a copy of A Broken City from Conquest '02 (a Kindred of the East game that I wrote with [livejournal.com profile] bishi_wannabe), and noticed how easily the module fits together with new ideas from Weapons of the Gods. It was the first properly non-linear story that I wrote, and as such it's basically a series of Loresheets... descriptions of groups and individuals, and the agendas that they follow in the city. It's also a handy setting to weave in all the dystopian cyberpunk that's been building up in the big list of plans.

Plus, you know, it's safer on humanity if I fuck up an entire fictional world...

Hope this is what you wanted.
Hope this is what you had in mind.
Cuz this is what you're getting.
I hope you're choking. I hope you choke on this.

Suck me dry.
Is this what you wanted?
Is this what you had in mind?
Cuz this this is what you're getting.
I hope you choke.
morsla: (Default)
It's so quiet when I take off my headphones. Everyone else has gone off in search of coffee, and I'm sitting at my desk poring through old logbooks while the database is down.

My contract is in limbo, extended until Friday of this week. Only one person can approve a new contract now, and he was on holidays when I would have been handing in my keys. So, today I'm trying to compile a list of all the things I've done since last December - hopefully demonstrating that I've done enough to satisfy the Powers That Be over my last two contracts. If I come back next week, I may be here part time. This actually suits me fine, as I'd have time to do all the commission painting that's built up at home... I've lost all ability to care about this contract any more. All outcomes have advantages hidden in them, whether they involve more money (full time), flexibility (part time), or freedom (being told to get lost). The only pure negative is uncertainty, and that should be resolved for better or worse at the end of the week.

UniCon went well. Really well in many regards, although there were rough edges that should have been smoothed over before the event - not to mention the Sunday morning panic when one set of security guards weren't going to give us access to the venue, despite us booking the whole building... Most of the games ran plenty of sessions, and we had more people playing games this time around - similar total numbers to last year, but more sessions played.

Plenty of first-time convention attendees, too - MURP and II members, plus carloads from all over the place. I think that's the best outcome from the weekend. Without a steady stream of new faces, the convention scene in Melbourne will wither and die. Meeting up with old friends and playing some great games is all well and good, but it's easy to forget that we need that influx of new people to keep the conventions running. The Warmachine players (the only ones I got to speak with) were having a great time, and we should see most of them at Arcanacon in January.

The Warmachine tournament ended up with 16 players, and the Steamroller (sanctioned) tournament rules seem to have survived their first real test in Victoria. I think we may have been the first in Oz, but I'm not sure if an event in Queensland pipped us at the post ;) I had to give away all six of the shiny medals... a sad moment, but it means I'll just have to enter an event run by someone else, so I can win some for myself.

I guess my main regret after the convention was that I didn't really catch up with anyone - I spent the whole weekend upstairs running Warmachine, or downstairs making sure that the rego desk had everything it needed. Other than the ConOrgs, [livejournal.com profile] z3nmaster, [livejournal.com profile] caerell & [livejournal.com profile] kitling, I didn't get much of a chance to talk to anyone... so I feel like I've lost a weekend.

Back to the grindstone...


Gone are the rustic summers of my youth
Cruel winter cut their sacred throats
With polished scythes that reap worldwide
Pitch black skies and forest smoke

And the hosts that I saw there
Drones of carrion law
Drove the ghosts of my forbears
To rove and rally once more
morsla: (lookin)
My White Dwarf Eldar article is now up on the GW website - you can find it in the Showcase section at http://oz.games-workshop.com/games/40k/eldar/articles/showcase/default.htm

I'm quite happy with how it turned out in print, although there are some super-close-up shots of messy highlighting that make me cringe a little... The models were virtually all painted over two months of weeknights (including the dreaded 5am painting shifts), so I can't really complain. I've also learned a lot more about painting in the three years since I did this lot :-)

While trying to work out how long ago I painted them, I started to put together a list of tournaments and conventions. It's not nearly as illustrious a CV as some people may have *cough[livejournal.com profile] miss_rynncough*, but it's a longer list than I expected.

Convention games and tournaments: Writing, co-writing, GMing )
morsla: (runes)
Well, RetroCon 1 has trampled me flat and run off into the distance, with the promise of a RetroCon 2 on the June Queen's Birthday weekend next year. Saturday was flat out (3 hrs on, 30min break, 3 hrs on, 30min break, 3 hrs on, 30min break, 3 hrs on... and then off to catch a train home), but none of the players I had registered for Sunday showed up to their sessions.

Pretty poor form, as I spent several hours getting to and from the venue (I went home & came back to discover another no-show in the afternoon) - I'll think twice about getting to a convention at 9am in future, as the same thing happened at Arcanacon this year. I saw some of the morning session's players later in the day, but none of them thought to apologise for not showing up to their game. Not amused.

On the whole, though, the convention went well. Each of the four teams on Saturday used completely different approaches to tackling the game, which made for some interesting stories. Picking people for trophies and certificates was tricky, as I felt that virtually all the players really made their characters work.

From my hazy memory, here are a few different versions of the story. I can't guarantee that it'll make sense if you haven't played the game, but I'm trying to write down what happened so I don't forget it all. (Don't read this if you intend to play the game in the immediate future...). Read more... )
morsla: (Default)
I finally dragged myself down here by 7:54 this morning - earlier than I've ever managed before. I needed to print a file before work, although the first attempt disappeared as a 900k file ballooned to 48MB in the print queue. Much later, I managed to get a single black&white copy of all the Silent Streets characters to copy and guillotine into a bundle of handouts ready for the weekend. I've finally clocked on at work, and I feel like I've already done a full day of running around. Unfortunately it's still morning...

Spoiler-free playtesting notes )

In other news... eight pages in White Dwarf! I haven't seen the article yet (I pick up my copy tonight) but my article apparently gets an eight-page spread. Much more than I thought I'd be getting - there must be a few photos in there. I'm not sure if I'm bouncing excitedly, or if sleep deprivation is making me shaky...

My stomach does not recognise "twelve o'clock" - it only understands "over four hours since breakfast." When you get up at 6am this may become a problem.
morsla: (runes)
x-posted for the benefit of those who aren't on [livejournal.com profile] aus_gamers

There is only one month to go for UniCon blurb submissions - if you would like to run a game for us, now is the time to start thinking about it :-) Blurbs will be accepted until June 30th. New and established writers are welcome - we will be running an information session for first-time writers closer to the event, as UniCon has traditionally been a popular starting point for new writers.

UniCon 2005 will be held from Friday September 30th - Sunday October 2nd, at Melbourne University.

The current list of events includes:
- Friday night trivia
- Tabletop and Freeform RPGs
- Anime screenings
- Blood Bowl and War Machine tournaments

RPG systems currently include Dark Ages Fae, Fireborn, Exalted: Fair Folk, Paranoia, Nobilis, Baron Munchausen, Changeling and Mutant Chronicles.

Writers please note that sessions are 2.5 hours in length, with a gap between all sessions to allow players and GMs to get to their next game. This is shorter than the 3-hour session time used in many other conventions, but it allows everyone to sleep in a bit later (10am start) and get home/to the pub earlier (10pm finish).

For more details about the convention, visit http://www.unicon.asn.au/

Blurbs (and any questions you may have) can be sent via email to unicon_games@yahoo.com.au
morsla: (Default)
More gaming bits...

* Hive Fleet Giger is the Next Big Project to hit my painting desk. My sculpting abilities are finally up to the point where I can do justice to the biomechanica - it's a slow-burn project I'll be working on over the next year, but I'll post some pictures when I get it underway. The Queen and her brood are spawning nightmares...

* DWARFcon9 will probably be replaced by "Retrocon" - running in Caulfield. I'll be running an Arabian Nights-styled game, set in Exalted's southern deserts. When finished, Silent Streets will be "properly" written up as a module for other people to run - I'll make it into a PDF, available on request. Failing that, buy me beer (or parts to build biomechanical tyranids) and I'll run it for you :)

* Weapons of the Gods creator Brad Elliot has made the following statement about creating world-conquering martial arts. All you crazy martial artists should take it into account, when you attempt to level city blocks with your latest Unstoppable Annihilation Stance...

* Your mileage may vary. This guarantee voided where somebody else spent more years creating their kung fu than you. Strange Crazy Old Coots May Still Show Up Out of the Blue To Kick Your Ass. Small Midgets with Amazingly High Chi May Also Arrive in Town to Kick Your Ass. You may be found liable for destruction of noodle houses, marriages, or the fall of Empires, whereupon everybody will want to Kick Your Ass. Remember: When all else fails, it's really really good to have a god-weapon to back up your kung fu.

In other news, I seem to be the first point of call when we need any form of demolition done on site. I'm not allowed to play with building implosions, but people keep handing me crowbars and pointing me at things that need removing. It'd be more fun if I wasn't also trying to do a lot of work at my computer - I have a huge backlog of stuff to finish, and I keep getting sent on Destruction Duty.
morsla: (Default)
Liber Animus is finished... and so am I.

Painted 'til 6:00am Saturday morning; slept for an hour, and got up to head off to the tourmanent. I won the first round by a decent margin - lending further evidence to the theory that I make more mistakes when I'm awake. Unfortunately, this catapulted me right into the top half of the field, and it proved to be my only win for the weekend.

Five games total @ 2000 points. Win, Draw, Draw, Draw, Loss. Better than I'd expected, as I was getting delerious from lack of sleep :)

- 40 fantastic armies to play against. At least half could have won painting awards, so the competition was tough.
- Air conditioned venue... kept us alive in the hot weather.
- Licensed venue. We ran out of beer twice on Saturday night, and ended up getting through about six slabs. Seems to be a tradition when all the interstate/overseas players turn up for a tournament :)

Three games were against non-locals, which was great. Stu started the SA/VIC roadtrip when I was still running the ][con tournaments, and I finally got to play him three years (and countless road trips) later. Shippy (another SA player) faced me with the army I'd leant him, so I played against my own models. Weird feeling. The 14-14 draw seems to prove that the Guard and the plaguemarines are well matched... The final game was against Hagen, from New Zealand - a 5-20 loss despite half his units doing nothing to me. One unit of wolf scouts and a Predator tank took down almost 1800 points of guard...

I wasn't all that impressed with my painting score - it was above average, but I didn't agree with two categories I was marked down in. The next plan? Adapt the army for an 1850 point list, really go mad painting the extra details, and win the painting award at the Grand Tournament/whatever it's called this year.
morsla: (lookin)
The Book of Bone and Ebony is almost here... it's crashing through the waiting queue of games, scattering them before it. The Underworld has always been my favourite part of the Exalted setting, and the spoilers for Bone & Ebony appear to continue the tone that I like about it. Virtually all the old Wraith line seems to have been rolled into the setting, in a system that's actually playable :)

I asked myself was I content
With the world that I once cherished
Did it bring me to this darkened place?
- VNV, Epicentre
 
I don't know when or where I'll run a game, or who I'll run it with... however, it's a background I've been fleshing out for a while now. I'd like to revisit the world of Footsteps on the Shrouded Path, though - this time, with a very different feel. The Deathlords will be distant figures; characters will be spirits, ghosts, and lone Abyssals. The feel of the game will be more like Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride than a wuxia epic - when it turns up, Weapons of the Gods will quickly absorb any remaining need for flying swordsmen :)

Cynicism, awareness interlaced into grace
A beauty from which my valedictory springs
Forgive what seems sinister and crude to face
Forgive my conviction to save these skies
- Covenant, Wind of the North

I'll be posting snippets of background over the next few weeks, as I add to the setting. I'm remixing a few locales from the Iron Kingdoms World Guide, as the book is full of well-developed kingdoms and counties. Tied to the locations are the people in them - the train trip this morning gave me time to create the Angel Who Weeps, the Field of Salt, the Dollmaker's village and the Watching Grove.

Also: I've posted things about The Grand Bazaar before, and the game seemed to stall. To keep in practice, I'm writing at least one con game a year, even if they don't appear at conventions. The arabian bazaar is still being written, and I'll unleash it as a one-shot in a few months.
morsla: (Default)
A list of characters for the game. If you'd like more information on anyone, let me know - I'll post more info after the game has run, but at the moment we're just releasing enough to help people choose who to play. If you're planning to play the game (Session I at Arc - Saturday, 4pm-7pm) feel free to grab a character now...

Characters and factions for the Maiden of Gears freeform )
morsla: (Default)
Whee!

The Maiden of Gears now has 16 preregistered players, which is the minimum needed to run it - we have 31 characters in total. Inventors, pirates, child prodigies, spies, diplomats, religious figures... I'll be writing a few more of them on the train tonight...

Snow and Thunder is also filling up quickly - we're not able to run in Session I (both GMs are running the freeform that session), but I'll be able to take three sessions on the Friday. A few sessions are already full. Luckily, I've deciphered the rest of the Weapons of the Gods system - I just need to create about two dozen martial arts styles (with accompanying rules)... the game can run systemless (like all our other con games), but I'd like to have an optional system in case people want to try out the new rules, as they are pretty cool. They work better than anything else I've tried, for that epic Hong Kong Action feel.

][con Warhammer 40,000 is now over - the Ringwood Games Club may be taking over the event in future, but it's my last one as organiser. And to think, that if [livejournal.com profile] bishi_wannabe and [livejournal.com profile] parakleta hadn't approached me about running a game at UniCon back in 2000, this might never have happened... In the last five years, I have:
* Booked five different venues, as the event kept growing
* Ordered 114 large pizzas to feed the players
* Given away about $3000 worth of prizes
* Shaved about ten years off the end of my life, from stress...
* Donated about $600 to various clubs that helped me assemble the monster
* Blown up the (fictional) world, at the end of Saturday's final round.
We had 30 teams, for a total of 60 players this year - not the largest event I've run, but a good crowd regardless. The Ringwood club got plenty of exposure from the event, and made lots of money from drink sales. Everyone seemed to have a good time; the painting standard has jumped another level, and there were quite a few first-time tournament players as well.

It's finally finished - and after Arcanacon, I can think about actually playing in a few games...
morsla: (Default)
A new resolution for the "stuff to do" list...

Never attempt to help run/set up four or more games at a con, until I develop some kind of self-preservation instinct. Instead of the easier approach of letting the games go to hell while I clung to sanity (or slept in) I followed the fine example set by so many others, and smiled as I plowed myself into the ground :)

Nonetheless, I had a great time. Ran the first War Machine tournament in the state, on Friday - not many players, but many interested people amongst the other miniature gamers, who may start to join in soon. All good fun - and to make up for odd player numbers, I got to play five games in the two Friday sessions - while handling scoring for all the games.
End result - brains sucked out of left nostril, sleep deprived from pre-con runaround, grinning like a loon.

Saturday and Sunday were filled with 40k, as one of a hundred and six players. I thought I had a lot of registrations at Intensicon, with 90 for my game... this crowd was enormous. I think I left my remaining sanity at the con on Saturday, as I went home and sculpted a 10mm nurgling-of-mass-destruction to use as a special objective on Sunday morning, painting it as the sculpt cured at 3am...
End result - sanity shredded, subject to flashback-paranoia at the sound of dice. I finished 22nd again - the same as almost every year. You know, if they didn't keep adding another 25 players each con, I'd have won it by now...

Monday morning saw me run a session for Jye, on five minute's warning and no breakfast. Many (dastardly) pirates were vanquished, many (heroic) pirates triumphed, many swashes were buckled. The final two sessions were filled with creepy paranoia co-GMing with [livejournal.com profile] miss_rynn, and I met some particularly cool first-time con goers. One of them even plans to run an Exalted game, which I'll be playing in at some stage...
End result - flashback-paranoia induced by the Silent Hill soundtrack (curse you Rynn!), and still grinning like a loon.

The post-con food'n'drinks'n'weary conversation was great - as a result, I went to bed some time after 6:30 this morning, and have just set foot in my room again. Brain.... freeezing... up...

...sleep caaaaaalllls....

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