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.

Pandorum

This movie turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I'd rented it largely because my wife enjoys movies with monsters, and this one qualified.

The story begins with a couple of members of the crew of a spaceship unexpectedly awakening from long term hypersleep. The process causes them to have short term problems remembering things, though those problems fade in time. They quickly figure out that something must have gone wrong, as most of the power is off and the ship is populated by ultra fast/strong monsters that eat literally anything that moves. As the crew tries to restore power and figure out what happened, some surprises unfold. It's really best if you don't know more than that going in.

Some elements are fairly obvious, such as where the monsters came from, and I'd expected that most of the plot twists would turn out to be not-so-twisty, as usual. However, they truly surprised me several times. The first surprise, for example, was the presence of someone who was clearly a member of the crew, yet spoke no language in common with the awakened crewmen. I liked that they never really did explain him in the course of the story, as I figured it out for myself and there was no real reason for anyone to explain it that wouldn't have felt like obvious exposition. There are a few relatively minor logic problems with the story, and I started getting a little tired of the monsters' jerky movements after a while, but overall this was better-than-usual genre fare. I found two other movies on Netflix with the same director, and added them both to my list, which I think says it all. Recommended if you like science fiction and keep your expectations modest.

Creative Updates

Yet another music project session bit the dust this weekend, this time due to snow related injury. Grrr. The female singer is definitely out due to personal issues that emerged in her life. The guitar player I'd gotten together with on one occasion remains a possibility, as well as another guitar player that Jason found. And so it goes...

I've written another verse of one of the songs I'd been working on. Songwriting has to take a back seat to RPG writing, at least for a while, since I'm running out of time to get a second new event ready for DexCon and I'd like to get my local Cabal campaign going as promised.

The new In Nomine idea still needs a lot of work, but it's the sort of work I like to do (mainly writing character backgrounds for NPCs), so I doubt that's going to be a problem.

For the last couple of days, the main creative project has been the local Cabal campaign. I finally figured out whodunnit for the murder mystery that will be one of the main story arcs of the campaign, and a lot of other things will fall into place from there. I don't need too many specifics, as the players would derail any but the most general of plans anyway, but some things really have to be in place from the beginning, or the campaign won't hang together.

I'll jump back and forth between the con scenario and the local campaign as inspiration takes me for the next week or so, and see how that goes.

Holy Mother of God and All Her Wacky Nephews!

We've had a major snowstorm here, on top of a big one last weekend. I don't know exact measurements, but I can give you a reference point. We have a walkway leading up to the house with a support railing installed by the previous owner. The cumulative effect of the two storms is that the railing is just visible by maybe two inches over top of the snow.

My wife's employer was closed, but mine wasn't, so she dug out the end of the driveway (about four inches of snow overnight) while I finished getting ready for work, then off to work I went in spite of my better judgement. I was nearly broadsided thirty seconds later by a guy in a jeep running a stop sign that he clearly had no intention of even slowing down for until the last second. If I hadn't been paying more attention and stopped myself, he would have hit me directly in the driver's door. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders as a sort of apology, then continued on this way.

Fortunately, the rest of the trip was tricky but less eventful. About a third to a half of our work force made it. Snow continued to be heavy, and ultimately they allowed us to leave after being at work for about an hour and a half. The trip back was much the same as the trip in, though the guy in front of me at one point was clearly having trouble seeing the road and nearly drove off it a number of times. The street where I live hadn't been plowed, and my car could barely travel it. If I'd left work just a little later, the result wouldn't have been good. It's going to be tough digging out tomorrow morning, but I'll deal with that when it comes.

So I had most of today unexpectedly to myself, and worked on the music for the Jean Grey song, among other things. I don't expect to get to work anywhere near on time tomorrow, but I do expect to get there. It could be a tough day, depending on how many of us turn up and how many people like me were crazy enough to go out today and actually did have accidents.

"It Might Get Loud" and Musical Inspiration

I had a music project session scheduled this past Saturday involving a new singer and a new guitarist, but obviously that didn't happen because travel wasn't much of an option. I practiced on bass and guitar today (I usually do one or the other), but it's just not as much fun as playing with other people. Sigh...

I've recently written a parody song about General Grievous from the Star Wars prequels, a verse and chorus of an original song about Jean Grey (from the X-Men), and a chorus for another Star Wars parody song (Episode IV that time). I wasn't really working on this stuff; it just started coming when my wife suggested the basic idea of the General Grievous song and I couldn't resist finishing it. If enough of this keeps coming, I may have to dip a toe into the world of filk music and see if it's enough fun to keep up. I'd love to do some Lovecraftian parody at some point if I can come up with the right idea.

I watched a documentary called "It Might Get Loud" this past week, which was about the famous guitarists Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), the Edge (U2), and Jack White (White Stripes and other projects). I'm not a hardcore guitar guy per se, but felt very inspired afterward. I'm not a particular fan of any of the three, but the Edge unexpectedly impressed me. It wasn't his playing; it was his approach to music. He seemed genuinely interested in what the other two were playing (far more so than the others, though they were all reasonably appreciative of each others' skills), and humble about his musical limits. Jimmy Page is one of the most fluid players I've ever seen; it's as though he's barely trying, and everything sounds great. Jack White had a studious approach to playing that I quite liked at the same time that his stage performances completely abandoned that studiousness in favor of raw feeling. It was a strange contrast seeing both in the same man. Recommended if you have any interest in music and the people who make it.

We All Seem to be Playing Something Different

I was doing some general internet surfing regarding roleplaying games this past week as well, and did some thinking on the subject. Popularity of the form in general seems to have continued to fall off steeply. I've heard from many sources that the future of the roleplaying market is PDFs, and I'm ultimately okay with that, though I'm old fashioned and still have a preference for physical books, given a choice. The real problem is the old critical mass question regarding quality GMs and players. It takes good GMs to create and maintain player interest, and it takes entertaining players to keep GMs interested in continuing. Where are those quality GMs and players going to come from when the player base is shrinking? Some of my favorite players no longer turn up at conventions, and a few of those told me the last time I'd seen them that the one or two good sessions they experienced each convention just weren't worth the three or four that weren't very good. Two of the best GMs I've ever seen don't run RPGs (at least not at conventions) anymore. I don't see the hobby going away entirely, but I could see it shrinking to the point where the participants are the same familiar faces at the same regional conventions, year after year.

The balkanized nature of roleplaying interests (and strong opinions associated with that fracturing) isn't helping, and I think that will have to change in some way as the market gets smaller. Once upon a time, if you were a roleplayer, you played D&D, and maybe one other game, two if you were adventurous. Now we all seem to playing something different and reluctant to reach across the breach due to increasingly strong personal tastes.

As for myself, I'll continue to GM as long as scenario writing keeps my creative interest and people keep showing up to play. But I don't see myself trying to write ahead the way I used to. I'll maintain my two con scenarios a year and probably a local campaign if there's interest, then put the rest of my creative energy elsewhere.

Room Service Completed/Another Mission from God

I've finally finished off my new Paranoia scenario, "Room Service". It's likely that I'll do some tweaking after watching a couple of Marx Brothers movies I haven't seen yet, but I could run it right now if I had to.

Next, I'd like to have a new In Nomine scenario ready in time for DexCon and to get my home GURPS Cabal campaign started. I have a terrific idea for a new series of In Nomine convention scenarios, but it's going to take some time to organize what I want to do for that, and I don't have much time right now. So I'm going to use the "Mission from God" cast of characters, put them in a tricky situation in a relatively small location with a truckload of colorful NPCs and a couple of plot twists, and that should be enough to get something workable together quickly. It'll be familiar territory for me, but hopefully I can make the twists dramatic enough to not repeat myself too much.

After that, I'll probably start the Lovecraftian installment of my GURPS Cabal series illuminating the secret history of a long running major NPC so I'll have plenty of time to get it right for DexCon 2011.

Plant the Seed

I was speaking with a friend at work today about a person who was trying to exaggerate a claim well beyond the point of fraud and didn't see anything wrong with it. We'd caught her, obviously, so she wasn't going to get away with it. I'd become very frustrated with the claimant and lost patience. My friend said that she was planning on having a conversation with her in which she didn't expect the claimant to fully understand that what she was doing was wrong; she hoped only to "plant the seed" for her to eventually realize it in her own time.

This struck me as a remarkably intelligent idea. Even if you can't convince someone that they are making a mistake or behaving badly at a point in time, you can make sure that you say something that might stay with them long enough for them to learn from the mistake later, after they've repeated it a few times (which most of us tend to do before we learn).

I've often gotten frustrated with people who clearly didn't want to listen to what I was saying and just gave up after a while. Thinking this through, maybe I'm not wasting my time if I can figure out how to at least plant that seed and benefit that person later, if not now.

Death Note

I just finished watching the two Death Note live action movies, which are really one story spread over two films. This story originated as manga, then as an anime series, and eventually as movies. An American remake is supposed to be in the works.

The fundamental premise is an interesting one. It immediately reminded me of the roleplaying game Sorcerer in several respects, though the parallel is imperfect, and I'm likely to borrow some elements for roleplaying material in the future. A young man named Light finds a notebook with instructions explaining that if he writes a person's name in it while thinking of their face, that person will die. Thinking of the person's face prevents potential mistaken identity or duplicate name situations. If he does not specify how the person dies, the target dies of a heart attack. If he does specify, the death occurs at the time and place exactly as described. Light's father is a police officer, and because Light is frustrated by the way criminals frequently evade punishment for their crimes, he begins using the notebook to deal out justice as he perceives it. Of course, power proverbially corrupts, and Light soon finds himself on very slippery moral ground.

His own father is part of a task force trying to track him down, and the task force is led by a strange genius known as "L". Most of the story involves the cat-and-mouse game between L and Light, so I'd be spoiling it by saying anything more. The actor playing L gives a memorably weird performance that is enough reason by itself to rent these two films. I felt that Light's moral descent plays out a little too quickly in the first movie, and my wife assures me that it works much better with the slower pace of the anime series. I don't have a whole lot of hope for the American remake, since it's likely that they'll downplay the suspense and build up the action and special effects, but they could always surprise me.

In the meantime, I'd highly recommend the Japanese live action movies if you can appreciate a suspense film with a strong supernatural element and don't mind the CGI "gods of death" who get a fair amount of screen time.

Room Service and the Marx Brothers

I've had a little free time lately and continue to make progress on the "Room Service" scenario for Paranoia. I've got most of the character goal interactions sorted out (the most important part of a Paranoia scenario as far as I'm concerned) and a good outline of likely events.

The player characters are based on the Marx Brothers, and of course, there aren't quite enough brothers for a six player game. I've used that to advantage in a couple of respects. The sixth character is based on Margaret Dumont, an actress who appeared in many of their movies. And of course Gummo never appeared in any of the movies, but that gave me a lot of leeway to play with. Anyone who knows me knows that Zeppo is going to have more going on than might be apparent from his movie appearances. I'm shooting for that chaotic feel of the better Marx brothers movies while still keeping it Paranoia, and I think it's going to work.

I've got to stay focused on finishing this whenever I can, as I'm running out of time to write another scenario in time for DexCon, and I'd really like to have one more, preferably something for In Nomine.