lategaming

LifeOptimiser covers some of “the best books of human civilization.”

It beggars my belief that someone may not have a plot to mind much like I find it hard to believe that an artist doesn’t know what to paint or a programmer what to write. I suppose that because I neither paint nor code, I’m filled with inspirations on what to paint or code.

Funny that.

I’m having a lot of fun writing half-a-games at the moment. You know - getting the grist of a game together. I’m not really enjoying the layout/art section though I’m sure I’ll get round to it. Illusion is almost ready to go. Six requires about another few weeks. It’s all good.

I have a hankering to play a game though, something I’ve not managed in a couple of weeks.

Not all of these are co-temporal but bear with me.

Brotherhood of the Wolf meets Sharpe In the Company of Wolves for adventure in crumbling post-Renaissance cities darkened by the grime of a burgeoning Industrial Revolution whilst romance poets tread dark gargoyled halls of vast Gothic cathedrals.

Based on the dates below, I think a period around 1798 would be just perfect.

Benjamin Franklin: 1706 - 1790
First Piano: 1709
Steam Engine invented: 1712
First diving bell: 1717
Giacomo Casanova: 1725 - 1798
Captain James Cook: 1728 - 1779
First invention of modern Steel: 1740
Marquis de Sade 1740 - 1814
Antoine Lavoisier: 1743 - 1794
Count Alessandro di Cagliostro: 1743 - 1795
First Capacitor (Leyden Jar): 1745
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: 1749 - 1832
Industrial Revolution: circa 1750 - 1850
Seven Years War: 1756 - 1763
Wolgang Amadeus Mozart: 1756 - 1791
“Mad” George III crowned: 1760
Catherine the Great’s reign: 1762 - 1796
American War of Independence: 1775 - 1783
Jane Austen: 1775 - 1817
Richard Sharpe (fiction) 1776 - 1860
French Revolution: 1789 - 1799
Great French War: 1792 - 1815
Percy Bysshe Shelley: 1792 - 1822
George Gordon Byron: 1788 - 1824
Charles Babbage: 1791 - 1871
Napoleon becomes dictator of France: 1799
Napoleonic Wars: 1799 - 1815

The atmosphere is becoming more humid in a pattern consistent with man-made climate change, researchers have found.

“This confirmation that humidity and temperature are increasing as expected has important implications for future human health and comfort,” observed the Hadley Centre’s Peter Thorne, one of the research team.

Looks like BladeRunner had it right. It’ll never stop raining.

This kind of thing gives me the shivers.

Two disabled blokes were detained by UK police for suspiciously opening a white envelope and looking at police men in public view

It’s been asked about 20 times now when I’m going to London with the job and I’ve been wanting to put it off. Anything to avoid the steely stare of Airport Security.

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER SECTION 44 (Courtesy Liberty ):

• The police can only give you a pat down, remove outer clothes (eg jacket, hat), search your bags and have you empty your pockets
• You do not have to give your name and address
• You do not have to explain why you are there
• You are not allowed to flee the search, but you are not required to be actively compliant. You are allowed to ‘go limp’ as passive resistance during the search if you wish not to comply
• There is no permission to collect DNA data during the search
• You do not have to comply with any attempt to photograph or record you
• Women cannot be touched by male police during these searches
• Make notes about the officers searching you - name, number and police force
• Note the time and the events preceding the search
• Note the specific wording used by the police to explain their authority to search you
• Ask the police for the reason that they are searching you. Specifically, are they searching for terrorists or are they simply trying to deter, delay or inconvenience you?

God forbid you should be having a game in the pub and passing round a copy of the Compendium of Modern Firearms or something.

Pardon my French, but this is fucking mint.

Escapist’s Yahtzee reviews Halo 3. It made me chuckle and made her-indoors roll her eyes.

Meanwhile we learn that Microsoft and Bungie are parting ways. So sad, too bad.

Of course, Bungie is now broken but who cares. Really.

Okay….

From the Wonderland blog:
While we’re debating the use of English pronouns in RPG books, we find that Ubisoft have just created a range of games for the Nintendo:DS which consist of shopping, fashion, animals and babies.

The world is imbalanced, side-loaded, lurching: we need more female policemen, actually - aren’t Ubisoft watching Life on Mars? - and female referees, and female politicians, and female military people, and female marketing strategists, and female farmers … and, of course, as evidenced by this latest offering, more female video game personnel.

Their next releases will concentrate on Ponies, Make-Up…..

I recently read James Herbert’s ‘48 which is a post-World War II version of a few post-apocalyptic stories. It was essentially “28 Days Later” or “Night of the Comet” but with Nazis. It read like a muh shorter ‘lite’ version of Stephen King’s “The Stand”. It’s Dawn of the Dead with a swastika.

Sure - there’s some good plot points, some not so good and some decent characterisation. It leaves the ending a little flat but it’s an easy read and not a long book so most people should be able to find their way through it easily enough. Two sex scenes, both where the author gingerly describes genitalia without using real words. Some interesting characters were killed off and the hero - well - I found it very hard to identify with him and his constant internal monologue.

So is this a mashup like we find in so many online apps and also in roleplaying games? Who knows. I liked the book, enough to finish it which hasn’t happened with every book I’ve bought in the last few years.

Along the lines of rehashing plots, new movie The Invasion seems to be just a rendition of Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

Everything old is new again…

The Giant’s Causeway is one of the most astounding natural formations in Northern Ireland. This got me thinking about the representations of natural wonders in gaming.

In the Aurore Sourcebook for 2300AD, they described a tidal flood plain which was so flat that the tides, sped by the influence of the large lunar satellite on that planet to be a rushing wall of water that destroyed anything in it’s path and whose sonic booms could be heard for miles around. I, of course, delighted at the idea of the players racing along the tidal flat trying to get to high ground before they were destroyed… (and I’d still give my right nut to play some 2300AD with a good group).

When playing MERP we didn’t spend much time talking about the grandeur of the mountain ranges or the dread of Mordor but we were young and we made more of an effort when playing the Decipher LotR game.

Without having trodden the steps (so to speak) or seeing the photos, does the sound of the Giant’s Causeway not sound like fiction?