gamer-geek

The ravings of an armchair gamer.

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Location: Herndon, Virginia, United States

I'm not really an emu, but I play one on TV.

Friday, December 23, 2005

Gaming in the basement

At one point or another, most gamers have gamed in their parents basement. Exceptions are those who got into gaming later in life, or didn't have a basement, or gamed in their friend's basement. It seems that this is often referred to in a negative way by other people though. (such a negative comment is in the first episode of All Games Considered (see sidebar) which is what inspired this little post.) Usually this phrase is modified with "still", like "The worst geeks are those who are still gaming in their parent's basement." Sure, when you imply that a 30+ year old is living with their parents, that often has a negative social stereotype associated with it... but what's so wrong about gaming in the basement? I personally have many fond memories of gaming in many different basements! I certainly don't look back on it negatively at all. I've gamed in my parent's basement, the basement of many friend's houses (well, usually their parent's house), the basement of several dorms in college, and... well that's about it I suppose. It's just fun to game, no matter where you are. I look forward to many future memories of gaming in some basement somewhere. I'd say my own basement, but we need to contact one of these "finish your basement" companies that keep leaving flyers on our door first. Of course, they'll have to dig the basement and completely reinforce our house's foundation first, but they seem to think that won't be a problem, with the sheer number of flyers they keep leaving. Whoops. More gaming!

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Meme time!

Which is the "real" monstrous me?


Grim Abhorrent Maiden-Eating Redhead-Grabbing Enigma from the Enchanted Kingdom


Or maybe?


Killer from the Underground Ruined Tower

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Star Wars in Savage Worlds

Last night we started watching our DVD of Revenge of the Sith, and when we paused for the evening I remembered starting a write-up of Star Wars specific rules for the Savage Worlds system earlier this year. Interested in what I'd done, I dug them up. Lo and behold, they were but a skeleton of the notes I'd "remembered" taking. Looking over them, some of my prevous ideas began simmering back up in my head, so I figured I might as well start writing down more of the actual ideas so that when I next abandon and then return to them, these notes will actu... [Side note, right here is where my keyboard's batteries die for the first time ever. We're out of standard AAs, but I happen to have some rechargable which i normally use for Xbox wireless controllers.] I was saying, with luck, these notes will be more complete and actually be useful, rather than practically starting from scratch as I'm doing now. Most of my focus for this conversion was trying to adapt my view of "The Force" as interpreted from movies, books, comics, and games. To this end I had gathered up vast amounts of "force powers" from computer games and RPGs for refrence. I'd also written down possible instances of "Force use" from the movies during a viewing of them, uh, last winter I think. After finding those notes, I figure within a week I'll be re-watching RotS with the commentary on and trying to pick out force uses.

Random, but slightly interesting (to me) note from movie observations:
TPM: "Force Speed" - Used to escape Droidekas by OWK + QGJ, but not in final battle used by OWK to catch up to DM & QGJ - why?

For the time being, this has grabbed my attention (along with the latest batch of comics) delaying my continued re-reading of the Harry Potter books in preparation to running a HP game early next year. Status: I was about 1/4 of the way into book 3, Ann has finished 5 and (FINALLY) started 6. I have threatened to ask her on a nightly basis, "Do you know who the Half-Blood Prince is yet?"

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Capes, superhero role-playing

Prior to my urge to run Harry Potter, the game I was most interested in playing was Capes. I'd recently picked it up after reading a few posts about it and digesting Capes Lite. The lite version was a bit hard to completely figure out, it's almost more of a "how to teach Capes to new players" guide for people who already know how to play, but after reading all the way through it then starting over it made alot more sense.

Things that I like about Capes:
  • No GM required!
  • Character creation a snap! well... a click and lock!
  • Very little prep required, perfect for a quick pick-up game.

The click and lock system seems pretty innovative, and it's an attraction because everyone likes fiddling with stuff. Different combos can give you a basic character similar to several iconic heroes. Superman could be Godling + (Angsty) Nice Guy (or Inhuman, or Simple Soul), Batman could be Hunter + Guild-Ridden. You can create characters via a freeform method as well, or mix and match. Why would you need these click and locks to create your character? Well... you create several characters, often at a whim based on what you think the scene could use. You might snap two click & locks together to get a villian of the week to oppose the other players, or you might decide you want to bring a reporter mentioned in a previous scene to the forefront for a little bit. Everyone works together to create the scene, mostly by adding to it through your actions and by creating goals for the scene. The rules are pretty simple, but there can be alot of strategy involved if you want to maximize your story control (which is done through earned meta-currency: Story Tokens, Inspirations, and Debt).

I'm still looking forward to a chance to try it out, I think it would be alot of fun.