Lisbon Gamer

Hail, all,

Last week, I attended a wedding.

So, why is this worthy of note? Two reasons: one, it was my first virtual wedding, and two, I was presiding.

Yes, that’s correct, last Wednesday, the 18th of July of 2007, Zooggy, my World of Warcraft priest character, presided over the wedding between Teufel and Saharah, two other WoW characters (who are man and woman in real life, and in fact, live together).

The ceremony was held in the Valley of the Spirits in Orgrimmar, and was a “traditional” horde wedding. (Read: a ceremony entirely made up by Infinity, the wedding planner, and myself.) For your enjoyment, here are a series of wedding “photographs” (or screenshots, to be more accurate).

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Hello, all,

Lisbon is a very quiet place at 5AM on a Monday morning, which is the time we finally rolled the car into the garage after a gruelling, yet utterly satisfying, eleven-day RPG marathon retreat.

Yes, that’s right, eleven days. We left home just before midnight on Wednesday, the 6th, bound for the Algarve, a place called Chinicato (just outside the city of Lagos, and no, not Nigeria), which is about a two and a half hour drive. Then, for eleven straight days, we did nothing but eat, sleep and play RPGs.

We played Spirit of the Century, Dust Devils, Sorcerer and Mortail Coil, but mostly, we played Primetime Adventures. A whole five-episode-plus-pilot season, which, incidentally, marked my wife’s debut as head of the table, and she did a great job, so make sure to pat her on the back next time you see her!

As available time and energy permit, I’ll be posting Actual Play for all that stuff at the Forge (where else), and I’ll be editing this post for links, so stay tuned and be patient.

Anyway, it was a good week-and-a-half, but there’s no place like home, and I can’t wait to get back to my regularly scheduled weekly gaming.

In other news, it looks like my new anti-spam thingie isn’t working either. Bah…

Go Play!

Cheers,
J.

2007-06-23: PTA Actual Play
2007-07-21: Sorcerer I Actual Play

Hello, all,

Six months and a couple of posts ago, I injected a few paragraphs on a D&D campaign I’ve been running, and I was asked to expand on what changed, what didn’t, how I play, how I don’t, do I like the rain, what about the color green interests me, and a bunch of other assorted queries of varied relevance.

Today, on the eve of our next RPG retreat, I decided to get this task out of the way. So, without further ado, I present to you an Anatomy of a Campaign!

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Ahoy,

Yeah, I been dormant!

But I’m awake again, or at least hopefully so. I got things to say again, and slowly but surely, I’m getting my life back onto its usual rhythm.

One, I finally managed to organize another RPG retreat. I’m not exactly sure where we’ll be going, yet, but I’m sure we’ll be going somewhere. I’m up for eleven days of non-stop RPGing! When I come back, I expect to post about it, so keep tuned.

Two, I’m finally gearing up to post a response to an old request. Apparently, folks (well, some of them) want to know how I set up my D&D campaign, and why I set it up like that, so I’ll oblige and answer.

Three, I started a traditional campaign myself. I never said it was a bad thing, I just said it was a thing, so there! We’re playing Bushido, by Bob Charrette and Paul Hume, the folks that later brought us that pearl of RPG lore that is ShadowRun.

Four, techie stuff, I’m a geek and I proudly admit it. You don’t believe me? Check out Geek By Proxy, my wife’s blog. Well, it’s empty right now, seeing as we just set it up, but the sheer fact that we did set it up should impress you no end. Be impressed!

That be it. I’ll try to keep awake, now.

Go Play!

Cheers,
J.

Hey, all,

Yeah, it’s been a while…

Basically, this last trimester has been hard on my time, what with all the work, but especially, all the gaming. Seriously, these past few months, I have taken Tuesday nights off to specifically not game.

Sunday night is board game night. Monday and Wednesday are ASL nights. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are RPG nights. Heavy!

And then, there’s work. The life of a freelancer is somewhat chaotic and unpredictable, but this is ridiculous. From October on, a number of different projects fell on my lap, every single one of which is “vital, and must be completed before the end of the year”. Of course, I could turn some down, only, I really shouldn’t…

But mainly, the reason I haven’t written in a while is that, frankly, there’s nothing to write. True, I did fall out of sync with most blogs I’ve been tracking, not to mention Story Games, which means my ear isn’t exactly on the grapevine. Mostly, however, my own gaming has been on the money, so there’s really nothing new to say.

Still, just so I don’t get out of the habit too much, I thought I’d take this opportunity to recount my more recent RPG exploits.

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Hey,

It does!

If you think it doesn’t, or if you feel like a good laugh, check out what The Lord of the Rings would look like if it were a transcript of D&D sessions:

DM Of The Rings

Be sure to read the author’s commentary at the bottom of the comic, and don’t forget to follow the nearby Next links.

Cheers,
J.

Hello, all,

A long time ago in a distant land, Joshua “El Fuego” BishopRoby was met with the following apparently unsolvable conundrum:

Does the GM need to apply some measure of Force in order to get to the interesting bits of the bangs?  Is there some ‘acceptable level’ of GM Force in the bang-structured game?  Is bang-structure advocating short bursts of illusionism to get to the very non-predetermined decisions that the PCs make in the bangs?

The question was asked by him and answered by Ron Edwards, and the answer is a flat and unequivocal No! The GM tools used to lead characters to bangs are, in fact, not Force, but rather Authorities, which I expounded on at length in my previous post.

In truth, this question was actually one of terminology, rather than one of actual form, and so, this thread would have been one among many, and quickly forgotten, were it not for one simple fact:

A long way down the line (in page 3, posts 4 and 5), in the process of constructing an answer, Ron unwittingly (or perhaps very much wittingly) dissects the whole damn structure of a role-playing game.

Like the previous one, this essay is my attempt at explaining these concepts in my own words, as a way of fostering my own understanding, as much as anyone else’s.

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Hello, all,

And welcome to my latest diatribe on game play and design techniques. This little essay is called:

A Study on Stances, Authorities, and Shared Narration Rights

GM: You are attacked by a man in a black velvet mask.
Player: I spin around and strike at his face, tearing his mask right off!
GM: Guess what, it’s Barnabas, the stable keeper!
Player: No kidding? Holy shit!
(Adapted from an example provided by Ron Edwards in this thread.)

Aside: Most, if not all, of what I say here can be gleaned directly from that thread, by the way, so really, you should go read it. This essay is really just my attempt at explaining these concepts in my own words, as a way of fostering my own understanding, as well as that of any hypothetical persons that might still be a tad lost about all this stuff. So, really, go read the thread before you read this.

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Hey, all,

I’m starting off a new post category, for all cool things related to friends and/or family, but not related to gaming. It would be sort of cool if I had decided to do this, and then found something interesting to post right away. Even cooler, though, is the fact that I have something that I absolutely must post, which is what drove me to reorganize the categories in the first place.

A friend of mine got married the other day.

So what, that happens every day, right? Only, this wedding was… different.

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Hey,

They just do…

Cheers,
J.