CoffeeBear.net

How We Roll

"Why are you people so weird about your dice?" Anne said.

"That's just how we roll," I said.

Taken from WWdN: In Exile: that's just how i roll by Wil Wheaton.

Tags: dice, Gaming, humour, pun, quote, RPG

Forgotten Games

In my gaming group¹, we finished up the current storyline in a previous session. This week we were discussing what we might want to do next as our current GM needs a break. One thing that always comes up during this sort of discussion is a game run back in everybody else's college days based on GURPS Castle Falkenstein. As usual when this was mentioned, the GM who ran this (and still a player in our group) begged off as being too busy². However this time the discussion refreshed a vague memory of a gaming system/supplement that I'd bought once upon a time.

Given that I tend to horde collect books, I went searching through my gaming library trying to find that old system/supplement. I had one major problem with my search... I could not recall what the game was called. So I just searched through all the gaming materials I had (and knew where they were). Unfortunately, my search was unsuccessful. Once I gave up the initial search, I decided to go online and see if I could figure out any more information on it.

Again I ran into difficulty in searching as I only vaguely recalled when I bought it (the 90's), what it was about (faeries in England when gaslight was common, say Victorian England) and that I was pretty sure it was published by TSR. I was thinking the title was something like Faerie by Gaslight (or maybe by Foglight) but I couldn't be sure. Lastly, I recalled that it wasn't a D&D setting but based on another system TSR put out.

After about half an hour of searching I uncovered the name of that other system, Amazing Engine. A few seconds later and I knew the game setting was called For Faerie, Queen and Country. The worst part of revisiting these old memories? As soon as I found a picture of the book for the game setting I realized I'd bought it, read it (cover to cover more than once) and never, ever once played the damn thing. And now I cannot even find my old copy, even though it's highly likely in the house somewhere. *sigh* So faithful reader, are there any old RPGs that once captured your imagination but which you never got a chance to play?

¹ Yes, I am geek. If you're only just now realizing this; then this is either the first time you've read my blog or you're seriously delusional.
² This is not a complaint. You are too busy.

Tags: Gaming, RPG

More Quiz Silliness

Wizard 40% Combativeness, 26% Sneakiness, 73% Intellect, 50% Spirituality

Brilliant! You are a Wizard! Wizards are spells-casters who study powerful arcane magic. While Wizards tend to be pretty fragile, some of those spells can pack quite a punch. Unlike Clerics, Wizards aren�t as good at fixing people as they are at breaking them, so watch where you toss that fireball� Your most distinctive trait is your intelligence. You're probably well learned and logical, if perhaps a bit fragile.

Tags: Code, home, IM, Link, pun, Quiz, quote, RPG

Pukka’s Links of the Week

From Pukka:

• Intelligent Design
• HP Genetics
• The Misadventures of Hello Cthulhu
• The Grand List Of Console Role Playing Game Clichés
• Inflatable Pub

Not from Pukka:

• Sobics Brick Game [Editor] I've hit level 20, and 540,400 points. What's your best score?
• Marble Magnets
• Fridge Tin Pen Holder
• Serious Sam 2 Demo Released [Editor] Serious Sam was a fabulous game with cutting edge graphics and old school hordes of bad guys to gun down. As an extra bonus, it only cost at $19.95 when it was released (vs. the $50-60 of most new games). I'm most excited to see this new demo coming out, though it does mean I need to delete some other stuff from my drives so I can install it. Hmm, maybe after I do that I can also try out Google Earth....
• Astronomers pass judgment on ID
• A list of all the myths tested by the MythBusters (including if the myth was confirmed or busted).

Tags: article, cli, con, CSS, hell, Link, Links, MythBusters, PHP, RPG

What A Day

I had originally planned on attending a Pampered Chef party with my wife last Sunday. I had been thinking it would be some pleasant socializing over some tasty food with a bit of somebody trying to sell me some pricey kitchen stuff. That is to say a not entirely unpleasant to spend part of one's afternoon. Instead about an hour before the party, our friend Bryon stopped by and mentioned that Bruce Campbell was in town giving a short talk and promotting his new book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way.

I thought about it for a minute, but I knew there'd be more chances for Pampered Chef parties and I doubted I'd have any better chance of getting to see Mr. Campbell in person. So after a quick shower¹, Bryon and I hopped into the car and drove into Iowa City. We got to the site about 40 minutes prior to the event began. We waited around and it turned out one of my co-workers was also there². Then about 10 minutes before Mr. Campbell was scheduled to begin speaking; they opened one set of the doors into the auditorium and let everybody in. And naturally, it wasn't the door we'd had been waiting at. *sigh*

Eventually, everybody was inside and mostly seated but then the organizers explained how the signing procedure was supposed to work and said the new book was for sale at the back of the auditorium. So we ended up giving up our fairly good seats to go get in another line. It took a while to get through the line, but it was good that we both went to the line as Laura³ showed up looking for us. Apparently, she decided the party wasn't her cup of tea. While we were waiting in line; she kindly thanked me for "being so god-damn tall".

There was a considerable amount of waiting in line to get the book, but eventually we all got our copies and headed back to find new seats (the good seats we'd had were long gone). A bit after that Mr. Campbell started taking questions. It turns out he's a very charismatic speaker. There were a number of questions about him working with Sam Raimi, but the only one that really stuck in my mind was:

Questioner: When working on Spiderman, did you hang out with Tobey Maguire?
Bruce Campbell: Why would I?

*grin*

After far too little time had passed, Mr. Campbell stopped taking questions and then made a short speech promoting B-movies as the only place that is still creative in Hollywood.

...getting bitten by a radioactive spider is a b-movie!

After the speech, they started having people come up to get their books signed. Bryon & I had relatively low numbers but when we were going up they weren't actually checking peoples numbers. Eventually I got up there and had Mr. Campbell sign my book; but I felt like a complete twit, the entire time I was there. I mean I have enjoyed all of his movies that I've seen and what I read of the book while I was in line was very amusing but I didn't really have anything to say to him. He was very polite to me, but it was a rather uncomfortable moment for me. Signed memorabilia is nice to have I suppose, but it doesn't do much for me. To tell the truth, I'm not entirely sure why I went up to have him sign the book. Other than I'd waited in line to get the sticker saying I could do so. *shrug* Life, go figure.

After that, we took off and headed off to meet up with some other friends for some RPGing. When we got there they were still finishing up with the Pampered Chef party and I got to munch down some of the leftovers⁴. Then it was game time and afterwards off to Old Chicago for dinner. All in all, a very pleasant Sunday.

¹ Bryon arrived before we were expecting anybody. And yes, I'm extra-specially lazy on the weekend; so if I'm not expecting company I will hang around the apartment without getting myself up and ready for the day.
² That would be Quincy for those that are curious.
³ Another friend of ours. One who was supposed to be at the Pampered Chef party.
⁴ Ah, breakfast at 3pm....

Tags: Books, breakfast, Car, Chicago, Code, con, dinner, Food, friends, IM, Life, Link, Love, movie, Movies, party, quote, radio, RPG, tea, tools, war, weekend, Wife, work, working