Month: March 2010

Categories
Books

The King’s Peace by Jo Walton

This book is a fascinating twist on an Arthurian retelling, with a lot of adjustment for mixed gender knights. It’s set in the era immediately after Vincia [Rome] leaves the island, much like Hawk of May.

It was hard to evaluate, given that Hawk is so similar in setting and tale. In that way, it works well that crossing gender and mixing in politics changes the pacing and tale quite a bit.

In the end, I liked it. It’s a solid tale, after the tag end of Roman rule, but a different world and setting. The characters are all well drawn; Sulien is a great POV character, interesting and prickly, progressive in ways that appeal to a modern reader. Urdo and his knights are also well drawn; the other cultures are sketched and clearly different, with the differences slanted by Sulien’s POV.

All in all, an excellent retelling, even if it hasn’t toppled Hawk of May on first read. I look forward to reading the sequels.

Categories
Game Group Roleplaying

Aces and Eights: Characters

We just completed our character generation session, though we were a little short with Dad out sick. Here’s the skinny on the characters to date. [The dice were cold; Kev wound up having to generate 4 sets of stats to finally wind up with one decent set.]

Kev created Dr. Emerson Brown, a wealthy son of a doctor and landlord in New York City. He had a great upbringing, but wants to escape dad’s shadow. He just turned 21, and is headed out west with a few guns and a medical kit. He’s known for his doctoring and has a few other white collar skills. He’s impulsive, short tempered, and has high standards. He has bedside manner, and comes off completely dismissive. He could be interesting to be around.

Mike used his last character, a kid of 15, and just finished up allocating the new building points (for reputation) and buying more gear tonight. He has outdoors and riding skills, and is headed out west to start up a ranch, capture some wild mustangs, and turn a tidy profit. He’s terrible at lying.

I created a boy from rural Tennessee, Bob Cassidy, now 19. He’s got a lot of natural talent [high wisdom], good cooking/fishing/observation type skills, a lot of experience handling a wagon, and some good gossip and talking skills. He won’t say no to food, and can’t lie to save his life. If you hear rustling at midnight, it’s probably just Bob looking for a snack.

We’re going to start at noon on Saturday. We’ll start off in St. Louis and join a wagon train, supply up, and start off for the territories to homestead a town, or build up a struggling town with a lot of new talent.

Late last night, I was thinking about aides that would have streamlined character generation a little more. The core realization is based off of something Fred Hicks wrote about 4e; that the character sheet you use in play is a lot simpler than the character worksheet you use to derive those numbers. I used that insight to create an Aces and Eights character worksheet. It guides you through the process from stat rolls to finishing up skill points and buying gear.

Here’s my character, Bob Cassidy. Without all of the math in between, and by separating the combat and non-combat parts of the character, I think it’s pretty easy to get a feel for him.

Speaking of math, here’s a simple spreadsheet for spending.

Finally, the real easiest way to do it: use the character generator. It does the math for you, and will roll or allow you to input your rolls. If I hadn’t already done things several times, this would be the way I’d enter it all– for the math check if nothing else!

Categories
Food

Cooking Success Story: Carrot Soup w/ Ginger

Yesterday I made Carrot Soup with Ginger, from Wednesday’s soup recipe article by Joan Obra. It was delicious and simple; about 1 1/2 hours from start to finish, but each step was easy. You can start the onions and work on the carrots and ginger while they’re cooking, then start your water for the chicken broth when you toss in the carrots and ginger.

CREAM OF CARROT WITH GINGER SOUP
Makes 6 servings
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 pounds young carrots, peeled and sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
6 cups hot chicken broth
1 cup whole milk
1 1/2 cups half-and-half
3 teaspoons salt or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
For the garnishes:
Croutons fried in butter (see note)
Chopped cilantro leaves
In a pot, melt the butter over low heat, then add the onions and cook, stirring, until slightly softened, about 15 minutes. Increase the heat to medium-low, then add the carrots and ginger and cook, stirring frequently, until the carrots are softer, about 20 minutes.
Add the chicken broth to the pot, bring to a boil over medium heat, then cook, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes. Remove the soup from the heat and add the milk. Transfer to a blender and blend, in batches if necessary, until it forms a puree. Return the soup to the pot, add the half-and-half, season with the salt and pepper, and cook until very hot without letting it come to a boil. Serve hot with one of the garnishes.
Note: Cover the bottom of a large skillet with 1/16 inch of olive oil. Heat the oil over medium heat for a few minutes, then add French bread cut into 3/4-inch cubes. Cook, stirring or tossing frequently, until the cubes of bread are golden brown, 5-7 minutes. Remove from the skillet and set aside. Optionally, you can add a crushed garlic clove to the heating oil and then remove and discard it before you add the bread.
-“The Best Soups in the World,” by Clifford A. Wright (John Wiley & Sons, $22.95)

Categories
Uncategorized

Blooming around the house

Categories
Books

State of Decay by James Knapp

This book wouldn’t let me go when it was time to sleep last night.

For the first long bit, the book is a dystopian near future police thriller. There is one obvious twist: Heinlein Inc. has been producing reviors– technologically reanimated corpses– for a while now. They fight wars for the US government, and are smuggled in/imported for other grunt labor.

The book has four point-of-view characters who get regular turns– no one gets only half the chapters of the others. Two link up soon and substantially: Nico and Faye, who are FBI and police respectively. The other two tie in less strongly, but their perspective provides useful balance to the world view: Calliope and Zoe. Zoe has a strange perspective– it’s clear she has a lot of problems– but it’s also clear that she’s going to be an important POV for the sequel. Speaking of which: the story ends at a good break point, it feels like a completed novel. You might be content to call this a stand alone novel, until Nico’s final scene, which clearly signposts a continuing storyline.

The characters are all good and interesting, but Nico has top billing. The other characters all compliment his story well, but the driving force of the story is his. In many ways, his is the only life that is enviable– everyone else is wrestling squalor, exhaustion, and third class status.

All in all, a good book, with a very interesting twist that develops throughout the second half of the novel. I’ll be looking for the sequel. [It’s called THE SILENT ARMY, according to the author’s blog.]

Categories
FATE Games Roleplaying

Stalking Diaspora

Doyce has a couple of good posts for Diaspora: Being Immortal and a huge Session One post. Let the stalking begin. 😉

Judd’s game, a thread on ENWorld.

Categories
Game Group

Aces and Eights resources

Our upcoming game is Aces and Eights, and we’ll be playing members of a wagon train heading west. Since there’s a lot of changes from real world history, and it’s a new system to us, I thought I’d dig up some links.

The history of the continent is wildly different, due to a much earlier civil war. This annotated map does a good job of showing the various countries and conflict zones. This timeline is a very short “one page” of differences that setup the map above.

The download page has excerpts from the rulebook and many other interesting references, including objects to hide behind in a shootout, silhouettes, a stage schedule, the alternative history excerpt, and so on.

There are two bits of errata linked on their website: Basic Combat and Wounds Modifiers Primitive Ranged Weapons.

The revised chapter 6.5, detailed backgrounds, is a PDF. It has the 01-92 “parents legitimate” fix, and probably a few more. Kenzerco also posted up tutorial videos for the combat system. For a couple of nice combat reference PDFs, see this post.

From RPG.net, there’s a quick example of play that went pretty well. (If you scroll down, you get the 7 session story.) The play log and characters are here. They just started a sequel game here.

Despite extensive searching, I haven’t found good third party or personal guides to the system. I know that I often appreciate different explanations and guides– sometimes the third time, you hit on the formula that explains it perfectly.

Categories
Game Group

Next Game Selected

Today we met and discussed the options for our next game. After much debate, we decided that the next game we play will be Aces and Eights. We’ll get together next weekend and create characters. We will make characters as a part of a wagon train, heading west to seek a better life. We’re aiming for a detailed campaign– somewhat complex and a little detail oriented to start with.

Next weekend, we’ll get together at 3 pm, watch an episode of a western show to get on the same page, and make characters ready to head west.

Categories
Books

Farthing by Jo Walton

This is a great alternate history mystery, with two engaging and well drawn main characters.

Lucy is a great window into the aristocracy, with enough bristling at the system to make her sympathetic, but enough background so she makes sense. Inspector Carmichael, from Scotland Yard, is no fool, but there is quite a tangle to work through on the murder.

Along the way, the variations in belief and sympathy from the different characters keeps the book feeling real– each character comes from its own place and has its own prejudices. The main characters, fortunately, are quite progressive in their mindset, which does ease a modern viewer into their viewpoints.

I liked this one enough that I’m looking going to check out the rest of the trilogy (Ha’penny and Half a Crown). Though I wonder where they’ll launch from– these characters reached a strong break in their story. I wonder if we’ll follow new people in the next books.