Poker in the Eye II

Last week's feline situation overshadowed a minor accomplishment, that being my first poker victory with five other live players last Tuesday night. I can honestly say I've won more money than I've lost at poker, having played simply for fun my first time, losing $10 my second time, and winning $20 my third time. I don't think I'm quite ready for the World Poker Tour yet, though. :-)

I remain obsessed with the game at this point, playing the XBox version a little each night and having bought (and started to read) a book on it. I've never been much interested in gambling before, and that's not where the obsession lies, or I'd be playing more games with real people for money. I think it's that I've figured out where the skill lies, as opposed to being just who happens to draw the best cards, and now I'm trying to understand how to manipulate that to advantage, like any other game. It's a resource management game, really, with the resource being the chips. I'm too conservative by nature to be a real gambler, but I'm just enjoying the game for what it is right now.

On other fronts, my workload has become a bit more reasonable, and I've been working a lot of extra hours to try to clean house and create a situation where I don't mind my job so much on an ongoing basis.

Creative work is on the back burner for right now while I put in extra work time, learn poker, and get essentials done around the house. That said, I ran the first session of season two of my GURPS Firefly game this past Sunday, which went well, all in all. It felt good to be in the GM's chair again (which happened to be on the floor in this case), and the players seemed to enjoy the session. It didn't work out as I'd expected (with the PCs in prison), but we did have a surprising player character death, and it did end up with them having royally ticked off the most powerful government in the 'Verse, adding an element of true danger that's been missing from the campaign up to this point. I'd been getting burned out on Firefly, which was one reason for the hiatus, but now I'm excited about running it again for a while.

Rest Well, Old Kitt

One of our two cats passed away today. She was 19 or 20 years old. We're really not sure because we picked her up as a stray (long story) and the vet said she was two or three years old at that time. She'd lost a lot of weight over the last two years or so, to the point where we took her to the vet to be checked and had a lot of tests run, only to find out that she was (surprise!) simply an old cat. Over the last few days she'd started having trouble walking and had been behaving oddly in some ways, and it got rapidly worse as the days passed, until we had no choice but to take her to the vet for the last time today.

She enjoyed human company more than any other cat I've ever known. One of her previous vets noticed it, and referred to her as "Koala Cat" because of the way she wrapped her paws around people when she was being held. She sure seemed to appreciate the extra attention we'd made a point of giving her the last two days. We'll miss her.

Buddha and the Blackwoods

Sounds like a band, doesn't it?

I've picked up another book on Buddhism, and I'm continuing to find it inspiring and useful. I still slip into anger now and again at work, but far less than I had been. I think it's been helping my personal relationships as well.

I've technically finished "A Slice of Blackwoods", as of last night, while I was watching the Eagles/Saints football game. There's still some fine tuning to be done and I need to do a playtest, but it's good to have another scenario essentially in the books.

Next on the RPG front, I'll be re-starting my home GURPS Firefly campaign and putting more serious work into "Dance of Pairs" for Sorceror.

Poker in the Eye

I'm still spending far too much time with my XBox poker game, and I think I've learned enough to not embarrass myself playing with live human beings. I'll have to try it again soon. I'm beating the computer characters (even the highest level ones) on a regular basis, but real people are certain to be more challenging.

I tried the Fable game as well, and while it has entertainment value, I get more of the same sort of pleasure out of paper-&-pencil RPGs with live human beings. I'll still pull it out now and again, though.

I've broken out the GURPS Character Assistant and finished most of the characters for "A Slice of Blackwoods". I anticipate finishing them soon, then doing a little fine tuning, and might be finished with the whole thing within the next week or so.

I've been moved at work, and I'm now reporting to a new boss, but still doing the same thing I am now. We'll see how that goes as I get to know the new boss. On the bright side, the reason I've been moved is that there's been a minor reorganization that's supposed to lighten the workload a little. I'll believe that when I see it, but I want to believe it. :-) I've succeeded so far this year in my goal of doing a better job coping with the stress, but obviously it's far too early in the year to get excited about that, and a change in superiors is likely to be a minor additional stressor.

Holiday Vacation/End of 2006

I was able to get the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day this year, which is no small feat at my job, since everyone I work with has been at the company a long time and has vacation time to burn. The process of getting vacation time around the holidays is especially competitive. So, I'll make a few comments about the last week or so.

There's a lot more I'd like to have done, as usual. I have some friends I rarely see unless I take vacation time, and didn't see as many of them as I'd like. I didn't accomplish as much around the house as I'd wanted to. On the other hand, I've been absolutely burned out lately due to personal and professional stresses, so it's not altogether surprising that I crashed to the degree that I did, and simply rested much of the week.

I'll be spending far too much time in the near future with my new X-Box games. I'd only had three games before Christmas, including the racing game that came with it. Christmas doubled that total, and I've already spent too much time with the World Poker Tour game. On the other hand, I'm already a much better poker player now than I was a week ago. :-) I also have a DVD conversion kit now for the X-Box, which allows me to watch movies in bed. Very dangerous luxury, especially after I subscribe to Netflix!

I accomplished one goal, in that I finally got back to "A Slice of Blackwoods" and completed the setting summary handout for the players. Now it's just a matter of getting the GURPS Character Assistant running and making the actual character sheets. After that, all that needs to be done is a few refinements and a playtest to smooth off the rough edges, then I'll move on to completing "A Dance of Pairs" for Sorceror.

I've done a lot of spiritual reading toward the end of this year, including a wonderful book on Buddhism. I don't think I'm ready to actually become a Buddhist, but there are a lot of valuable ideas there. Hopefully I can take some of that to work with me and get my working year off to a calmer start than 2006.

My nephew has taken up my old musical instrument, the bass guitar. I'd been missing my old musical activities lately anyway, and digging out some of my old equipment to lend him has cranked up my longing even further. I don't have the time to invest in getting back into a band again, but I'd love to get together with some decent musicians once a month or so to have some fun and scratch the old itch. The problem would be finding people with exactly the same level of commitment, a modicum of actual talent, and reasonable similar musical tastes. I just don't see any way for that to happen, so the itch will probably have to go unscratched. Still, I think I'll get the bass back out more often this upcoming year, which wouldn't be hard since it's only been an annual event for the last several years.

I don't believe in New Year's resolutions, since they have a way of falling apart even before the end of January. That said, I'd like to do a better job in 2007 of addressing practical matters around the house. I'd like to be calmer at work. I'd like to do more creative writing. All of this boils down to better control of my time, and I believe the key to that is not getting as stressed out at work, since I think that the main reason I'm not more productive at home is that when I have a bad day (which happens all too often), I'm more inclined to indulge myself than to do something productive. 2006 has been a particularly stressful year, even by my usual high stress standards. Here's hoping 2007 is at least a little easier!

Brief Movie Reviews

Been busy with the holidays, which is why I haven't posted lately.

I've had a chance to watch some DVDs recently. I wouldn't bother to write a full blown review unless I come across something particularly special, but it's worth commenting on what I've seen. I plan to subscribe to Netflix early in 2007, and I'm sure I'll overindulge for a while with that new toy once I have it. I'm a story junkie in all forms, and when I'm free of the restriction of paying for individual rentals, I'm bound to take some risks in hope of finding the odd gem.

Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Man's Chest - Not bad for a popcorn flick, though not as good as the first one. The filmmakers tried a little too hard to top the first one, with occasionally ridiculous results. It's still worth a rental if you enjoyed the first one.

A Scanner Darkly - This one gets points for style and credit for leaving the source material relatively intact, as far as I know, which is all too rarely the case. It's not a great film, though, and feels more like a character study than anything else. I wouldn't bother renting it unless you're a particular fan of one of the actors involved. Robert Downey, Jr. stands out. Keanu Reeves' popularity continues to mystify me. I liked him in "The Matrix" and "Johnny Mnemonic", but he was supposed to be relatively deadpan in those movies.

The Descent - Big thumbs up for this one! Highly recommended, if you enjoy horror films. The characters are more than cardboard cut-outs, and some of the most frightening scenes are the ones that could happen to anyone who went caving in the real world. There's a subplot with a subtle and satisfying payoff where most films would've hit you over the head with it. I'd seen one of the director's previous movies ("Dog Soldiers") and while it had elements I liked a lot, it was nothing to write home about overall. After this one, I'll be paying closer attention to his work.

Heroes

Wow! I don't watch a lot of network TV, but I've been watching this.

The only problem is the title. Would you call a TV series simply "Lawyers" or "Doctors"? Just a quibble.

And with television networks' tendency to copy anything successful, what do you want to bet that next season we'll see another show about people with special powers in a contemporary setting, except that it won't be this good?

Rough Week

I've been trying to make sure I post something at least once a week, but I've been too busy this past week to come up with much that I felt was worthwhile, so I'll just post a few odd bits that might be of interest.

Between increased obligations at work (which happens every year at this time) and the usual holiday obligations anyone has, it's a wonder I have five minutes to myself right now. I'm not a fan of the holidays, as it always seems to me to be six to eight weeks of people making each other miserable in a (usually failed) attempt to have a single great day. At least the retailers are happy...

The conceptual work on "A Slice of Blackwoods" is essentially done, and all that's left is the process of writing up all of the information for the players and quantifying a few of the NPCs. Some aspects of the player information can be interesting, though. The character sheets themselves are a snore, but the descriptions of what the characters are like and why can be fun to do, and sometimes inspire me to go back to the main story and change things. I also plan to do a one page summary of Yrth background information that people new to the setting would need to understand the situation, which is going to take some time to do properly without telegraphing every plot twist along the way. These are the things I work on at home right now when I have the time to really focus.

When I have some downtime (standing in line at stores, etc.), I'm working on some concepts for "Dance of Pairs", which still needs some serious fleshing out. Sorcerer tends to be about coming up with some interesting characters and a tense situation to set them in, rather than anticipating what the players might choose to do with that situation. If you construct the situation well in the first place, the excitement usually takes care of itself.

I just finished reading "Urban Shaman" by C. E. Murphy. The plot wasn't overwhelmingly exciting or original, but the writer did a nice job of making interesting characters and writing them in such a way that you come to care about what happens to them. I probably wouldn't read it again, but I liked it enough that I'd consider picking up her next book if the description of it is even vaguely interesting. Next up, Thomas Ligotti's "My Work is Not Yet Done", which is corporate workplace horror.

Here's hoping I have something more positive to say next week...

The Eureka Moments

In the last week, I've had two of these.

I had reached a point where I was stuck on "A Slice of Blackwood", and starting to worry that this one, too, would have to be shelved, and for similar reasons. Then while I was at someone else's house, the solution struck me out of nowhere while I was thinking about other things. It was the smallest shift in circumstances, and yet it made all the difference. There'd been no reason why the characters wouldn't just leave when things got dangerous, then suddenly there was.

A little later in the week, and I was working past the point where I'd been stuck when the next idea came to me. It was this idea that took the scenario from the fairly straightforward adventure it was to something full of possibilities that I'm excited to run next year.

These are the moments that keep me writing. Not only do I get to enjoy that lightning strike of creativity personally when it happens, but I get to see the players' reaction to that same key moment because I know when it's coming and can watch for it.

2007 Game Convention Plans

Yes, I know it's early to be thinking about this, but my convention schedule is going to change this upcoming year (causing me to make my plans far in advance) and I'm already writing the new material for next year, so it's on my mind.

I plan to GM at PoliCon in the spring, DexCon and GenCon in the summer, and possibly MEPACon in the fall. This means that I'm dropping the spring MEPACon and Southern Exposure to go to my first GenCon. It also means that I can write fewer events this year because I'm not running for the same likely attendees more than once.

I'll be bringing back "Rumspringa" (for In Nomine) and "Controlling Interest" (for GURPS Cabal) from this past fall, and writing two new scenarios, which will tentatively be "A Slice of Blackwoods" (for GURPS Banestorm) and "Dance of Pairs" (for Sorcerer). I'd planned to do one called "Herding Cats" for GURPS Space, with a Firefly feel to it, but I got stuck on a key story point and decided to shelve it for now until I figure out how to fix the problem.

Those four scenarios will constitute most of what I'll run at those conventions, except for GenCon, where I'll probably revive two of my "greatest hits" from prior years because nobody there will have played them before and it's a blast to run them. "Lilim Fair" for In Nomine and "The Great Lunar Race" for GURPS Steampunk are the most likely candidates for that role, though I'm not sure about the GURPS one yet. I could surprise myself and write something else that I'm so excited about that I just have to run it, or one of the new ones could get stuck like "Herding Cats" did, so we'll see what happens as the new year gets closer.