Yes, not one, but two music sessions this month, and both involving the same personnel (Sal, Jason, and I). Jason has really stepped up his playing, so the last time wasn't just one good session. As a team, I thought we were working together pretty well.
Sal still hadn't had much time to work on anything since the last session, but familiarity still helped, and we're getting better at figuring out how to coordinate things when they don't come together naturally.
"Keep on Rockin' in the Free World" remains our best song collectively, and we had a couple of fun surprises. "Hotel Yorba" from the White Stripes is back on the list and sounded especially good. "Science Fiction Double Feature" from the Rocky Horror Picture Show started as sort of a joke, but worked really well and has been officially added to the song list. Our list on the whole is a little too laid back in light of what we seem to do best together, which is corrected easily enough.
We still have some odd rhythmic issues to work out. Some of it is a lack of familiarity with each other or with the songs. When it was just Jason and I, it was easy to coordinate because there was only one other person to coordinate with. Maybe we got a little lazy about structure because if one of us messed up, all the other had to do was be alert enough to adjust accordingly. Hopefully a little more prep time going back to the source material will help.
We have a couple of other guitar players to bring in from jam sessions Jason has been having. Still no vocal help on the horizon, and I really have to figure out how to do something about that.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Sunday, March 21, 2010
New In Nomine Scenario
My local GURPS Cabal campaign is now ready to go and scheduled to begin in late April, so I'm going to move my roleplaying focus over to the new In Nomine con scenario. As I'd expected, this one is turning out to be a relatively simple situation and location with a lot of interesting characters for the players to interact with, which is where the complexity comes in. This means creating a truckload of relatively detailed NPCs (not to mention keeping track of them all when I run this), but since that's my idea of fun, I don't mind at all.
I'm using a real life location from my musical experiences in Philadelphia, renamed, transplanted to Chicago and slightly modified to make things easier for gaming purposes. Several of the characters are based on real people. Not only does that make it faster and easier to write, it also makes the characters feel more real and helps me to improvise details if the players manage to surprise me in some respect or another.
The tricky part of this one is proving to be making the climax actually feel climactic, since the ultimate objective of the scenario is kind of low key. I have some ideas about how to do that, but I don't think I can be sure that it'll work until I playtest. I have to playtest this one and "Room Service" by sometime in June to allow time for any necessary modifications. Sounds like a lot of time, but it's really not, considering everything else I have tying up my weekends these days.
I'm using a real life location from my musical experiences in Philadelphia, renamed, transplanted to Chicago and slightly modified to make things easier for gaming purposes. Several of the characters are based on real people. Not only does that make it faster and easier to write, it also makes the characters feel more real and helps me to improvise details if the players manage to surprise me in some respect or another.
The tricky part of this one is proving to be making the climax actually feel climactic, since the ultimate objective of the scenario is kind of low key. I have some ideas about how to do that, but I don't think I can be sure that it'll work until I playtest. I have to playtest this one and "Room Service" by sometime in June to allow time for any necessary modifications. Sounds like a lot of time, but it's really not, considering everything else I have tying up my weekends these days.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Return of the Music Project
I knew it had been a while since we'd gotten together, but hadn't realized it had been quite so long. In addition to the usual Jason and I, we had Sal, the guitarist I'd first met a couple of months ago.
Jason was really on this time. I talked to him about it afterward, and he felt the long break had done him good. It certainly sounded that way.
The session worked out well, for the most part. There was relatively good chemistry between the three of us, with a demonstrated willingness all around to try anything, which is something I'd hoped to see on a regular basis on this project. There were some rhythmic glitches here and there, which I think had more to do with a lack of familiarity with each other and with some of the songs than it did with anything else.
Sal did a nice job on the songs where he'd done his homework. The soloing on "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World" was impressive enough to catch both Jason and I by surprise. I caught him suddenly turning to look at Sal at exactly the same time I did. He played well enough on the material he hadn't practiced, but unsurprisingly, there was a marked difference in performance between the two. Two of my old bandmates from years ago (and two separate bands) could sit in with anybody and sound as though they'd rehearsed with the band for months, so I'm afraid they spoiled me in that respect. I tend to forget that not everybody can do that.
I was able to spend most of the session on bass, though I moved to guitar here and there to show Sal particular things on songs he hadn't played before. I was still handling all of the vocals. Sal has told me he loves to sing but isn't good at it. I know he's not comfortable enough to try it yet, but I get the sense that he could be persuaded in time. I don't care if he's especially good; I'd just like to get a break from time to time and even sing some harmony, and I'm sure he'd get better with practice if he can sing at all. I'm having trouble speaking today after singing so much yesterday.
Sal has a strong preference for playing with a second guitar player. That's fine, since we're looking to bring in more people anyway. Jason knows a couple of possibilities from his jam sessions that haven't included me, so we'll check 'em out as they become available and we'll see what happens. I'm looking forward to playing another session with Sal with less rust and better preparation all around.
One of the issues raised by Sal that I hadn't really considered was the potential difficulty involved in a rotating line-up with multiple guitarists. If, for the sake of argument, we had three guitarists involved with two playing each session and rotating attendance, who plays which solos? I'd thought we could just wing that depending on who is there on the day, but it's really not that simple for solos that require some real preparation. I suppose we'll cross that bridge if/when we get to it, since we've had trouble finding even one regular guitarist.
On a side note, our previous repeat guitarist Rob achieved his goal of joining a full fledged band that plays out, so I doubt he'll be turning up with us again. Jason and I will probably go to see them in a couple of weeks. I wasn't terribly impressed by what I heard of them from their website, but live recordings tend to be dodgy and probably aren't doing them justice.
Jason was really on this time. I talked to him about it afterward, and he felt the long break had done him good. It certainly sounded that way.
The session worked out well, for the most part. There was relatively good chemistry between the three of us, with a demonstrated willingness all around to try anything, which is something I'd hoped to see on a regular basis on this project. There were some rhythmic glitches here and there, which I think had more to do with a lack of familiarity with each other and with some of the songs than it did with anything else.
Sal did a nice job on the songs where he'd done his homework. The soloing on "Keep On Rockin' in the Free World" was impressive enough to catch both Jason and I by surprise. I caught him suddenly turning to look at Sal at exactly the same time I did. He played well enough on the material he hadn't practiced, but unsurprisingly, there was a marked difference in performance between the two. Two of my old bandmates from years ago (and two separate bands) could sit in with anybody and sound as though they'd rehearsed with the band for months, so I'm afraid they spoiled me in that respect. I tend to forget that not everybody can do that.
I was able to spend most of the session on bass, though I moved to guitar here and there to show Sal particular things on songs he hadn't played before. I was still handling all of the vocals. Sal has told me he loves to sing but isn't good at it. I know he's not comfortable enough to try it yet, but I get the sense that he could be persuaded in time. I don't care if he's especially good; I'd just like to get a break from time to time and even sing some harmony, and I'm sure he'd get better with practice if he can sing at all. I'm having trouble speaking today after singing so much yesterday.
Sal has a strong preference for playing with a second guitar player. That's fine, since we're looking to bring in more people anyway. Jason knows a couple of possibilities from his jam sessions that haven't included me, so we'll check 'em out as they become available and we'll see what happens. I'm looking forward to playing another session with Sal with less rust and better preparation all around.
One of the issues raised by Sal that I hadn't really considered was the potential difficulty involved in a rotating line-up with multiple guitarists. If, for the sake of argument, we had three guitarists involved with two playing each session and rotating attendance, who plays which solos? I'd thought we could just wing that depending on who is there on the day, but it's really not that simple for solos that require some real preparation. I suppose we'll cross that bridge if/when we get to it, since we've had trouble finding even one regular guitarist.
On a side note, our previous repeat guitarist Rob achieved his goal of joining a full fledged band that plays out, so I doubt he'll be turning up with us again. Jason and I will probably go to see them in a couple of weeks. I wasn't terribly impressed by what I heard of them from their website, but live recordings tend to be dodgy and probably aren't doing them justice.
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Intertwining Cabal Campaigns
I've been working on my local GURPS Cabal campaign for the last week or so, with some progress. I have the big pieces in place; I'm just trying to refine some details for the first session or two so it'll be truly ready to go. I'm not going to try to plan too much detail from there because players always find ways to derail any plan that's too specific.
One of the interesting aspects of this local campaign is that I'm planning on interweaving it with the ongoing GURPS Cabal series of convention scenarios in the same setting. The two PC teams will be operating out of the same lodge and interacting with most of the same NPCs, plus each other as NPCs, adding depth to both sets of sessions. I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of effect this has and how long I can maintain it without serious continuity glitches.
One of the interesting aspects of this local campaign is that I'm planning on interweaving it with the ongoing GURPS Cabal series of convention scenarios in the same setting. The two PC teams will be operating out of the same lodge and interacting with most of the same NPCs, plus each other as NPCs, adding depth to both sets of sessions. I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of effect this has and how long I can maintain it without serious continuity glitches.
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