Just a quickie - apart from writing Running I'm also thinking about Tec my coming detective series. As previously mentioned this was originally a co-creation with the Teacher, we worked on it as a novel a few years ago.
I was giving some thought to the main character, and realised there was absolutely no reason for her to be in a job where "detecting" was the norm - because, for her main area of knowledge, she would be completely employable. Also, as a character, she lacked bite and depth.
I mentioned this problem to the Teacher who promptly threw out a few ideas which were not much help - but note the extreme creativity. I explained the issue in more detail.
Then the Teacher came up with The Idea. The gimmick, the whole thing that suddenly made it all fit. Why wasn't she employable in her natural skill area? Why is she being a detective? What is her dark past?
It's perfect.
Of course the Teacher demanded payment. She's running a role-playing game in a few weeks, it's called Space:1889, Victorian SF basically. And she needed some ideas, she has a particularly awkward group of players (well, some of them are awkward). So she demanded that I assist her in creating a plot that would work, provide interest and excitement, and get the awkward players involved.
Curiously I haven't run an RPG since I started writing screenplays on a serious basis (mainly due to being stuck in Reading) so it was interesting to apply screenwriting tools to an improvisational game.
My main thrust was the principle that the plot is driven by the antagonist and that the stakes need to be very high indeed. The bigger the better. Plus I invented a race of creatures that I'm fairly sure has never been used before in any medium - the bad guys. Talk about spectacle: the destruction of the Earth is on the line ... well, if the players fail to stop the bad guys that's how bad it will get.
The Teacher appreciated my efforts and we agreed the debt was paid - besides she'll get a full co-creation credit on Tec.
Sayonara.
What's on the turntable? Nuffink ... but "The Office ... An American Workplace" is on Comedy Central.
Showing posts with label role-playing games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label role-playing games. Show all posts
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Mugs of Green Tea
Right.
Today has been a good day.
I passed my first test at work. When you're a contractor you are employed on the basis that you can do the job. And hopefully you can. But every job is different, there are always twists that you can't predict, and usually there will be some part of the job you've never before encountered. You have to wing it. I see them as tests.
This time I got side-swiped with a short task that wasn't precisely what I was employed for, and involved a type of work I haven't done much of and I had to decipher other people's work as well.
I know that I'm a good programmer but I've had a couple of knocks recently - including a phone interview for a company where I could not answer a single one of the interviewer's questions. Now that was very painful, it's true their requirements were quite specialised, but I felt like a complete idiot.
Anyway I fixed the code I'd been given, in fact I fixed more than I was asked, because there was a lot more wrong with the code than was apparent - like a countdown timer that occasionally went 06 ... 05 ... o4 ... o3 ... 02 ... 01 ... 60 ... 60? That should be 00. Strangely I was reminded of Demons.
Stress can often be caused by unfinished cycles of action - every time you don't finish something (or don't do something you know you ought to do) it ties up brainpower, leaving less to deal with the rest of the world.
There were things I needed to do: Phone my parents for one (it's been a bit too long) and e-mail my sister in Australia who's discovered she has a tumour hiding behind one of her kidneys (sneaky thing - the tumour not the kidney). Since my eldest sister died of cancer this was a worry. Apparently it's benign, but I still need to communicate. I didn't have her e-mail address here, now I have, so I can.
Then there was my trip to Birmingham to see my friends. I was planning on going tomorrow evening (Thursday) but I realised how much this was stressing me out. Carrying an extra big bag through the London insanity of a rush hour? So I thought: Why not go on Friday morning? I won't lose anything and will gain much. A quick phone call and it was arranged.
Phew.
Then, on the way home, I was thinking about the problem of this huge action sequence in Unit X. I realised that although I have a pretty damn good visual imagination, this was just a bit too much. I needed an imagination aid.
Ideally I would have been at home where we have all the little figures that we use for our role-playing games and floorplans and all sorts of stuff so I could build a set and have the characters move to see who goes where and does what to ensure it all ties together at the end.
So, in true Blue Peter style, I had to improvise. I was about to start cutting up flimsy paper into folded pieces I could write on to represent the characters. Then I realised I had hundreds of business cards that are out of date. They're made of nice thick card and I can make 6 people out of one card. (I could have made one character out of each business card which would have made them nice and big, but that would have been wasteful.)
If I had a camera I'd show you. But I haven't, so you'll have to make do with the words.
Excellent. Time to play.
Green tea? Oh, I've been drinking mugs of green tea this evening.
What's on the turntable? "The Diary of Horace Wimp" by ELO from some album or other.
Today has been a good day.
I passed my first test at work. When you're a contractor you are employed on the basis that you can do the job. And hopefully you can. But every job is different, there are always twists that you can't predict, and usually there will be some part of the job you've never before encountered. You have to wing it. I see them as tests.
This time I got side-swiped with a short task that wasn't precisely what I was employed for, and involved a type of work I haven't done much of and I had to decipher other people's work as well.
I know that I'm a good programmer but I've had a couple of knocks recently - including a phone interview for a company where I could not answer a single one of the interviewer's questions. Now that was very painful, it's true their requirements were quite specialised, but I felt like a complete idiot.
Anyway I fixed the code I'd been given, in fact I fixed more than I was asked, because there was a lot more wrong with the code than was apparent - like a countdown timer that occasionally went 06 ... 05 ... o4 ... o3 ... 02 ... 01 ... 60 ... 60? That should be 00. Strangely I was reminded of Demons.
Stress can often be caused by unfinished cycles of action - every time you don't finish something (or don't do something you know you ought to do) it ties up brainpower, leaving less to deal with the rest of the world.
There were things I needed to do: Phone my parents for one (it's been a bit too long) and e-mail my sister in Australia who's discovered she has a tumour hiding behind one of her kidneys (sneaky thing - the tumour not the kidney). Since my eldest sister died of cancer this was a worry. Apparently it's benign, but I still need to communicate. I didn't have her e-mail address here, now I have, so I can.
Then there was my trip to Birmingham to see my friends. I was planning on going tomorrow evening (Thursday) but I realised how much this was stressing me out. Carrying an extra big bag through the London insanity of a rush hour? So I thought: Why not go on Friday morning? I won't lose anything and will gain much. A quick phone call and it was arranged.
Phew.
Then, on the way home, I was thinking about the problem of this huge action sequence in Unit X. I realised that although I have a pretty damn good visual imagination, this was just a bit too much. I needed an imagination aid.
Ideally I would have been at home where we have all the little figures that we use for our role-playing games and floorplans and all sorts of stuff so I could build a set and have the characters move to see who goes where and does what to ensure it all ties together at the end.
So, in true Blue Peter style, I had to improvise. I was about to start cutting up flimsy paper into folded pieces I could write on to represent the characters. Then I realised I had hundreds of business cards that are out of date. They're made of nice thick card and I can make 6 people out of one card. (I could have made one character out of each business card which would have made them nice and big, but that would have been wasteful.)
If I had a camera I'd show you. But I haven't, so you'll have to make do with the words.
Excellent. Time to play.
Green tea? Oh, I've been drinking mugs of green tea this evening.
What's on the turntable? "The Diary of Horace Wimp" by ELO from some album or other.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Playing the role
I have a friend.
Well, I have a lot of friends (I suppose) but this particular friend is someone I have known for nigh on 30 years (gosh). I met him at the Manchester University D&D Society and we've been playing table-top role-playing games since that time. We have a group that's met almost once per week for the last 20 years and played a multitude of games (mostly not D&D as it happens).
In 1987 I had the bright idea of starting a live role-playing game company. So we did (along with my wife and others). It lasted about 7 years but we always loved live role-playing. There's nothing sordid about this, we're talking about running around the countryside having mock-medieval adventures complete with magic and sword-play. Like re-enactment, only it's enactment, it's improvisational (although the adventures are scripted the players have no idea what will happen - a bit like murder mysteries).
This is all, in fact, relevant to Halloween. I'm coming to the point soon.
So my friend Steve (let's call him Steve because that's his name) likes to do things proper on Halloween, so he dresses up his house, has a graveyard in the garden, a smoke machine, atmospheric effects, lots of skulls and such like. And then he dresses up and scares all the kids that come trick or treating (some of them not so little).
Ths evening was the first evening in all these years I've had a chance to join in. I love it. You get the costume on and you're in character - an ogre in my case - I scared dozens of kids this evening, Brilliant. My daughter, who is a professional cackler (she's done two semi-pro pantomimes as the witch), let rip with her superb cackles which do not damage her voice (she could give masterclasses).
Even the boy, who was not even in a scary costume, managed to scare a few by simply emerging unexpectedly from the shadows. The wife, who also loves the dressing up, wasn't feeling too good so gave it a miss this year.
But it wasn't just us: we had two skeletal pirates, a Countess Dracula, a superb Death - and that was just the adults. The kids were brilliant too: a Corpse Bride (who kept insisting that her husband was buried in the graveyard, she was 10 I think), zombies, mini-witches all decked out in quality costumes. And even sweet little Summer dressed as a witch, she was about 2. That's what you get for being born into families of live role-players: decent costumes and a willingness to play the role.
We had a brilliant time, and so did the kids that came to visit. Steve, as a skeletal pirate, had this line "Come and get your treat, if you're brave enough". And the memorable "I'm not brave" came wavering through the dark from some young girl ... but she was, and she got her treat. Other phrases like "this is the best house ever" and "better than Alton Towers" came back to us. Steve's house is always the talk of the neighbourhood for the next week.
Next year we're thinking in terms of a castle frontage. I'll pop some pictures in tomorrow.
I haven't had so much pure fun in years.
What's on the turntable? Quiet as the grave.
Well, I have a lot of friends (I suppose) but this particular friend is someone I have known for nigh on 30 years (gosh). I met him at the Manchester University D&D Society and we've been playing table-top role-playing games since that time. We have a group that's met almost once per week for the last 20 years and played a multitude of games (mostly not D&D as it happens).
In 1987 I had the bright idea of starting a live role-playing game company. So we did (along with my wife and others). It lasted about 7 years but we always loved live role-playing. There's nothing sordid about this, we're talking about running around the countryside having mock-medieval adventures complete with magic and sword-play. Like re-enactment, only it's enactment, it's improvisational (although the adventures are scripted the players have no idea what will happen - a bit like murder mysteries).
This is all, in fact, relevant to Halloween. I'm coming to the point soon.
So my friend Steve (let's call him Steve because that's his name) likes to do things proper on Halloween, so he dresses up his house, has a graveyard in the garden, a smoke machine, atmospheric effects, lots of skulls and such like. And then he dresses up and scares all the kids that come trick or treating (some of them not so little).
Ths evening was the first evening in all these years I've had a chance to join in. I love it. You get the costume on and you're in character - an ogre in my case - I scared dozens of kids this evening, Brilliant. My daughter, who is a professional cackler (she's done two semi-pro pantomimes as the witch), let rip with her superb cackles which do not damage her voice (she could give masterclasses).
Even the boy, who was not even in a scary costume, managed to scare a few by simply emerging unexpectedly from the shadows. The wife, who also loves the dressing up, wasn't feeling too good so gave it a miss this year.
But it wasn't just us: we had two skeletal pirates, a Countess Dracula, a superb Death - and that was just the adults. The kids were brilliant too: a Corpse Bride (who kept insisting that her husband was buried in the graveyard, she was 10 I think), zombies, mini-witches all decked out in quality costumes. And even sweet little Summer dressed as a witch, she was about 2. That's what you get for being born into families of live role-players: decent costumes and a willingness to play the role.
We had a brilliant time, and so did the kids that came to visit. Steve, as a skeletal pirate, had this line "Come and get your treat, if you're brave enough". And the memorable "I'm not brave" came wavering through the dark from some young girl ... but she was, and she got her treat. Other phrases like "this is the best house ever" and "better than Alton Towers" came back to us. Steve's house is always the talk of the neighbourhood for the next week.
Next year we're thinking in terms of a castle frontage. I'll pop some pictures in tomorrow.
I haven't had so much pure fun in years.
What's on the turntable? Quiet as the grave.
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