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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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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Hello, all,

Since about a few months back, I began noticing a disturbing trend: more and more people were listening to my experiences, then turning to me non-challantly and saying, “meh, that’s not role-playing”. Invariably, they then proceed to “explain” to me what role-playing is, and how it needs this and that and those other things like, say, a Game Master, and conversation generally degenerates pretty quickly from there on.

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Ahey,

Clinton and I […] want to keep the Forge’s function right where it started - finding people in the canebrake, struggling with their designs, or having produced an amazing design but not knowing what to do with it. We like it working best and most for the guys with a crappy Geocities website and a neat game idea, who aren’t quite sure how the internet can help them further.

Read this thread. The relevant post is Ron’s third post in the thread, specifically, post # 18.

Enlightening.

Cheers,
J.

Hey, all,

Duval, the elven Ammenite with a conscience, is no more.

In the brief days of his existence, he participated in a full moon feast, chased a manipulative rascal, made friends, saved lives, got fallen in love with, was imprisoned, rescued, ambushed, fought, and was called a traitor, and then a hero.

In his finest hour, he single-handedly fought and defeated over fifteen of his own countrymen, who, acting on the orders of the commander of a much more sizeable force, were poised to stage a large-scale invasion of his friends’ land.

Through his actions, he stopped the invasion on its tracks and went on to end the war itself. Of course, in the long run, the Ammenites can’t be trusted, but for the time being, at least, the Khaleans can sleep soundly.

And when it was all over, he walked off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Actual Play at The Forge, as usual, with some substantive content regarding the game play, and yes, I’m being immodest about it.

Cheers,
J.