27. August 2010 by Samldanach.

(Note:  This was also posted in my LJ.  I’m cross-posting it here to keep it with all my other writing.) 

So, in discussing 7th Sea over on Rob’s blog a couple days ago, I got bitten by that bug again.  Nothing gets my juices fired up quite like that setting.

Today’s post is about how to use DFRPG to do 7th Sea.  And I’m rambling and spitballing, so don’t expect a lot of organization.  I already did some of this work using SotC as a model.  DFRPG opened up a couple new options, though.
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18. August 2010 by Samldanach.

So, DC is trapped in a never-ending deluge today.  Well, it might end.  But it hasn’t yet.  So, it’s never-ending.  Until it ends.

It comes to mind, especially seeing tweets from some of my local friends this morning, that I have not posted one of my grand theories of the universe:  Mushroom People.

Have you ever noticed that traffic gets really, unreasonably bad when it rains?  It is far worse than the conditions actually warrant.  Have you also noticed the extreme number of cars on the road at that time?  There are more cars out than at any other time (well, possibly excepting the Friday before a long weekend, but that is beyond the scope of this theory).  In fact, I noticed while living in Charlotte that there seemed to actually be more cars on the road than were owned by all the residents of the city!

This mystery had an obvious answer.  Cars were spontaneously appearing when it rained.

What else spontaneously appears when it rains?  Mushrooms.

Hence, the cars are made of, or at least driven by, mushrooms.

(Yes, this logic may also make you think of witches and ducks.  That’s how you know it’s a classic rhetorical device.)

Now, we have a basic problem.  The mushrooms are spontaneously appearing, and are often gone again within hours.  That means that they never have a chance to complete driving school.  The fact that they know to stop at stoplights at all is a miracle.  When they spontaneously decide to perform a U-turn in the middle of a four-lane highway because the other side is going faster (albeit in the wrong direction), we have to be somewhat sympathetic.  Don’t try to be understanding, though.  If Lovecraft taught us anything, it was that understanding is the first step to insanity.

Mushrooms also have another limitation, which creates endless difficulties.  They are red-green colorblind.  Yes, even the females, as unlikely as that sounds.  That’s why mushroom people have a hard time with stoplights.  When the light changes from yellow to red, they think it turned green, and so they accelerate.  When it turns from green to red, they can’t tell the difference, and will sit there until it turns yellow again.  They are trying.  They really are.  They try my patience every damn time.

The final frustration at mushroom people comes from the obvious consequence of spontaneously created people.  They have no homes.  They have no work places.  They aren’t actually going anywhere at all.  They exist solely to drive around.  And to drive people crazy.  People like you.  Unfortunately, mushrooms are themselves immune to insanity.  Or they start out insane, so can’t get any worse.  I guess that’s an obvious result of feeding on nothing but bullshit.  Maybe that’s where the Tea Party comes from.

I am currently working on a proposal for a widespread fungicidal agent that would remove these peripatetic pests from our highways and byways.  Unfortunately, that really requires a lab.  And a degree in biology.  Probably one in chemistry, too.  I need grant money for this.  And donations.  Maybe a telethon?  Anything you can do will help.  I’m hoping to ultimately find a way to kill the mushroom people without harming the cars.  That way I can donate the cars to lots of charities in order to fund my habit.  I mean, research!  Fund my research.  Research is my habit.

Watch this space for my corollary theory:  Toadstool People, the Scourge Under the Full Moon.

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16. August 2010 by Samldanach.

Do you recognize the line in the title?  If so, then you can guess what we went to see this weekend:  Chess. 

My wife introduced me to the soundtrack way back in college.  I can’t say I was instantly hooked.  For one thing, the storyline was a bit hard to tease out of the songs.  Of course, we all know at least one of those songs.  And several numbers really grabbed me.  Pity the Child.  Anthem (in which the Russian defects).  Heaven Help My Heart.  And, my favorite, Nobody’s Side.  But it took several listenings for the show as a whole to grab me.  (Even now, I’ll listen to it and realize that I’d been mis-hearing a lyric that changes some of the shading of the story.)

Many of you probably know some of the history of the show.  Chess was written by the guys from ABBA with lyrics by Tim Rice.  A powerhouse team, without a doubt.  It opened to critical acclaim and an excellent run in London.  When it moved to Broadway, the producer didn’t think the American audience would like that the American was the jerk of the piece (I won’t say villain, but definitely a jerk).  So, the play got re-written, and bombed.  It has struggled ever since.

There are half a dozen different scripts now floating around for Chess.  And, I’m not talking minor variations.  These are radically different plotlines.  Certain elements have to remain intact for the key songs to continue to fit.  But, it’s pretty amazing how radically the frame around those songs can shift.

So, background done, let’s move on to this particular show.  Read the rest of this entry »

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13. August 2010 by Samldanach.

So, that’s the question.  It’s kind of intriguing.  I have no idea if it’s going to work.  But I’m giving it a shot.

I ran across a post on Dice Monkey (http://dicemonkey.net/2010/08/11/twittrp/) about this TwitRPG game.  It sounded intriguing.  I left a comment.  I’m in the game.

It’s a four-color supers game.  There’s four players.  So far, we have a speedster, a brick, and I’m playing a gadgeteer.  You can follow us by watching the #trp hashtag.  Looks like there’s a lot of collision on that hashtag, but I think the point was to not handicap us on characters.  See, each action has to fit into a single tweet.  I sense a lesson in txtspk coming for me…

My character’s name is Dyson.  The intro tweet was ”Dyson smartass 20yo Hisp gadgeteer/hacker w/wearable puter & perm internet Pym+Oracle.”  I’ll unfold that a bit here.  He is a smartass at heart, in the classic “too smart for his own good” sense.  Think Hardison from Leverage, Claudia from Warehouse 13, or any number of similar characters.  He’s only 20 years old, because part of the character arc in my head is that he lacks emotional maturity, perspective, and still hasn’t shaken that teenage sense of immortality.  By the end of the campaign, I hope to see all that tempered.  He is Hispanic, from Miami, though both he and his parents were born in the US.  He’s pretty thoroughly American middle-class, but has dealt with a lot of prejudice and assumptions where he grew up.  His contribution to the team is building, repairing, and improving equipment.  Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Forge, that kind of character.  He is also a pretty talented hacker.  Not world-class, but talented.  Where his abilities really shine, though, is finding information.  He can pull up credit histories, blueprints, police reports, schematics, etc. on just about anyone or anything (excepting the highly classified).

His signature item is his wearable computer.  It is a system that would put most small networks to shame.  Multiple processors, high RAM, 2TB of hard drive space.  His glasses function as a heads-up display.  Over the earpiece on the right side is a camera.  Up one sleeve of his trenchcoat, he has a joystick that he can use in place of a mouse.  Up the other sleeve, a touchpad that can act as a keyboard.  On the collar is a microphone, that is connected to voice recognition software.  It has an always-on cell connection, wifi, and a satellite phone connection.  Various pockets contain other interface options, like barcode readers, fingerprint scanners, etc.  And it’s all contained in a very stylish black leather trenchcoat.

The other signature effect is his custom-built PARIS system.  That stands for Personal Augmented Reality Interface System.  Basically, the camera and heads-up display are connected with various bits of software to allow the computer to recognize portions of his surroundings and overlay information onto it.  For instance, it can perform facial recognition against its internal database and bring up a business card next to each person he sees.  It can talk to Google Maps and identify local businesses.  It can integrate with CAD drawings of the building to overlay structural, electrical, and plumbing indicators (or, at least, where they should be).  In a TV show, this would be a major effect.  In an RPG, it’s pretty much just a note.

He also has a lot of pockets on his uniform, filled with tools and basic supplies (solder, duct tape, etc.).  Unless he’s stripped naked, assume he has at least the function of a Swiss Army knife available.

Finally, he has a pretty cool gun.  It’s a sonic-based stun gun.  It basically uses low-frequency waves to knock people out.  the only problem is that it is still highly experimental, and very unreliable.

You can see what he looks like here.

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7. July 2010 by Samldanach.

Okay, I’m a bit out of order here.  I just wanted to put on this album this morning, because I haven’t listened to it straight through since we got it.  And, listening to an album reminded me of this project, which I’ve sadly neglected.

So, you’ve probably never heard of Wicked Tinkers.  Which is fine.  Neither have I, really.  But, after ordering Young Dubliners, Enter the Haggis, and Gaelic Storm on Amazon, this album floated right on up to the top.  I took a chance on it, and certainly didn’t regret it.

There’s a good chance that this album will not be to your taste.  It is a live album, first of all.  The group does traditional and traditional-style Gaelic music.  All of which involves the bagpipe front and center.  If you don’t like the skirling of the pipes over the misty moors, you can safely skip this album.  (On the other hand, if the only bagpipe music you know is “Amazing Grace” and “Scotland the Brave”, give some of the tracks a listen.  You might be surprised.)

If you do like that sort of music, this is a fantastic album!  These guys are very, very good.  They do a couple marches, a couple jigs, and a couple songs I can’t classify.  They do toss in the ubiquitous “Amazing Grace” and “Scotland the Brave” with a helping of “Danny Boy” on top.  I can forgive them for that, even if I do feel that those basically constitute wasted space on any piping album.

If you want to pick just one track, I’m not sure which to recommend.  “Those Marching O’Neills” is a solid march, which shows off the group’s talents well enough.  “Hammered” is a fun tune, with a unique percussion element (it is supposed to be the hammer and the anvil).  “The Pumpkin’s Fancy” is a fairly strange tune, that stretches a bit what the pipes are capable of.

As an additional note, there are a few unique instruments involved.  I already mentioned the hammer and anvil (they actually use something like a propane canister).  Several songs, though, feature the Irish didgeridoo.  Did you know there was such a thing as the Irish didgeridoo?  I didn’t.  It sounds, unsurprisingly, just like an Australian didgeridoo.  It also marries with the sound of the pipes wonderfully.

All in all, I have to give this a “strongly recommended.”  And, I would definitely like to get another album or two from these guys.  Maybe even check to see if/when they’re coming to town.

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7. July 2010 by Samldanach.

Yeah, you know the one.  The story goes that Liv Tyler begged her dad to contribute to the soundtrack.  He coughed up a smash hit ballad.

Actually, I really like that song.  But, you all pretty much already know it all too well.

The rest of the album is surprisingly solid.  It has two major themes running through it.  “Baby, don’t go save the world, I love you!”  And, the other one.  “Aerosmith is a really cool band.”  Yeah, half the soundtrack is either by Aerosmith or covers of Aerosmith songs.  I guess they had a heck of an agent negotiating their contract on this one.

I love Chantal Kreviazuk’s rendition of “Leaving on a Jet Plane.”  Which is saying something, because I’m a sucker for Peter, Paul, and Mary’s original version.  It helps that Chantal’s voice is very similar to Mary’s.  And that she doesn’t look to put some kind of “personal spin” on the song.  It’s beautiful and sad, just the way it’s supposed to be.

“Starseed” by Our Lady Peace is also pretty damn good.

The strangest song for me (leaving aside “Animal Crackers”, which weaves movie dialogue in with samples from “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”) is “Remember Me.”  Not so much because of the song itself, which is pretty formulaic.  But because sandwiching Journey between two Aerosmith songs is a bit  jarring.

Oh, and as a note, I’ve never seen the movie.  The premise never really grabbed me.  At some point, I expect I’ll catch it on TNT or SyFy.

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7. July 2010 by Samldanach.

iPad - Very easy to use.  Much more comfortable and convenient than any laptop I’ve ever used.  I do want to see multi-tasking.  It lives and dies on its apps, so take the time to look for good apps.  I think it will definitely replace my netbook, but I will still keep my desktop for anything that requires a real computer.

Karate Kid - Manages to hit all the same emotional beats as the original movie, without just re-telling the same story.  Jackie Chan was fabulous, even if he did very little action himself.  Jaden Smith is going to be a star, if he can survive being a child star.

A-Team - Exactly as fabulous as the original series.  If you liked one, you’ll like the other.  My one complaint with the movie was the violence.  The show had campy pseudo-violence, where everyone safely dives behind cover.  The movie had serious violence (though of an action movie style).  I had a few other niggles, but there were also lots of truly awesome moments.

The Last Airbender - Honestly, I liked it.  I didn’t love it, but I liked it.  Maybe I just went in with really, really low expectations from other reviews.  And, keep in mind that I haven’t watched the series yet (we just bought the first book on iTunes).  Sonya and I were discussing it after, and we noticed that Shyamalan has a lot of the same problems as Lucas.  The broad plot was good.  The effects were good.  The visuals were good.  The acting was good.  The directing was good.  The details of the plot didn’t hold together well.  The dialogue sucked ass.  Oh, and maybe I’m just too Euro-centric, but that didn’t look like a whitewashed cast to me.

Knight and Day - Lots of fun action.  Um, really, that’s all the movie was.  All the characters were one-dimensional and cardboard.  The plot managed to be unpredictable by virtue of jerking around, more than by being clever.  There were a few good lines, but the dialogue was largely forgettable.  If you like Cruise and Diaz, they provided eye candy.  But, if all you are looking for is to turn your brain off and enjoy some over-the-top action, you can do a lot worse than this movie.  (If they had gone with the twist I was looking for, and had Diaz turn out to be a spy pretending to be a helpless innocent, the movie could have ended up being awesome.)

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7. July 2010 by Samldanach.

Being able to imagine yourself being successful isn’t enough to make it so, but being unable to imagine it is a genuine handicap. –Theresa Nielsen Hayden

A bend in the road is not the end of the road… unless you fail to make the turn.  –Author Unknown

Ch-ch-ch-changes –David Bowie

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5. May 2010 by Samldanach.

So, I’ve been thinking about my post-apoc fantasy setting.  Incidentally, for now, I am calling it Aurelian.

One of the bits is the presence of psionically-gifted humans.  Another is the presence of “monsters.”  After much thinking, I think I can tie many of these elements together fairly neatly.

It all starts with a virus….

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4. May 2010 by Samldanach.

Hmm.  This one isn’t available on Amazon.  You can order it directly from Teavana, but they don’t have a track listing or samples.

First, have you tried Teavana?  I highly recommend it.  I’m sure that there are better tea shops out there, but Teavana is very convenient and very nice.  It’s a bit spendy for me.  I pretty much only get new tea as a treat.  I actually carry one of their catalogs around with me, where I’m marking each tea as I try it to decide if I like it.

So, here is something you probably didn’t know about me: I like Arabian pop music.  I know, right?  It’s weird.  I don’t like other Arabian stuff as a rule (Sinbad and his ilk notwithstanding).  It violates my rule of “only lyrics I can understand.”  And yet.  There’s just something about the humming buzzing twanging soaring music that speaks to me.

This isn’t my favorite Arabian album, but it is good.  Given that there aren’t any sample tracks for you to listen to, I won’t do much of a track-by-track breakdown.  It wouldn’t mean anything to you, and probably wouldn’t even mean much to me.  It would be a lot of, “this one has nice, deep vocals, that one has nice instrumentation (even though I don’t know what that instrument is), the other one makes me thing of cool melons on a hot summer day.”  So, make up what you want here.

I will say, though, that “Tala Odyssey” by Desert Dwellers is awesome.  I can’t tell if she’s singing, or just doing a scat riff, since I can’t tell the difference between words and nonsense phrases.  But, she does a great percussive bit of vocalization over the otherwise fairly typical instruments.

For those of you who have never listened to Arabian pop, think of the Sting song from a few years ago, “Desert Rose.”  The bits that aren’t Sting is what a lot of these songs sound like.  It is also a cousin to Bollywood music, if you happen to be familiar with that.  (Oddly enough, I don’t particularly care for Bollywood.)

I think I need to track down more albums like this.  I keep an eye out, but pretty much the only other Arabian compilation I’ve seen is the Putumayo album, which I already have.  If anyone happens to have specific recommendations, I’d love to hear them.  One of the downsides to  being introduced to a genre through compilations is that I often fail to note the actual artist names.

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