Category: Uncategorized

ACUS 2005 GMing

[Belatedly crossposted from flaming_monkey now that LJ is back up….]

Both of the games I’ll be running at ACUS 2005 got submitted this week. The first is a new Victorian-influenced mystery that Jenn and I will be co-GMing in Slot 3 (Friday afternoon) Slot 5 (Saturday morning). It might end up being the first in a series.

The Mysterious Affair
Number of Players: 3-6 (pregens)

The Metropolitan Police Force of Amber City are the enforcers of
justice of which all others are but shadow. Together with the Crown
Prosecution Service (CPS), they target criminal activity to keep the
streets safe. The officers of the Special Section of Amber’s Criminal
Investigation Division are called in on those cases requiring elite
skills and delicate handling.

Lady Margaret Chantris is known to be one of the premiere hostesses
of Amber’s polite society. Admired by all, envied by some — not in
the least for her dashing and handsome husband William, the third son
of the noble house — it comes as a great shock when she is found
murdered at the Red Lion public house in what appears to be a crime
of passion. As it happens, Police Commissioner Victor FitzJames is an
old school chum of Lord William’s, and he taps a few members of
Special Section to handle the case.

Then in Slot 6 (Saturday evening) Slot 3 (Friday afternoon), I’ll be running the kill puppies for satan scenario I ran at TBR this past year.

Nine Losers in Akron
Number of Players: 4-8 (pregens)

f***. looks like one of the f***ers who hates dad finally decided to do something about it. granddad says he was down at the 7-11 last night buying his f***ing lameass porno mags, when he saw a couple of big guys dragging your dad into some beat-up panel van and driving off. a**holes. you could call the cops, but those f***ers don’t really like anybody in your loser family, so they probably won’t f***ing do anything. f***. looks like it’s up to you to get dad back.

[This is a kill puppies for satan game centering around a family made up of recast Amber Elders. Rules will be taught, but taking the time to check out the kpfs site before you sign up is strongly recommended. The game involves far too much foul language and plenty of things that are very wrong (like, you know, the puppy killing part), so consider yourself warned.]

I’m hoping the new game goes well, and the kpfs re-run ends up being just as fun for all involved as it was the first time around.

Looking ahead to TBR 2005, I plan on running a new kpfs scenario (which will be a sequel of sorts), Jenn and I will likely run “The Mysterious Affair” again (or another game in the series), and…. well, I need to come up with a third game. Right now I’m leaning toward something that mixes Amber and The Mountain Witch.

[Note: Slot changes waiting for Kris’ approval.]

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Webhosting woes

For the second time in the last couple of months my webhost, Digital Space, has gone offline entirely for several hours, meaning not only could I not access any of the three domains that arcaedia and I control between us (all of which are on different servers), but I couldn’t even connect to the main web page for the webhosting company itself. Now, Digital Space is an affordable sort of webhost, so I’m not expecting 99.99% uptime or anything, but this new thing where they apparently go entirely offline for hours at a time with no warning isn’t really acceptable. I suspect it’s their upstream provider that’s the problem, but that doesn’t change the effect it has on me.

So, anyone want to recommend a reliable webhosting company that’s relatively affordable? The only real requirements are that it be U.S. based (I’m paying with the ever-falling American peso, and so would rather avoid having to deal with exchange rates), has MySQL available (preferably at no extra charge), and has an up-to-date version of PHP installed. I prefer that their servers run on Linux (or BSD), rather than Windows. Oh, and they have to let me install things like Moveable Type, WordPress, or pmwiki.

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RPG meme

A gaming meme via matt_snyder (of Chimera Creative fame):

1. What is the first RPG you ever played?

For some reason I want to say it was an old edition of Runequest, but that may just have been the first RPG I actually bought. The first one I played was probably D&D (the edition in the box with the dragon on the front).

2. What RPG do you currently play most often?

That’d be AD&D 3.5.

3. What is the best system you’ve played?

Actually played? Hmmm….Feng Shui maybe.

4. What is the best system you’ve run?

I don’t GM very often, so I’m just going to go with Kill Puppies for Satan.

5. Would you consider yourself an: Elitist/ Min-Maxer/ Rules Lawyer?

None of the above, though The Forge may be turning me into an elitist game snob.

6. If you could recommend a new RPG which would you recommend? Why?

D. Vincent Baker’s Dogs in the Vineyard. No contest. Why? Because Vincent has managed to come up with an excellent mechanic that covers conflicts from talking to brawling to shooting, and then he’s put it to use in an amazing setting that, from what I’ve seen posted to the Actual Play forum of The Forge, often leads to some really great RP.

7. How often do you play?

Currently, once a month, plus Ambercons. And yes, I’d like to play more often.

8. What sort of characters do you play? Leader? Follower? Comic Relief? Roll-Player/ Role-Player?

I think follower and comic-relief cover a lot of them, though I try not to just play the same stereotype in every game. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I don’t.

9. What is your favorite Genre for RPGs?

I don’t know that I have one, but I prefer my games dark (at least to some degree), no matter what the background setting.

10. What Genres have you played in?

Fantasy, horror, cyberpunk, and wuxia occur to me off the top of my head, but there are probably a couple that I’m forgetting, and there are always those games that don’t want to fit into a genre.

11. Do you prefer to play or GM? Do you do both?

I’ll say play, but that may in large part be because I haven’t GMed all that much.

12. Do you like religion in your games?

I don’t think I really have a preference one way or the other.

13. Do you have taboo subjects in your games or is everything “fair game”?

Did I mention that I ran a Kill Puppies for Satan game? I’m sure there are boundries, but I think they’re far enough out there that I’m unlikely to have to deal with them.

14. Have you developed your own RPG before?

Nope.

15. Have you ever been published in the Gaming Industry? If so…what?

No.

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