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Game Group

Upcoming Game: Sunday July 10th

I hope everybody has a good 4th of July weekend! I’m looking forward to the fresh air and three days off… it should be a very nice break. Hope your sparklers are bright.

The following weekend is Sunday July 10th. Kev, it looks like your observation was correct– there’s not enough interest in Shadowrun, particularly not enough to continue without Trish. Fortunately, Dad says that the last few weeks of thinking about a character and playing with concepts has recharged his batteries, and he’ll be ready to pick up the D&D game come that Sunday.

Does 2 pm work for everyone? Is there anything else we need to work out?

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

IRE #22: Changing Hands

Over at Blog, Jvstin Style , we’re asked:

Today marks the 340th anniversary of the reincorporation of New Amsterdam by the English into the colony of New York. Its an important and momentous occasion, a turning point not only in the development of New York, but America in general. ((L.E. Modesitt Jr. Ghost books, as a divergence, have a Dutch-dominated New York and New England surviving British attempts at incorporation).

So, the handover of a valuable colony or country between rivals…and the people in the colony caught in the crossfire…

I liked the whole Maquis sub-plot for Star Trek, but that’s pretty much a done thing. Since I’m gearing up for Shadowrun, let’s see where inspiration leads me.

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #31: Time Is an Illusion, Lunchtime Doubly So

In Lunchtime Poll #31 Li asks:

I’ve said before that I tend to think of roleplaying as improv theater to a certain extent, and pacing is an important part of any production. To a certain extent, I think that if the timing is managed well, it’s invisible to the players. So, what are your thoughts on pacing?

Pacing, done well, is wonderful. Unfortunately, when I GM, I’m usually busy juggling other things and attempts at controlling it are often doomed. There’s a perfectly functional solution– make the players responsible for it. The “if you think it’s dramatic, join in”, is a good way to hook people and keep their interest even while off-screen. Sure, plausability can stretch, but if everyone’s excited, let plausibility break.

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Game Group Roleplaying

Shadowrun campaign talk

Ok guys and gals, the other thread I just started the ‘News in the Shadows’ thread is going to be a fairly constantly updated thread with the various headlines and basic shadow related info your chars would find out about during the week, either on news nets, shadowland bbs, or word of mouth from their chummers.

I’m going to ask that you try to check here Friday or Saturday each week, basically to keep yourself (and your character up to date on going on’s). If you don’t check, then your character is not keeping up on the news so you may have to rely on word of mouth from the rest of the group.

I’ll use this as the thread for the out of character info/talk as we go thru the game. So check back here often.

Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

News in the Shadows-All the latest at your personatips

Well so far 2057 has been a fairly eventfull year. In January we found out that last year’s elections for UCAS Pres were rigged, so President Steel and VP Booth were impeached, and now Pres Pro Tem Betty Jo Pritchard is calling a new election. Normally that wouldn’t mean a lot to Joe runner, since most of us dont have a SIN to vote with, but since the announcement of new elections it seems everyone and their brother/sister is declaring to run for the presidency. At last count over 40 different drek heads had made it onto the ballot.

Now comes the news last week that the Big D himself DUNKELZAHN (Yes the GREAT DRAGON DUNKELZAHN) is running for the presidency of the UCAS. Biz in the shadows was already jumping, with everyone trying to find/make some drek to sling at their competition, and now I do belive we might see more activity then ever before.

On the smaller scale, here in Seattle we have a couple of groups opening up new digs that could be interesting. You could say we have good guys and bad guys showing up (who’s who depends on your feelings on the matter). Both Humanis Policlub and The Universal Brotherhood are opening doors next week of their new homes. Fortunatly they are quite aways apart from each other 🙂

Its still not making the newsfeeds for the rest of the scags here in town but we still have scattered reports of folks going missing all over town in the less affluent areas, something or someone is out there folks, dont let your guard down, and keep your friends close.

The rumor mill is buzzing lately with word that the Orks in the underground were expanding their tunnels and made a wrong turn. It seems they may have tunneled into the Renraku Arcology sub basement or some such. My sources tell me several poor orks got greased when the samurai responded to the intrusion; no word yet on what the orks are gonna do for revenge.

Well thats the headlines for tonight, remember shoot straight, conserve ammo, and never ever deal with a dragon. See ya next time.

(Minor edits and linkenation by Scott 6/20/05)

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #30: Whaddaya Got?

Li asks

What’s the last board, card, or roleplaying game you bought, and what do you think of it?

My last purchase was Power Grid, a board game by Rio Grande. We’ve played twice (only once through more than Phase 1) and messed up the victory conditions a little. It was a lot of fun– I think it will be one of the more played games for a while. Slick, competitive, but not excessively challenging. The two sided board looks like a great value, a good way to shake things up.

My most recent RPG purchase was a trio, but last night I read Primetime Adventures again. It looks solid and Actual Play has indicated it’s good for one shots as well as seasons, so I’ll be taking it up to the 4th of July gamefest Zack’s throwing.

Categories
Memes Roleplaying

Lunchtime Poll #29: Us and Them

Another interesting question from Li:

Do you consider the GM part of the group, and why or why not?

I do consider the GM part of the group, though Julie’s comment about the style of the game does seem to apply. On the one hand, Dad’s definately a member of the group– socially, he’s as much a hub as any other person– but he’s not facing the same challenges in the same way. His role is different, but he’s working with us to make a story for the characters, so he’s a member of the group.

Part of the “group status” also comes from the way we get together frequently outside of roleplaying, where he’s just another player to crush (in boardgames, for example). Also, we rotate GMing (Kev’s stint begins this week), so that keeps him from ossifying as different.

Categories
Politics

Abortion, Marijuana, and War

Abortion is about Autonomy Good diarist post about the KOS keruffle

The World of Commerce A fun mocking of the recent supreme court decision

History Rhymes Fifteen similarities between the Vietnam and Iraq wars. Thought provoking.

Baby Name Wizard Charts the popularity of names over time. It has a nice interface.

Plus a snarky quote about roleplaying below the fold.

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Game Group

Sunday June 19th: Shadowrun

UPDATE: Due to Father’s Day conflicts, this was moved to Sunday June 26th.

After last night’s conclusion of the Dragon Coast coup in D&D, we’ll shift gears and move along to Shadowrun.

Sunday we’ll get together at 2 and chat about Shadowrun, go through a quick run with sample characters to let everyone shake down the system, then crate characters as a group. [Subject to correction by Kev.]

There are lots of good links in the Shadowtalk Comments if you want to read more before we get together. For the basics– what the Stats do, how magic works, and the like, here’s DMP’s writeup. See you all Sunday!

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Game Group

Next Game: Sunday June 12

We’ll start at 2 pm, as we agreed at the end of last session.

Also, we asked Dad what a good stopping place would be for this campaign. He suggested that after the battle with the Baron, IF we win, would be a good time to take a break. Hopefully, that gives us a vague timeline for getting Shadowrun prepped… does that sound doable Kev?

I’ll try to write out my character concept in the Shadowtalk thread; if we babble about characters maybe we’ll get some coordination out of the way.