Davey Jones' Locker

Still working on As Above, So Below: A Game of Angels. Playtest is coming up.

The Pirate game is still preying on my mind, but it's still only a vague set of stats and a dice mechanic that I'm going to call Rolling the Bones.

I need to ruminate on it more.

Serenity and Movies Galore

Serenity Trailer

Is this the Spring/Summer/Fall of must see movies or what?
First Sin City, then Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Star Wars III, Batman Begins, Serenity. My God, what is next?

Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith looks like it will rock out.

Serenity looks incredible, I am envious of all who went to see it at the advance preview.

Shifting Positions

Interviewed for a new position at work yesterday and got the job, it's harder work, but more money. I should start within a week or two.

Angels and Pirates and Vampires, oh my...

As Above, So Below playtest happening on Friday the 13th. Looking forward to that. Hopefully people will be up for it.

Have an idea for a Pirate RPG, Davey Jones' Locker. I want to use a dice mechanic based on Pirate dice games, I might use a variation on craps for it. We'll see. I have my 4 stats worked out: Bloodlust, Sea Legs, Fortune, Lechery and that's about it so far. We'll see how it goes.

Received the card game, Plunder from Laughing Pan games a few days ago, it looks cool.

Also received my Angel soundtrack, listening to it now. It is most excellent.

Playing in a new Vampire game, run by Mark in two weeks from Friday. I have an intriguing concept. I'm looking forward to it.

That's all for now.

End of Ambercon

So, I get to sleep after Edwin's Shadowworld WWII game at about 4:30 in the morning. I visited with Kris, Chris Kindred, Jack Gulick and others for a while. Wake up call was 10:30. Actually managed to get checked out by Noon and then hung out in the lobby with many of the Con attendees. We ended up going to lunch at Charlies down the street. Michael Kucharski gave me a ride, ended up talking with him and Pierre-Alexandre on the way to the restaurant, chatted with Chris Kindred, Michael and others. (Names escaping me, right now.) Finished lunch, headed to the bus station, where amazingly, I only had about 45 minutes to wait for my bus at 4:15 PM we boarded and were on our way, in 5 minutes we stop at the border to Canada. It takes 5 minutes to get through, about a third the time on the way there. Bus ride continues, transfer at TO. Next morning at 5:00 AM, I'm home and in bed by 5:30. It was a great time, thanks to everyone. I look forward to next year.

Games, Games, Games

First Slot, Thursday Evening, I ran Dust Devils (with just a hint of Amber flavouring)- Once Upon a Time in the West: The Quick and the Dead. So my players were Paul B, Sasha B, Jack G, David M and Andy R. Character creation went well, Sasha came up with the coolest Doc: Quick with a Saw; that had to be my favourite moment during character creation. Considering she had never seen a Western, she had an excellent character concept. Another funny thing about character creation was, we had no gunmen concepts, until Andy stepped up to the plate and decided to play one. I found it intriguing that in a western game, we only had one Gunman. I think it was the "But everyone will make Gun-Fighters syndrome" and therefore nobody did. Other characters were the Card Sharp who literally had sharp cards dipped in Gilla Monster poison, the Bull-Whacker with much brawn and guts, very little else, and the Smooth Talker, who could con you out of your money, your wife and your horse, not necessarily in that order.

The game itself went well, with only a few minor hiccups, everyone seemed to get into the shared narrative idea and the story went on it's own Merry way. They wound up killing both my Major Antagonists, Abel Cainan and Lucas Reynolds (Caine and Luke/Rinaldo). That was fine with me, we wound up with an interesting story. I will be running this again, a different scenario, but in the same vein.

Next up, Friday morning I played Son of a B---- Must Pay by Madeline F. I played the cold-blooded Son of Caine, Fallon who was totally screwing with Rinaldo, not only that, but I managed to kill him and get away with it. It was a good game, even though it was morning and too little sleep was had by me. I had a great time playing.

Friday afternoon I played in Amber Legion, run Michael K and Jeff T. I had fun playing Sergeant Rock, one of his Skills was Tough Bastard, I love it. The scenario was intriguing, a hold your ground and try to get a call out for help, the getting to call for help is the issue. It was definitely fun and I'd play it again.

That night, I played Edwin V's ShadowWorld Mainline game. I play Johann Barth, Circle born and trained Special Operations Soldier, FerroK, ESPer and Telepath. Somethings you should not say at the beginning of a ShadowWorld Game. "I've never almost died in ShadowWorld before." Is something you should never say. Now I can't say that anymore. Good thing we had an extremely effective Healer with us. Well, we foolishly took on Thor and Freya, two Life-Stealers of immense power. We killed Thor twice and Freya was taken out by our friendly neighbourhood Winter Queen who was protecting her boytoy. To say, we are in deep s**t is an understatement. It was a lot of fun as usual.

Saturday moring was Mars Ascending, the Firefly inspired game. I played Tex, the gun-toting Alcoholic who was damn loyal to the Capan. We were in the sh*t from the beginning and the passengers almost took us out, but we handled it well and wound up with the mystery artefact and our ship got away. We rocked and so did the game.

Saturday evening was No Higher Authority,
I played Darkness, who then became Justice (or Poetic Justice as some woul say.) This shared narrative game was extremely fun and we went worked in a Dark Faerie Tale style story that brought us to a nice transition point, it ended much like the Princess Bride, at the part after And they Lived Happily ever after.

Sunday Morning, I played in Battlestar Pegasus, I played Abel "Sidewinder" Starwind, hotshot pilot in the service of Commander Caine. We saved the Colonies, but I wound up living with a not too bright Living Cylon, on an abandoned outpost of theirs. One should avoid going into hyperspace blind.

Sunday Evening was ShadowWorld WWII. I play Markus A. Hauser, Jesuit Priest Healer. (Also the Wandering Jew, but we won't get into that.) We stopped a Nazi plot to extend summer, working as a team. But we had a problem. One of our team mates is partially possessed by an extremely powerful entity. When she attempts to use her powers, the entity threatens to take control. We wound up in an argument over wether to kill her or not. I believed that killing her might release the entity into the world, thus causing major pain and suffering for all. After much discussion and argument, we decided to keep her doped up on Morphine at a Jesuit Stronghold. Needless to say the game is extremely fun and layered. I am psyched to play again.

Gaming over, I talked with people til 3:30 AM. Then it was bedtime.

At the Con: Ambercon US - Game On

I'm in the Hotel at the desk, checking in. When I see Simone and Guy checking in as well. Pleasantries are exchanged and we go about the business of getting checked in. In 5 minutes, I'm on my way to my room. In 10 minutes, I'm in the shower. After 20 minutes, I'm on my way to the Convention gathering area. (Smartly placed next to the restaurant and bar.) I step into the room and notice that the tables are perfect to run Dust Devils at, perfect poker tables. So I request the use of the back space from Kris and I'm on my way. I hang out, chat with people I haven't seen in a long while, some in months, others in years. It was like coming home again. I knew at that point, that I would come to next years Ambercon. So, I head over to the bar to get my free drink (a Screwdriver and am back to chatting. I tell some of my players where we are playing, chat with Jack for a bit and then head back up to my room to get my gaming stuff.

Born Again Vietnam Veteran Taxi Drivers: They Make for one Hell of a Ride - On the Road Again: Ambercon US (Cont.)

I get in the Taxi and here comes my impromptu tour of the Detroit suburbs.

Let's precis this with, I take a lot of Taxis at home. The buses don't run early enough for me to get to work on time and therefore I have to take taxis to work, (I am reimbursed in part for this.) So I try to be polite, courteous and kind with my Taxi driver. I converse with them as they drive me to where I am trying to get. So, I strike up a conversation with this guy and find out he's a Vietnam Veteran. We begin talking about the kinds of movies we like, he's a big fan of the Western. (Which is cool, since so am I.) I recommend some to him and we continue on in our conversation. We've been talking and driving for a while and eventually the subject turns to theology, being a bit of an amateur theologian myself, I am intrigued to hear his take on things. I had noticed the Bible on his dashboard as I got into the cab. So, we begin talking about the other religions he has explored, Buddhism, Judaism, Islam and finally Christianity. I enjoyed the conversation, because the man had explored the various religions by reading their texts and finding whether it worked for him. I must say it was intriguing conversation that spanned faith and why certain religions prohibit certain foods. I became so engrossed in the conversation that I hadn't even noticed we had gotten lost. After a brief moment of indecision, I pulled out the written map of the way to the Embassy Suites and we made our way hence. We carried on our conversation and then finally arrived at the doors to the Hotel. I tipped the cabbie well for a thoroughly pleasant ride and he gave me his card for the trip home, he offered me a discount for the ride back. (Which I didn't end up using, but that comes later.)

On the Road Again: Ambercon US

I was down in Detroit (more acurately Livonia), Michigan for Ambercon US about three weeks ago. Left Ottawa at about 1 AM on Thursday, March 31st, (the bus left a half-hour late), arrived in Toronto at 5:45 AM (10 minutes before scheduled arrival, our bus drivers had the hammer down. They switched about half-way.) Waited until 8:30 AM and then boarded the bus to Detroit. Several stops and 6 hours later. I'm at the boarder and the US customs inspectors are searching through my bags. 15 minutes later, I'm back on the bus, ten minutes after that, I'm in Detroit at the bus station. I get off the bus, gather my things and flag down a taxi.

Join the Semi-Conscious Liberation Army, oops I mean the Uniterian Jihad

My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Hand Grenade of Enlightenment.

Get yours.

As Above, So Below Playtest Follow-Up

James was a little shaky during the short scene, but began to get a grasp of how it worked, Adam seemed to get into it and he brought up the drive-by shooting way as an example of how you would use corruption to get out of the same situation. So he really fed on the interactions. Suzanne was the quiet one, she was the least experienced role-player and wasn't used to the
shared narrative style of play.

During the actual play each had a different way of approaching the situation, they talked out how they would approach the situation and then came to deal with it. James started and as Adam listened and observed, he would that sparkle in his eye of an idea and then either use it then or wait for his moment. Suzanne observed mostly, but as she got the feel of the game, she came up
with some really good ideas. I thought her having some of the villagers be sick with ecoli was an inspired idea, in order to nudge the priest in the direction the Angels wanted. The back and forth worked really well.

I'm looking to foster the spirit of Coopetion in my players (cooperation and competition.)

I think I've also figured out how to involve the Devil's Advocate a little more, make his power more concrete, so to speak.

When the Devil's Advocate concedes the narration to the player, he is rolling against, it allows him to interrupt and introduce a scene at a later time. This scene could involve the backplot/uberplot of the story or it could involve introducing a dilemma to a player who hasn't been as active in the game. (Giving a player more face time.)

Also, I'm introducing the idea of player's introducing dilemma's or complications to other player's characters. If they choose to do so, they gain a point of corruption.

I've discovered that corruption is the fuel for players to use to further their own stories. It allows them to introduce their own issues, dilemmas, conflicts and complications to the game. Thus giving them more to do.

As Above, So Below Playtest

So, I ran my As Above, So Below play-test with Adam, James and Suzanne.

First we chatted for a bit and then I had them help me set up the Laws of Heaven.
I think we have a good list. (Now I just need to work on the Laws of Hell

Then we began to create characters. Suzanne created the Angel of Filth,
James, the Angel of Mercy and Adam, the Angel of Music.

From there, we did a short scene to show how the dice and the narrative aspect of the game works. James was the guinea pig. I, as the Devil's Advocate, introduced the test scene by having his faithful, a doctor having dinner with the daughter of one of his terminally ill patients. The set-up is that one of the Fallen is using her to corrupt the doctor through the daughter who is discussing the possibility of "mercy" killing for her mother. This is also opened up the ways James' Angel could proceed, would he intervene through Love and follow God's plan or would he intervene through Will, because he wished to protect his faithful. James was aloud to decide which path his Angel would take through this choice. He chose Love. James' Angel had to keep his Faithful on the right path and protect his Flock as well. ( His flock was terminally ill patients.) James won the narrative with his role and I showed you use your successes to put forth elements in the story. Each element I placed forward, James used one of his successes to counter and carried on the narrative. I then used my last die to add a new conflict to the scene. I had both his beeper and his cell go off at the same time. A 911 appeared on the beeper, the hospital emergency signal and on the cell was a patient whose father was going through cardiac arrest, as James pondered Adam added one last element. Adam used a point of purity to introduce an
element related to his character. He had a song that the daughter's mother used to sing to her come on the radio.

It was a cool sample scene. We also discussed how one would use Corruption to achieve the same goal. A driveby shooting would occur near by and a stray bullet would hit the daughter. As the cell phone and beeper go off. Thus removing your Faithful from danger, but causing greater headaches in the long run.

Then we began the short scenario.

Honoriel, Angel of Speech, Patron Saint of Missionaries had prevented a small village of Missionaries from dying in Thailand by stopping the Tsunami from hitting their area and thus was interfering with God's plan.

Michael, Archangel told them to deal with it.

James, Adam and Suzanne spent the first fifteen minutes of the game discussing how they were going to handle the situation. James' Angel looked down upon the Village, Adam's Angel listened to what was happening, not wanting to look upon their (possibly) Fallen Brother and Suzanne's Angel observed. They witnessed a village untouched by the devastation around them. The Angel of Mercy (James) sent in a survivor of the Tsunami, Mao, to speak to the Missionaries and try to indirectly influence Honoriel's decision and perhaps get him to change his mind. Mao engaged the Priest in the church where some villagers were singing the praises of God.. The discussion went to suggestions for the Missionaries to spread out and share their good fortunes with others. However, Honoriel was having none of it and offered to assist by opening the village up to those who need succor and to bring them by vehicle. The Angel of Filth (Suzanne) added in an element by having some of the missionaries suffering from ecoli due to a contaminated well.
This was used to get the Missionaries to seek out help, as they offered to help. A conflict was then initiated by the Angel of Music (Adam) within the narrative, would the Priest and the Missionaries leave to help or stay?
They reached an impasse for awhile, the goings on went back and forth with the Angel of Music (Adam) gaining the upper hand until the Angel of Speech, screamed a Primal scream that knocked all the villagers unconscious. Then the contest of wills began, with the Angel of Filth (Suzanne) attempting to wrest the wave from Honoriel's control. What Honoriel had done was to hold the wave back through physically interposing himself between it and the village. He hung within the water in a christ-like pose. As the Angel of Mercy (James) attempted to convince Honoriel to let his people go and accede to the Will of God, the Angel of Music (Adam) lay his hand upon the weeping Honoriel's shoulder and opened him up to the Singing of God's praises. Honoriel, his wings tinged slightly red by Sin, floated upward, but would not allow the wave to crash down. he would not be the agent of his Flocks destruction. Also, the three Angels realized that Honoriel had been using his Wings in part to hold back the Tsunami wave. The Angel of Filth (Suzanne) finally sent the Wave crashing down upon the Missionaries and the Angel of Mercy (James) saved his Faithful, Mao by placing him upon a floating pew.

The game went very well, the system works (yay!) and everyone had a good time. The most important part.

Now, I need to do it again and work out some issues I foresee the Devil's Advocate as having.

Hunter S. Thompson: Gonzo, but not Forgotten

Hunter S. Thompson went out like Hemingway on Feb 20, 2005.

May he rest in peace at last.

Brush with Death

At around 11:55 PM, I was getting a ride home with James, a good friend of mine.
We were chatting on the way home, passing the time and then we just spun out and hit the rail and then straightened out on the bridge, (for those in the know, from Ottawa , it's the bridge where Main St. becomes Smyth Road, literally a bridge in two senses of the word).

During that spin out I lurched forward and hit my head on the padded area above the passenger side window. I was lucky, but as we managed to get to my place in the Truck/SUV. It dawned on me. There, but for the Grace of God, go I. If it had been a few inches down or up, it could have been a much different story, my head could have smashed through the driver side window or into the much harder ceiling. I could be in a hospital bed, right now or worse, dead.

You know how they sometimes say, you see your life pass before your eyes in those moments.
There was no time for my life to pass before my eyes, it happened far too quickly, for anything so prosaic as that. I'm just glad nothing worse happened. Something interesting happened after that, James prayed in thanks for our deliverance from the accident. I didn't even think of prayer, but was still kind of stunned by what had happened.

I couldn't sleep when I got home, freeked out, shaken up and generally far to wired and queasy to think about sleep. James came in and phoned his house, and then went to change a leaking rear tire.

I stayed inside and watched television, outwardly calm, but inside I was shaking. I turned on the TV and waited a while with James, then he went out to have a smoke and wait for his mom.

All I have to say is, I'm glad to still be here. I have so much I still want to do and realized there is no time like the present to do it. I thank God for this second chance and hope I don't waste it.

When a Great one passes on

Will Eisner, the man who brought about a comic book revolution, passed away on January 3. 2005.

Raise your glasses to him, lads and lasses.

And think of him fondly, the next time you crack open a comic book.

Will Eisner, RIP.

The Herald Tribune

The Chicago Tribune

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and All that Jazz

Just wanted to wish everyone out there a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays. May joy enter all your lives and may we all know peace and love in the coming new year.

Tymen

As Above, So Below - It's more than just a blog

As Above, So Below

A Game of Angels

"Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word."

Psalm 103: 20

You are God's Will made manifest, sent to walk among the dark places, to watch over Mankind and to protect the Free Will which God granted them. But can you touch the darkness without being, in turn, touched by it.

Can you walk among the mortals without succumbing to Temptation, can you stand against the Fallen, your former brethren, without succumbing to their fate? Know this, as you gaze into the Mirror, the Fallen gaze out at you.

"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

The title and premise of an independent RPG, I am currently working on. I am currently working on the conflict mechanics and character creation process. It is moving forward and I feel pretty good about it.

Morbid and Creepifying

Okay, so I get up for work at 3:30 AM as usual and grab a shower.
I begin to get ready for work and as usual sit down to check out my e-mail for five to tem minutes.
I find the following link in an e-mail to the Nobilis list, talkin' about creepy, try reading through that at ten to four in the AM, even with all the lights on.

Check it out.

http://www.dionaea-house.com

Ambercon North Rocked!!!

Even with the problems associated with the Hotel of Which We Do Not Speak and the Hotel Whose Name Is Cursed Forever. I had an excellent time and gamed my a... , no wait, I gamed my hea..., no, not that either. I gamed a lot, let's put it that way.

Thanks to Stephanie Itchkawich, for giving me a different perspective on Benedict (If its Takes a Thousand Years) and for allowing us to create a truly intriguing universe (The White Lady).

Thanks to Mike Manolakes for bringing mystery and intrigue with a twist to Amber in The Zelany Code.

Thanks to Edwin Voskamp for Shadowworld, both Johann and Markus appreciated the chance to come alive during both games. Johann has plans, here is hoping to get them in motion. Markus's plans, however, are a little more long term and not evryone would be pleased with them.

Thanks to Jesse and Mark for running an excellent game, as always and my lips are sealed as to what happened.

And lastly, but not least, thanks to Chris Kindred for allowing Armande Berenger de la Valencoeur to ride once again with his brothers in arms, the Musketeers, but especially, Marcel and Alexis. Once again our plans came to fruition. (Why am I always surprised when a plan successfully comes together?)

Thank you to Jack and Craig for making the con such a great experience, even with all the problems that come their way. I salute you both and hope that we will have a much better hotel next year.

No Kidding

According to namestatistics.com.

Tymen is a very rare male name.

Very few men in the US are named Tymen.

Be proud of your unique name!

I'm so glad that there is a website to tell me something that I already knew.

Also, I might add, since I'm not from the US, I don't even fit into their statistical evaluations.

Sometimes, I really wish someone would invent a sarcasm font.

Tymen