All Eyes on Me

The tabletop games of this past weekend all went well to varying degrees. I enjoyed the prewritten World War I Call of Cthulhu mod, but the pre-generated characters were a bit too bland. I like pre-gens as a concept-- in fact, I may actively prefer them, since I think the GM tends to be able to integrate them better into the world --but these didn't have much to sink your teeth into. Also, it ran very late, and the more tired I get, the less and less I can stay in character and roleplay.

I was very pleased with my Burn Notice game. We resumed quite smoothly, given that the last time we played was back in January. I am glad to report that we finished the episode, which included a "boss battle" of sorts that I ran a lot better than I was afraid I would. Combats are still tough for me. Also, fellow tabletop GMs out there, do you ever find the PCs latching on to an NPC that you didn't particularly expect them to develop any attachment to? The most recent adventure involved an underground boxing ring, and there was a cut man named Archie Judd who was designed to be able to be turned over to their cause. They ended up really liking him and asking if he'll ever appear again. That surprised me; I didn't expect them to find him as cool as they did. So it might be worth it to find some way to have him recur if they enjoy him that much.

We also arranged for the next session, which is a good idea as I'd like to play on a semi-regular basis. Not this Sunday but next Sunday we'll get together for it again. Two separate storylines have been going simultaneously, and now that the boxing one is concluded we can work toward finishing the one regarding Gwen being framed for acts of terrorism. Marissa will be rejoining the group in the role of Riker; it'll be good to have her back. I don't think Riker had much involvement in the current caper thus far, so she should be able to come in fresh on it. I think I like the idea of a once-every-two-weeks schedule. It gives me time to plan the adventures to my liking, something I don't think I could do if I only have one week in between sessions.

Then I played in the rules test for Bernie and Joe's proposed Eternal Darkness-style larp project. It was a tight, short mod with a great player goup that I liked very much, set in Egypt during the period of the big tomb excavations. Joe is a good DM; he makes good plots and handles players very skillfully. I got a slightly problematic character in that she had a really cool, fun personality but given her circumstances as a young woman in the late 1800's did not have a great entre into the adventure and was somewhat prevented from being as active as I would have liked. A fixable issue with careful design, however, and I liked her enough to use her as a role. As for the rules, by and large I thought they worked well, though they were clearly devised by people much more used to tabletopping than larping. Still, i think they could be cleaned up to high larp functionality.

Tonight is cooking preparation and packet stuffing for The Labor Wars. We are nearing the moment of truth where we actually have the run. I feel so proud of us for doing this. I can't get the thought out of my head that I participated in the writing of a new weekend-long game. As far as I know, there hasn't been a new weekend-long game written in the last ten years. And weekend-longs people regard differently; they're kind of a big deal. So I can't tell you how much I want to get the heck out of work today and get down to the prep. God, I am so excited for this game.

Dinner with rigel and bleemoo was lovely last night; they were excellent company and wonderful dinner guests. I shall have to have them over to cook for more often. The apple cider chicken came out well; it's basically a sauteed chicken dish in a thick, coarsely pureed sauce made of carrots, onions, cider, heavy cream, and apple vinegar, topped with a garnish of a sauteed apple slice in butter. I thought all the vegetable flavors worked well together. Having made it once I think I can do it without the cream, but it would take away from the richness of the puree. Rigel suggested trying almond milk, which might be a non-dairy way of keeping it creamy. I like that idea; I've never had almond milk before, but I've always wanted to try it.

Joe is coming to visit today for the rest of the week, along with his girlfriend and another friend of theirs. I'm excited to see him. He's going to be filling in as Riker in the Burn Notice session I'll be running this weekend. That promises to be interesting; I'm really looking forward to seeing what he'll do with the character. At the moment there are two storylines active in the campaign-- one a job for a friend of Donovan's mother that involves busting up an underground boxing ring, the other about Gwen's brother and ex-fiancee coming from Ireland to warn her that someone's trying to frame her --so I've got to sort out how those two will interact in this session. I guess I could put one on hold for the other, just so one has a chance of getting resolved sooner rather than later, or I could just let them follow whichever thread they prefer at the moment. That probably will require even more planning on my part-- I like an extremely well-planned out campaign --so I'm going to have to buckle down.

Finally got myself a Gmail account-- breakinglight11 like the name of the banner under which I run my larps --in preparation for the time when my Brandeis account finally expires. It probably won't anytime in the very near future, but it's good to be ready. Otherwise it doesn't really matter which of my addresses you use, I have them all sent to the same place.

I think I would like to write up a record of what goes on in my Burn Notice game, an episode guide, if you will.  I know when Kindness was running the saga of the Fairview Five, Matt would recap each session in his LiveJournal as a way of preserving the story. I always liked this idea, as it is a way of holding on to a story that you wrote that is told in a medium as ephemeral as the roleplaying game. As I'm trying to make it feel as much like a TV show as possible, I'm considering the story in the units of "episodes"-- not necessarily sessions, but the complete self-contained story that a single episode of a show would contain. In the four sessions we've had so far, there have been three episodes, begun if not completed. The pilot to our "show" was the two-parter getting Donovan knocked out of the field and stumbling back to Miami as a burned spy, combining the attempt on his life signaling the burn, his awkward return to his hometown and all the baggage he left behind, and the first job he would go on as part of Bruce's investigation team. Now we're onto the second episode, with another job and introducing some of the ongoing elements of the story. When I write them up, I'll also give them titles like real episodes. Now that I think about it, if I recall correctly the Buffy system is designed to function like seasons of a TV show-- is there any tangible effect of that on the way the game is run, or is it just flavor? Regardless, I like it, and want something similar for my game.

Mmkay, after that long emo post, I'll try and focus on more positive things.

I got a part in Romeo and Juliet! I am playing Paris, county and cousin to the Prince of Verona, with whom I am well pleased because I get a fight scene as well as whenever I'm not around all the other characters praise me effusively. I can get behind that. :-) The show is going up during Parents' Weekend this year, which means a short rehearsal period, but also that we get a built-in audience with all those families around that need something to do.

Also, my brother just got around to telling me about the nice thing he did for me. He was in LA all this past summer being a PA on television productions, and a friend of his, his roommate, did the same thing in Florida. His friend worked on Burn Notice, and Casey got him to bring me back a copy of a director's script and one of the actors' scripts, he couldn't remember which one. Isn't that cool? Casey can be really cool when he wants to be. Speaking of Burn Notice, I'm hoping the get my tabletop game running again this coming Sunday. I have a really cool session in mind, so I'm pretty excited.

Tried a new pumpkin pie recipe this past weekend. Made in conjunction with my famous apple and berry pie recipes, it was more complicated than my typical one, involving pre-baking cooking and freshly ground spices that gave it quite a kick. I really liked it, though, it's very flavorful, if perhaps a bit strong. I had so much of the supplies left over that I made four little mini-pies as well in my darling red ramekins. Figuring out baking time was a bit of a challenge-- they're four-inch vessels but they're much deeper than the typical pie pan --so I basically just threw them in and checked them every five minutes until they were done. I think it took about a half an hour in total. Still, they came out tasty, and I had the pleasure of looking at lovely little mini-pies. I do so love tiny food.

Yes, I am not doing fantastically lately. But I'm trying to get past it.