Tales from Dramaville (Part 1)

Three main story lines have evolved from my current home campaign for In Nomine, and I thought it might have some entertainment value to post some things about them here.

One of the player characters is an angel of balance in service to Michael, the Arcangel of War. His mission is to bring balance and honor to disputes between the local urban gangs. Good luck, this is a tough one! He established a Role under the name Steve Jackson which, by pure coincidence I'm sure, is the name of the guy who publishes In Nomine. He decided that the best way to approach his goal was to join one of the gangs and lead by example, and he quickly rose to a position of influence in the gang largely because of his well-beyond-human physical capabilities. The gang still didn't buy into his ideas about fighting with honor, largely because they saw honor as a luxury he could afford and they couldn't.

He also hadn't anticipated the intervention of other celestials. A demon with the ability to manipulate emotions turned up with a Role in a rival gang, and on more than one occasion, prodded him into rages that caused him to act far less than honorably. This damaged his credibility badly and has gotten him into more than a little trouble with local law enforcement. A situation eventually occurred that enabled "Steve Jackson" to figure out which of the other gang members was the demon responsible for his recent trouble, and a chase ensued. The demon made a tactical error that allowed Steve to corner him, and by the time the two were actually face-to-face, the demon had him in a such an out-of-control rage that Steve ripped his heart out through his chest with his bare hands. The death of the demon's Vessel (and corresponding Role) triggered the all out gang war that was the exact opposite of what Steve was there to achieve.

One of the other angelic player characters helped him to evade the police, and the pair went to the nearest Tether for Steve to work off some of the dangerous amounts of Dissonance he'd acquired when he'd lost emotional control. He turned himself in to the police (for reasons which are rather a long story), then was released from jail on a technicality after making a deal with a Lilim lawyer. The agreement is that at some point, the Lilim will ask him to kill a demon of her choice, and he is bound by his promise to do that. He didn't specify any other details regarding said demon. This could get messy later.

Now free, he decided to try to end the fighting by reasoning directly with the leadership of the rival gang. Unfortunately for him, the worst possible circumstances occurred, leaving him shot in the head and unconscious but not dead. The gang then tortured him to death (or so they thought), removed his face with a knife, mailed his face to the leadership of the gang he'd joined, then dumped his body in the nearest river. He managed to drag himself out of the river and get helped to the nearest hospital. Now everybody thinks he's dead, and it's going to be very interesting indeed to see how various parties react when they find out that he isn't.

Embracing Necessity

My musical project continues to sputter along, making some progress while still not getting anywhere near what I started out trying to achieve. It reminds me of some of the reasons I stopped playing in bands in the first place, and yet I'm not willing to give up. I have at least three guitar players who have expressed interest, and yet when push comes to shove, it's still just Jason and I who show up, except for the one time when Bob, a singer I know, joined us.

I've played bass for many years, but learned some chords on guitar, primarily to help me read the hand positions of the guitarists I played with so I could improvise along with songs I hadn't actually learned. It served me well for that purpose, but I don't think I bothered to learn more than three complete songs on guitar until recently. Since Jason and I didn't have a regular guitarist, I decided to play guitar as a placeholder in the short term because it sounded better than when we just had bass, drums, and voice. To be honest, I didn't worry a whole lot about doing a good job technically while playing guitar because I was sure someone else much better would be taking over those parts soon, allowing me to return to my more comfortable role as bassist. But that still hasn't happened.

So as of the beginning of this year, I decided to take the role more seriously and started playing at least a few songs on guitar each day, trying to make them sound as though I actually know what I'm doing. I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't take long to get some results, primarily because I started with songs I'd been playing with Jason anyway, and we'd chosen them for relative simplicity in the first place. I've got six or seven songs now that I could play solo without embarrassing myself if I had to, and I'll keep building on that, slowly taking on songs that are a bit more challenging as I continue.

My wife is delighted, since she felt I'd already proven myself on bass and thought it was a good idea for me to be taking on something new musically. It's nice to be able to choose songs without having to concern myself with whether or not other people in a band like them. I've had to worry about that in the past because it's just not that interesting to hear someone play bass by themselves unless they're a truly exceptional player. I've always envied guitarists and keyboard players their ability to function musically by themselves. I don't plan on trying to perform anywhere by myself, since I'm nowhere near good enough to pull it off, but it's cool to be able to play for friends or family if I feel like it. I'd still prefer to play bass for my main musical project, but if I'm going to function as the guitar player most of the time with Jason anyway, I may as well do a decent job of it.

Whose Rock and Roll Is This, Anyway?

So Run-D.M.C, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, and Madonna are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, while Deep Purple, Yes, Genesis, Kiss, and Journey aren't.

I don't personally like or dislike either list of artists in entirety, but all issues of taste and quality aside, I know which artists' music I'd rather play in front of an audience expecting a rock and roll band. Just sayin'.

You don't really need a Hall of Fame to know who the greats are, anyway. Great music holds up, and doesn't need to be defined by genre. But if there's going to be a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, shouldn't the people running it put personal taste aside for the sake of properly representing the music?

Weird Dream Stuff

A few nights ago, I dreamt that I was participating in a Live Action Role Playing game involving Norse mythology. The players were dressed absolutely normally, but were supposed to be Norse gods or creatures from Norse mythology. There weren't many players. There were props that were labeled to be major items like Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, but were clearly everyday stuff with nothing more to distinguish them than that label. I distinctly remember coming upon a plank across a ditch you could just jump across if you wanted to, with the word "Bifrost" printed on it in very plain letters in magic marker. I felt vaguely disappointed and amused at the same time.

Last night I dreamt that I woke up in my old bed in the house where I grew up, but I still had the same age and appearance that I do now. My friend Lew was sitting cross legged on the floor nearby, facing the bed, as though he'd been waiting there a long time. He seemed to be finding something funny, though it wasn't apparent what. He asked me what I'd gotten for Christmas, and I told him I'd gotten Guitar Hero. He said he was going to go downstairs and get breakfast ready while I got my head together, then he left the room. I rolled out of bed, and sure enough, there on the floor by the bed was a Guitar Hero box, so I pulled it out of the box and tried to read the instructions, but couldn't make any sense of any of it and put it away again. Then I went downstairs.

Lew was wandering around the kitchen, which was an absolutely horrific mess, far worse than I ever remember it being when I was a kid. We started discussing our plans for the day (which I don't remember at all now), and he continued on into the living room and sprawled out on one end of the couch. I looked away for a second, and when I looked back, he was holding a big bowl of popcorn, which made perfect sense as breakfast for us at the time. I sat down cross legged on the floor nearby, and we ate popcorn for breakfast and discussed our plans.

I have no idea what most of this means (though I have a few theories about a few bits). That's why dreams are sometimes so much fun.

Disturbing Dramaville

After years of writing horror material, I've finally reached the boundary of how far I'm willing to go. I was working on the next session of my local In Nomine campaign this past week and had to work out the motives and methods of a Very Bad Guy Indeed. I found myself getting so upset by the train of thought involved that it's unlikely I'll be touching this subject matter again in the future. I'll keep as much of it as possible "off screen" while actually running the game, and I don't think the players will mind, as long as they have the information they need to solve the mystery involved. I'll be able to show them more if they really want it, but I doubt that's going to happen.

This is an interesting experience in light of the fact that I've been such a horror fan for a long time and rarely run into anything too distressing for me to handle. The really distressing thing is that the subject matter I'm finding so upsetting is day-to-day life for some real people, and that's a hell I wouldn't wish on anyone!

So what exactly is the Disturbing Subject? If you know me personally and really want to know, ask me and I'll tell you, but I'm not going to talk about it any further here.

My Brain Hurts

Found an interesting article from the Boston Globe about how urban environments are bad for your cognitive processes and your temper. I'll have to try to spend some time at work at least looking out a window for a while when the going gets tough.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/01/04/how_the_city_hurts_your_brain

Lucky vs. Unlucky

I came across an article on the internet the other day that I wished I'd saved so I could link to it here, but didn't happen to think of it at the time. Unlucky, really. The article was about a researcher who decided to try to figure out why some people were lucky and others weren't. He advertised for people who felt they were unusually lucky or unlucky so he could research potential differences between the two groups.

The test referenced in the article involved a fake ad inserted into a newspaper. Each person was given a section of newspaper and told to count how many photos were in that section. And in that section of newspaper was a half page advertisement in letters two inches high saying that if the person reported finding this ad to the researcher, he would be given $50. Members of the lucky group almost always found the fake ad, while members of the unlucky group almost always missed it.

I've heard one definition of luck as being when preparation meets opportunity. This study suggests that being observant is a key component of luck, because you can't take advantage of an opportunity you haven't perceived.

So keep your eyes open this upcoming year, because you never know what unknown possibilities might be just around the corner. May we all be luckier in 2009!

Lives in the Balance/Dragon Lines

These are the two titles I'm considering for my current GURPS Cabal project. I think "Lives in the Balance" fits the story better, but "Dragon Lines" would probably draw more players. I'm interested in opinions on which is best if you have one.

This is the next in my Cabal series, and concerns the efforts of the the PC conspiracy group to restore the chi imbalance being suffered by one of their group because that imbalance is having disturbing and dangerous effects on that character's powers. Along the way, the players will probably learn some things about their own characters' level of balance. The balance part is obvious; "dragon lines" is a dramatic term for ley lines, which come into play as part of the story. The word "dragon" has more resonance with the RPG crowd, though it has less to do with what the story is really all about, but there is a lot of Asian flavor in the story, which makes it a bit more appropriate than it might appear to be.

I'm really enjoying doing the Cabal series, but it hasn't been drawing as well as it used to. I hate to give it up before doing the Lovecraftian entry I have planned next, though. Maybe I'll do that one with an eye toward bringing the series to an apocalyptic end.

After I finish this scenario, I'll move on to a comedic take on Sorcerer, which shouldn't take very long to do. I'm already doing a bit of associated research, and the core idea is straightforward enough. I learned from "A Dance of Pairs" that it's best to keep Sorcerer to no more than four players, a lesson I intend to apply here.

Scorekeeping

One of the major reasons that I'm not a big fan of Christmas is that many people treat others badly because of it. This happens a lot in the days leading up to Christmas (shoppers trampling others over a sale in a retail store, disputes over parking spaces, etc.), as well as on Christmas Day itself. Much of this conflict comes out of differing ideas regarding what others should be doing during the holidays.

Christmas is ideally about giving gifts to people you care about and spending time with them, which is a beautiful concept at the core. The trouble starts when people start keeping score. For example, family members might compare the relative value of gifts exchanged, or the amount of thoughtfulness that goes into the choice of gift. There may be allowances made for relative incomes (a college student isn't expected to spend as much on a gift as his 40 year old uncle in high level corporate management), but it's inevitable that Aunt Jane is going to start getting miffed after receiving monkey-related gifts for the last five years when she doesn't know how Uncle Joe got the idea that she liked monkeys in the first place.

Gift giving is a skill all its own. My wife is very good at it, which is extremely fortunate because I'm very bad at it. Family members often don't allow for that variance in ability, and sometimes get upset with the person who really tried and simply made a bad choice while being very happy with the person who put no thought into it at all and happened to throw a lot of money coincidentally at a lucky choice.

There's also the matter of how you spend your time around the holidays. In the push and pull of conflicting family schedules, things always seem to work out badly for someone, who obviously isn't very happy about it. There are frequent misperceptions (or worse yet, correct perceptions) that one part of the family is being favored over another, and as a result, what should be a happy occasion turns into a source of anger.

People who truly care about each other will generally allow a little slack in these holiday matters (not to mention everything else in life), and yet nearly every family seems to have at least one scorekeeper stirring up so much trouble that the holiday hardly seems worth the effort. As in most things, if someone seems to be slighting you, try to show some forgiveness and understanding, as it's a lot more likely that they've simply made a mistake than that they were trying to intentionally offend you. And if they are intentionally trying to offend you, there's no point in messing up your own karma in retaliation of some kind. There's almost certainly a more skillful way to deal with whatever the underlying problem is.

Personal Inventory

I did a post like this roughly this time last year, and thought I'd do another.

The changes in my life this year were not nearly as radical as the year before. This year has been more about implementing what I learned last year. So how well did I really do?

For the most part, I'd say the improvements have continued, if on a much smaller scale. My temper control in general has improved quite a bit, but some slips in the last two weeks have showed me that I still have a lot of work to do in that respect.

As far as tolerating anger in others, I've gotten a little better than last year at not letting the emotional states of others undermine my own, but again, there's a lot of work to do in that area. I really want to believe that people are basically decent, but especially in my work, they give me plenty of reason to feel otherwise. This upcoming week should be a particular challenge as the pre-Christmas meltdowns come to a head.

I've been doing yoga for nearly a year now, and feel much better physically as a result. I can't begin to tell you how much of a difference it's made.

My recreational interest in alcohol is all but gone. I can still enjoy a beer now and again with friends (and enjoyed a whopping two at this year's company Christmas party), but I really have to think about whether or not I want an alcoholic drink when the opportunity arises. I didn't even have a beer when I went out to dinner for my birthday this year. On the other hand, when I do have one these days, I really savor it.

My life is just plain too crowded these days, and I've realized that I'm going to have to make some decisions this year about what to do with my time in the future. My inclination is to cut back on my roleplaying activities to spend time on music, but I want to do this carefully, staying involved for the most part while pruning some of the activities that are working less well than others for me. I'm getting a little roleplaying writing done (more on that in a post to follow), but it feels more like work to me now, which isn't a good sign.

Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or the politically correct greeting of your choice to all!