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.

Just finished my last (I think) assigned bits of writing for The Labor Wars. As I checked them off my to do list, I felt a rush of excitement. This is so close to happening! We've got this brand-new game almost ready to go! I got to be part of a huge new writing project with people I really like and whose work I really respect! Yay! Less than two weeks to go.

The intervening time is looking to be busy. Bernie's brother Joe will be coming to visit, and I really want to hang out with him, but the schedule for the time he's in town is still very up in the air. I know he wants to run a couple of tabletop games while he's here (and I certainly wouldn't mind him finishing off the last session of Burn Notice he was so awesome in) but that's a lot of gaming in a fairly short space of time, and I'm not certain what we'll have time and players to do. I'm pretty much free all of that time if I need to be, but I really like knowing ahead of time how to arrange my schedule.

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.

Happy Easter, everyone. Not a bad weekend at all this time around.

Friday after a leisurely lunch with Jared, I ran over to the Natick mall to wander around for a few hours. I'm not a big shopper or anything, but I enjoy walking around looking at things and letting my mind wander. I also like it when I can get in long walks without really thinking about it; it's good exercise as well as a nice way to spend a day. I did buy a little bar of solid lotion at the Lush store that smells like white chocolate and feels delightful on my skin. I am something of a sucker for things that make me soft and smell nice. If BPAL made lotion, I'd be their best customer.

In the evening I played in Bernie's Paranoia game, which was a ton of fun. I also met Bernie's brother Joe, who is a really good guy despite the disproportionate amount of time he and Bernie spend being the Bobsey Twins. I actually got to be Team Leader this time, but it amused me to gun after Sheena. Only 'cause I love him, of course. Kindness's character kept getting me to test his various kinds of B3 cola, which had me variably high as a kite, hyper-crazy, or totally addicted-- and, being the ham that I am, I had to act out the effects. The best part was when I realized Mac's character had drunk the only other incredibly addictive vanilla variety, so I shot her open and started eating her to try and get some more of it. :-)

Saturday was Spycraft. The mod went very well, I was in a mod with Lise and Joe, and it only lasted a reasonable four hours, instead of the maddening typical six or seven. Jared got to debut his new character and things went went for him too. Joe also gave him some advice about the mod I want to write, which helped me fix one of the many stumbling blocks that have been keeping me from finishing the thing. The evening went to helping Sheena babysit his very cute nephew Alex.

Today on Easter Sunday I went to church, which was extremely crowded but very pleasant. Jared and I then went to a nice pizza lunch, and I hung around my room doing various things. Tonight I will be having dinner at Alex's place, and I will be breaking Lent with Jared and the red velvet cake he's making me for dessert.

All in all, very pleasant so far, and promises to end pleasantly as well.