games
I guess I’ll be getting Dragon Age for Xbox then…
Because the PC specs are out and I don’t meet them!
The sad tale of Wilgo the Blingseeker and his cousin Zilgo.
So I finally got some RPG play time yesterday.
I trekked out to Kyle’s place on the other side of the city to play in his second one shot first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax memorial game. There was six players (including me) and all bar Phil rolled up characters on the spot.
Kyle has strong opinions about, well, pretty much everything. But his strong opinions about old school gaming are that you should do it properly. And properly in the case of character creation means roll 3d6, six times. In order. So no swapping around stats in order to make a good character, no rolling 4d6 and dropping the lowest. No rerolling unless A) your character is unplayable by the rules or B) your character is dead.
Race, genre fiction and roleplaying
Larry, at OF Blog of the Fallen, has written a really interesting post entitled ‘Whitewashing Diversity‘. It’s all about the lack of diversity in science fiction and fantasy writing and about the way that this is never interrogated, let alone noticed.
Too often in the SF that I have read (perhaps a couple hundred of books over the years, so it is very possible that I might not have read the right sorts of SF), way too often are the issues surrounding diversity/Otherness presented from the dominant culture’s point of view. While many SF authors over the years have taken great pains to avoid the “White Man’s Burden” point of view dominating their stories of First Contact, all too often the notion of “discovery” that creeps into these tales is that these Others (perhaps analogues for Africans, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc. in US society today?) is that these “discovered” peoples (aliens) are ciphers, are often dangerous or at least potentially threatening, and that too often there isn’t a concerted effort even to “understand” these alien groups.
Geek Resolutions for 2009
Most of us make new year resolutions of one sort or another, and most of them don’t last through January. I suspect that’s because most resolutions are thinks we don’t want to do, but think we should – exercise more often, diet, drink less, stop sleeping around, yadda yadda yadda (for the record, mine is a perfect example – quit drinking coke).
But I thought it would be nice to have some new year resolutions that I actually do want to achieve so here they are:
RPGs
1. Play in a regular campaign, work allowing. This should happen as I’m supposed to play in my friend Dan’s ‘Mythic Japan’ game, using the World of Darkness rules.
2. Run/Play at least one of the following games that are on my shelf but have never been opened in anger:
- D&D Rules Cyclopedia
- GURPS 4e (preferably using the complete collection of Transhuman Space books I have)
- Dark Heresy – the Warhammer 40k RPG.
- Angel – I had a great idea for a game set in Hong Kong in the lead up to the handover. Hong Kong is a city I know fairly well, having lived there as a kid and having visited at least once a year for the last three years as well, but no one I’m likely to play with really knows it at all.
3. Work on the campaign world I’ve got kicking around in my head – a grim, dark fantasy world with lots of malevolent faeries.
Video Games -
1. Finish at least three of the following:
- Grand Theft Auto 4 – I’m on the last bloody mission and can’t manage to finish it. Bah!
- Rainbow 6: Vegas – similarly, I’ve got one level to go. I refuse to buy the next one until I’ve finished this.
- Call of Duty 4 – I’m roughly half way through, and being annoyed by a sneaky level.
- Bioshock & Mass Effect - barely started these, but I was enjoying them both and with the sequels due either this year or next, I’d better get onto them!
- Fable II – again, barely started, but it’s a loaner so better get on with it!
As there’s nothing I’m actually looking forward to coming out on the 360 any time soon, I hope this resolution isn’t too hard.
2. Play online more – I have a Xbox Live Gold account which I’ve used next to never (OliveTheMage is anyone is looking to play). Currently it’s a waste of $100 a year so I’d like to either use it or drop it entirely.
Books
1. Read a bit more!
2. Read more of the Fantasy/Sci-fi classics that Gollancz publish. I’ve been working my way through some good stuff in 2008 – finally read Elric and some Gene Wolfe for example – but I’d like to make a concerted effort to read some of the origins of these genres.
3. Review. One thing I’ve like to do on here is review some of these books. These won’t be major reviews, but hopefully they’d be a good way of organising some thoughts on the books I read and perhaps even generate soem discussion.
Board Games
Once my friend Duncan gets back to Melbourne, I’d like to do at least one serious, all day, board gaming session. Perhaps a return to Axis and Allies?
So there you have it. Check back in 12 months and I’ll go through what I achieved!
Let’s start
I’ve recently been reading a lot about all things geek so I thought I’d finally get round to making a place where I could get all my thought’s down. Mostly Geek pretty much sums it up. I’ll use this space to write about the anything I consider to be geeky. From RPGs to books to movies to music. It’s a blog and so who knows where it might lead.