Good morningafternoon, Internets! Did you miss me?

If anything cool, fun, or important has happened since Thursday night, please let me know in comments.

Behind the cut, below, I'm going to talk about what I did at Dreamation 2010 this past weekend. LJ usernames will not be used to protect the innocent because I'm too lazy to look them all up. (I apologize in advance for misspellings and flat-out wrong names; mea culpa.)

Onward!



Events

FLIDAY

• Drove up to Rob Donoghue's house at ZOMG o'clock.
  
• Got on the road around 5:30 am.
  
• Much great gaming geekery discussion, ranging from design matters to personalities to industry ideas.
  
• Got to the Hyatt in Morristown; half-hour parking lot hell.
  
• Check-in, got ourselves situated; see many people, many handshakes and hugs; lunch with Ryan Macklin and Matt Gandy.
  
• General hanging out, with a particular "gobsmack Chad" moment:
  
  
  
  • MACKLIN: "You think you're pretty damn cool, don't you?"
    
  • YOUR HUMBLE: "Yup."
    
  • MACKLIN: "I bet you think you deserve a motherfucking medal for just being you, for just being Chad Underkoffler, don't you?"
    
  • YOUR HUMBLE: "Abso-friggin'-lutely."
    
  • MACKLIN: "Alright, then, bitch!" (fumbles in bag, produces a medal)
    
  • YOUR HUMBLE: (pole-axed; gapes like a goldfish; starts laughing hysterically)
    
  • MACKLIN: (to puzzled onlookers) "It's the Silver ENnie for S7S I accepted for him at GenCon."
    
  • [Well played, sir. Well played.]
    
  
  
• Sushi for dinner with Gregory Phillips, Brennan Taylor, and the delightful Lilith Taylor (who we all bored to tears for awhile talking about -- God help me, that I did this -- the economy, CDOs, the Move Your Money concept, yadda yadda. (Sorry, Lilith. The three of us we being old farts.)
  
• Played in a game of 3:16 -- Carnage Amongst the Stars (which I got from the "Haiti Bundle" on RPGNow/DTRPG), GM'd by Matt Weber. Much bug-huntin' and "officers are idiots/douchebags" fun. Think Aliens meets the Starship Troopers movie.
  
• Through the kind introduction of Darren Watts, and the sufferance of Vinny, got into the late-night Texas Hold 'Em game ($20 buy-in). Only had to wait about a half-hour before a seat opened up. I was writing off that $20 as an "entertainment and education expense" -- you see, almost all of my poker playing has been computer/online, so I have very few table skills. I saw this as an opportunity to learn those, and was happy to pay for the privilege, and said as much going in. I made mistakes, I learned, I had fun, and in the end, I made money: when I cashed out at 3 am, I was up $29. (That money helped with some of the Purchases below. Thanks, guys!)
  
• A little under 3.5 hrs sleeps, and then...
  

SABADAY

• When taking my morning shower, one of my greatest fears happened:
  
  
  
  • I slipped and fell in the extremely slick hotel tub.
    
  • I fell completely out of the tub, ripping the shower curtains free.
    
  • I narrowly missed cracking my skull open on the toilet, avoiding a porcelain slam to the brainpan that would have resulted in leaking blood and brains onto the lineoleum.
    
  • As it was, I landed on my... pride. (And we all know my "pride" is very well-padded.)
    
  • Lesson learned? I don't care: I'll wear my fake Crocs into hotel showers from now on.
    
  • BONUS: It's also darkly funny, in a way: "WET NAKED FAT MAN FALLS DOWN IN BATHROOM; FILM AT 11."
    
  
  
• Paid $20 for coffee and a small plate of scrambled eggs and bacon.
  
• Played Ganakagok in the am, GM'd by Jeff Collyer. Think tribal mythopoetical "Inuit-esque" folks, before the first rising of the Sun. The first Ganakagok game I'm been in NOT run by the author/designer (Bill White), and the most soap-opera-y thus far -- much of the play was all about social ties, relationships, status, and the Village.
  
• Pizza for lunch with Joanna and Connie and others.
  
• Spent first part of the afternoon sitting at a table in the hallway between the hotel lobby and the conference center with Rob Donoghue:
  
  
  
  • Shootin' the shit with whoever passed by.
    
  • Gave an academic interview to Bill White on North American jeepform/freeform play.
    
  • Talked with Vinny regarding some of the stuff I'll touch on in the Sunday Indie Roundtable discussion below.
    
  • Farted around with Rob and a deck of cards, trying to see if there was a good card-based resolution system for the sort of "give-and-take" in conflicts one sees in fiction and movies.
    
  
  
• Played in Dan Solis' Happy Birthday, Robot. It's a fantastic all-ages game, and can RAWK as a "generic" party game with non-gamer geeks. (Any game that can credibly survive the input of an over-caffinated/over-sugared 7 yr old has serious chops.) This one's a winner, folks. (muskrat_john, this is an Out of the Box game just waiting to happen. SRSLY.)
  
• Dinner, with much discussion of semiotics. ROCK ON!
  
• While waiting for the stars to align, Jared Sorensen (that magnificent bastard) tricked a bunch of us into playing several rounds of JUNGLE ADVENTURE, a Parsely game. . . and thus assured I'd buy ACTION CASTLE the next day (see below, Purchases). (Parsely games are PERFECT party games, BUT I do have to note it may be only perfect for those of us at a certain age. I don't really know if the whippersnappers would get into infocom-style text adventures. I welcome insights.)
  
• My attempt to Make Macklin Cry (by running Mythender) more or less fails. Mac's on top of his game, and handles it with aplomb and fun. CURSES!
  
• Awesome lobby socialization.
  
• Sleep the sleep of the Dead.
  

SUMDAY

• $20 bacon and eggs, again.
  
• Looking at the sched, I figured there was a decent chance of getting into a Fiasco game: many tables, early Sunday, rock on.
  
• Have ridiculous amount of fun with Fiasco. (Jason, was it "Besting" or "Breaking" or "Busting" when talking about one's "Jonx"?)
  
• Fantastic, if short, chat with Remi Treuer.
  
• Many hugging goodbyes.
  
• The Indie Roundtable, where:
  
  
  
  • Vinny laid out some ideas for a separate, Indie publisher/designer-focused mini-con. More deets will be forthcoming -- but I find the idea of a robust practical game design seminar track, a publishable academic "Proceedings" document, the idea that demos could be video'd and YouTube'd, and a central online forum/resource site VERY HOT. (Think of this mini-con idea as "Indie Roundtable, all the time!")
    
  • I offered my arrogant opinion on many topics.
    
  • Kudos to the Robs (Bohl and Donoghue) for emcee-ing.
    
  
  
• Saddlin' up with Rob D. for the drive south.
  
• Much great discussion, ranging from gaming stuff to fiction stuff to genealogical/family history stuff to philosophical explorations.
  
• Get my car from Donoghue land; drive home; magically find an appropriate parking spot. Unpack/do required chores. Crash.
  
  Purchases
  
  
  
  • A remarkable amount of Guinness.
    
  • ACTION CASTLE
    
  • The Day After Ragnarok
    
  • Human Contact
    
  • Lucha Libre HERO
    
  
  
  
  And now I am doing laundry.

Game Geeks #129 Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ6lHMq4ywA&feature=sub

Watch it! Link it! Love it!

Thanks, Kurt!

Batman (firstly) but also this:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427341.300-dont-pack-your-parachute-totally-free-fall.html?full=true

Enjoy!

Well, November is packed with (writing/editing) work:

* Freelance editing project, at my day-job rate.
* Starting DFRPG edit work Real Soon Now. [1]
* Working on STotC at odd moments. [2]
* UA PDF project progressing. [3]
* Day-job editing of many, many 2 yr old DOCs.
* Once again, pondering Hyperworld. [4]

I think that this weekend is the last anyone will see me in a social context until December.

NOTES:
[1] That would be the Dresden Files RPG.
[2] That would be the Strange Tales of the Century sourcebook.
[3] That would be the Thin Black Line, the Order of Saint Cecil sourcebook.
[4] That would be the revisiting of my "Hyperworld vs. the Invadroids" CiaB. . . and a backdoor new edition of T&J under the PDQ# rubric.

For your reading pleasure:

Happy Birthday, Harry: We Have A Target

and

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheDresdenFiles

(That latter link will keep you reading for HOURS.)

ALSO, because I am a tres geeky fanboi, I was thinking today that if I saw a story where Harry Dresden and Vlad Taltos teamed-up, I'd probably plotz.

(Then, I thought about Vlad teaming up with Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, and I DID plotz. Then, I thought about the Three Musketeers teaming up with Cyrano and Captain Alatriste, and plotzed halfway through the thought. We shall not speak of the Kirk and Sheridan team up, or the Matthew Gideon and Malcolm Reynolds team up.)

I am pondering constructing a PDQ# hack for Truth & Justice, along the lines of the Space Opera Hack.

There's a lot of lessons learned since T&J came out -- two whole books from me, and whatnot.

Hm. I wonder if I should build this as the "Hyperworld" hack, and test it a couple times as a pick-up game at upcoming cons.

If I could make that work, it would kinda rock.

(more pondering)

Since I'm home sick today (coughhackwheeze), I figured I'd spend some time talking about the PDQ# Space Opera Hack (which I'm using for pick-up games at cons) I ran for animadversio and ladylyonesse at DC Gameday this past weekend, while I wait for the Q to kick in. (Guys, if you wanna post your character write-ups in comments, I won't complain.)

Part of the fun of PDQ# SpOp is the creation of the list of "Facts" about the setting that develops through Setting the Dials and Character Creation (both of which only take about 30 to 45 minutes tops per three players) and the course of play.

Let's step through it...

SETTING THE DIALS
This phase is for laying down the basics of the setting, so that folks can make up characters for that setting.

Thumbnail: Firefly-esque galactic exploration.
Aliens/Robots?: Aliens.
Psi?: Weak and rare.
Ships?: Group ship -- 2-person scout.
Travel?: FTL via Star Wars-style hyperspace.
Raygun Power?: Normal weapon (use MOD as usual), with a 1-shot kill (drains battery).
Why Together?: Odd-couple scout team, randomly assigned (unresolved sexual tension).
Liz's One Thing?: "Uninhabited" inhabited world.
Tom's One Thing?: Running against the Doom Clock.
Givens?: Free Good [+2] Galactic Scout Forte.

CHARACTER GENERATION
Most starting Facts come form here, especially from the Planet (at least 3 Facts per) and Past Fortes of each character. (See below.)

PLAY
Subsequent Facts come from actions in play and table-talk. (See below.)

FACTS
This is what the setting is like, what's there, who's there, that sort of jazz. The first two Facts
are givens (and have held true in all PDQ# SpOp game I've run so far).

(character generation)

1. Swords & Rayguns.
2. Planets are named after elements.
3. TELLURIUM (Tellarites):
* Gas Giant.
* Cloud cities (suspended from below on repulsor platforms).
* Smuggler's haven.
4. RHODIUM (Rodians):
* High-powered business.
* Corporate aristocracy.
* Xenophobic (other human planets inclusive).
5. Gas can, apparently, be "mined." (Extraction of fractional layers.)
6. GOLD/AURUM (Aurites):
* Jungle planet.
* Huge cave networks.
* Money means nothing.
7. Division between plant and animal on Aurum is fuzzy.
8. Aurite "cave people" are a mysterious threat.
9. Jungle folk go into the caves for 24 hrs as a rite of passage; some do not return. There is a Guardian of the Light and Dark to help them enter the caves, turn those back before the day is up, and repel cave people.
10. Guardians of the Light and Dark are Amazonian and have vague telepathic powers.
11. Aurites can be exiled by "forcible volunteerism" into the Galactic Scouts.
12. Mining concerns have their own "peace forces" (akin to Military Police) somehwere between unionized labor and management.
13. A Rhodian corporation took over a Tellarite mining concern... and started to do bad things.
14. Meteorball is the most popular sport in the galaxy. (Zero-G football.)
15. Most common retirement-injury for meteorball is "blowing out your pancreas."

(play begins)

16. INDIUM (Indites):
* New planet on long-range scans.
* Far away.
* Plenty of radioactives (used for FTL drives) and -- regular structures?
(*) Structures have regular/sharp-edged Superman Fortress of Solitude exterior and irregular/gem-studded cave system interior.
17. Galactic Patrol only have bi-corders -- the tri-corders don't come out until next year.
18. Apparently, sexual innuendo is a galactic constant.
19. "What can I say, it's a sexist galaxy.."
20. "...but Amazonians don't even notice!"
21. Indites eat metal (especially gold, yum; alloys, plastics, and organics, yuck!) and poo uranium.
22. "Successful negotiating with the Indites to trade metals for their poo will DEFINITELY make us Tier B Scouts, now!"
23. "What, we made it up to Tier C already? Go us!"
24. Indites have a hive-mind.
25. There are Gorilla-men (alternately, "Gorillalilla-mens")from... some other planet in the galaxy.
26. The primary melee weapon of Tellurium is the "skimatar."

---

RULESY THOUGHTS FROM SESSION

A. Liz took "Fearless" as her SpaceOperatic Forte (in S7S, Swashbuckling Forte). I thought that was neat, so I did something similar with the antagonist character I was creating alongside of them (Judson Dok,Rhodian Corporate Aristocrat), taking "Relentless."

This was neat. It kind of made the SpOpForte into a bigass unchained Technique (with MOD bonuses) applicable to other Fortes. It also made the selection of actual Techniques under it slightly easier/quicker, at the expense of really needing to identify what you wanted this sort of SpOp Forte to really enhance.

The benefit-stacking (MODs, +1/re-rolls) for particular Forte and situation combos got interesting. For Dok, he was Relentless (bought up to Expert [+4]), Technique of Foe: Tom's PC, Technique of Situation: Chasing, and had a separate Expert [+4] Pilot skill: all of which meant that he was constantly on Tom's PC's tail, chasing him through space... and often shooting him down. WHICH MATCHED PERFECTLY with Tom's character's Foible of "On the Run.")

B. PDQ# states that adding a Minor Fact to the game costs no Style Dice. As I've been running PDQ# SpOp, I've found myself AWARDING Style Dice for generation of Minor Facts that make it onto the Fact list. No one has as yet tried to create anything I've considered a Significant or Major Fact -- and that could be a function of these being pick-up, one-shot games -- makes me wonder if I should codify this.

C. PDQ# SpOp has thus far always generated humor, often silly -- but it's mostly played straight. This is very nice. The best media examples I can think of are Big Trouble in Little China, Firefly, and Buckaroo Banzai. (Flash Gordon and Star Wars are within the scope, but on the straighter-faced end of the spectrum; Ice Pirates is probably the far end of the silly spectrum.)

---

So, yeah: that was fun!

So, from doing not much of anything, I am suddenly editing two monster projects:

#1. The Dresden Files RPG. I've been pitching in a bit with the other editors for the past month/month and a half on the manuscript, editing what chapters I can in a piecemeal fashion, reshaping the text presentation (not the rules; that is left up to better system-heads than mine) in preparation for the full-on, chapter-by-chapter "tone and continuity pass" I'll be doing in November, before the book goes to layout.

I really dig that Fred and the team dug my idea that the DFRPG is Billy's attempt to write a new version of Dracula for the Dresdenverse. (That is, a handbook/Dummies Guide for whacking nastybads.) HOWEVER, this means that much of the text -- written over several years, by diverse hands -- needs to be restructured, so (since it's my fault) I'm trying to pitch in and smooth the process.

An interesting thing: the book is theoretically being written between Small Favor and Turn Coat. Mostly because SmF came out JUST as we were finalizing "canon issues." Then, in the fulness of time, TC came out -- and we're too far along in the process to add new stuff, since we're getting close to PUB.

Making sure that the game is back-compatible with the new stuff in TC, without actually going there, has been a fun and interesting challenge.

#2. Strange Tales of the Century. Let me just say that I love ratmmjess with a mighty man-love. So everything I say after this, take that into account. IT'S SAID WITH LOVE!

Now, see this post of his first. Go ahead, I'll wait.

. . .

Back?

Jess dropped a manuscript 157% over projected wordcount, because he's a VERY NAUGHTY BOY.

And it's all awesome.

So, as editor, I am faced with a very, very CRAP position: I need to tighten the text up -- but every cut is a razorslice against my fanboy skin.

LISTEN UP, NON-GAMERS: Are you pissed you haven't been able to get a copy of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana? Upset that The Encyclopedia of Pulp Heroes hasn't yet been published?

You need Strange Tales of the Century -- when we're done with it.

Sure, there will be gamey-stuff in the book, but the lion's share of text is collecting, analyzing, and reifying (pulp) fictional archetypes, with numerous examples, for the time period from (at least) 1850 to 1950.

I'm talking about HUNDREDS of pages that aren't specifically game-oriented. A casual non-gamer reader will still get a tremendous amount of value from this book.

When it's done. Which is what I'm working on.

---

Lastly, I sent in three pitches for the Unknown Armies call for ideas for 3 PDFs. Because, hey, It's UA, and I loves me some UA.

My three pitches (djinn, thin black line, and perchance) are substantially mostly stuff that's been sitting on my harddrive since the UA heyday.

(bibliorex, ping me.)

---

So, yeah, that's the State of the Chad at the mo. Busy, busy, busy; wrapped in text; wielding the Blue Pencil.

(Reposted from the S7S yahoogroup.)

Swashers:

As (many of you) know, I usually do not answer direct questions on S7S. Mostly, this is because I believe that once a book hits the wild, I should keep my trap shut except in cases of errata. I am VERY interested in what each and every group brings to the table, in answering questions in the text.

I hope paying attention to these questions makes me a better and clearer writer.

HOWEVER.

Over the past couple weeks, it has seemed that questions have been posed that never received answers.

I find this intolerable.

Thus, if you have posed a question and not received an answer, repost it in this thread, and I will assay a response. Note that I do not claim primacy for my particular answer to said questions; I'm just the guy who wrote the thing, other folks will make it live and breathe for their groups.

But I DO want to address issues that people have raised in some wise.

So, if you asked a question that never got an answer (satisfactory or at all), re-pose it in this thread, and I will give you my take. It may be messy or idiosyncratic, but it will be an answer.

Thank you.

I will answer questions here, on LJ, if necessary -- but I prefer to do so on the yahoogroup.

Remember:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S7S/

"to be a giant flying chicken rider, you have to come from giant-flying-chicken Land"

http://rpgpundit.xanga.com/710120882/item/

Awesome.

Check it out!