PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE RACISM

In the last blog (read previous blog) I'd mentioned that many people in the USA had 'passive-aggressive racism'.

Here's a meme which illustrates that:

ANOTHER MEME

Thanks to David H for providing this one.

THIS IS TRUE.




DYSTOPIA RISING  (AKA DR)

My buddy Seth kindly arranged and paid for me to go experience Dystopia Rising.  This is a new LARP I'd never heard of before so I was curious to find out about it.  More so as it seems to be a fast growing game that has a lot of people excited.

Other people heard I was going and asked me to give them my opinions on it.

I took a lot of notes during the game for that purpose.

A couple of disclaimers:  Thus far, I've only gone to one chapter (Wisconsin).  Another visit to a different chapter is scheduled in a couple weeks.  Also, unlike in the NERO larp, I don't have a bunch of chapter owners who are friends I can get that behind the scenes point of view from.  So this is pretty much all from a new guy who was dropped in to it.

Also, since I've played a couple of decades of NERO, I will make tons of comparisons between this LARP and NERO as it is my only real basis for comparison.  So you're going to get a bunch of those.

Lastly, if you've never played a LARP, I'd suggest expanding your experiences and trying one out.



WELCOME TALK

Back in the old days, NERO use to do a 'welcome to the site and event' chat.  Due to poor planning, laziness, people arriving at various times or whatever I've not seen much of this in the last decade.

They did a welcome talk where in addition to the usual information I got to find out two interesting things.

1)  The first rule of DR is 'Don't be a dick'.  Good first rule.
2)  Second thing is that the only verboten topic in DR is sexual assault.  It doesn't exist period.  Fine - there is some pretty dark shit here (cannibalism, zombies, betrayal, etc) so this one thing is the 'too far' line.

And they have a 'safe space' for people who are overwhelmed at logistics.

Neat.  Fine.



NEWBIE ARMBANDS

One idea which had sounded great but due to poor execution (they forgot to bring them) completely fell flat was 'blue armbands'.   These would be passed out to newbies who would wear them for some amount of time.  Not sure if it was three months, three events or something else.  Till they were no longer complete newbies.

The stated purpose of these would be so that newbies could get help dealing with battle calls, the world, skills, etc.  Also (and much more interesting) so that experienced players would know they were newbies and make an effort to get them integrated into things.  Maybe give them simple missions so they could pick up a little coin or whatever.  Make them feel like part of the family a bit so they might come back and bring their friends.

A brilliant idea blown because nobody thought to bring armbands.  Given the importance of newbie retention (and those newbies bringing their friends) I find it quite astonishing they don't leave them in the vehicle or NPC camp stuff.



THE NEWBIE RUN

They had about ten newbies (which the experienced players called 'new fish' for reasons never explained to me who were asked to gather after the mildly disorganized (as all I've been to have been) player talk finally ground to a halt.

One of the people running things (was he the chapter owner?  I have no idea) talked to the newbies, offered to answer any questions and then told us he would walk us into town.

We were at the 'depot' (logistics) and would be headed into 'town'.  It was a long fucking way, especially for my fat ass.

Along the way were a couple very small groups of zombies which the experienced guy used to try to teach the newbies the basics of combat.

Eventually, we made it into town and were taken to a bar/food place known as the 'Lemonade Stand'.

The lady who ran it had a brilliant idea which again fell upon it's face.   Partially due to execution, partially to not getting buy in from the townspeople.

She told the newbies that if they grabbed a towns person and brought them to the Lemonade Stand that both the newbie and towns person would get a free drink.  Obviously, the intent was to have the newbie and towns person be able to chat - at least for however long it took for the drink to be drunk.  Maybe the newbie could ask questions, maybe the towns person could find out something about the newbie - who knows.

While all the other newbies milled around trying to work up the courage to ask a towns person for a drink (maybe having it the other way around might be nice - don't know) I grabbed a random towns person and asked him.  He agreed, got his drink, passed it off to someone else and wandered off.

"Well, he doesn't seem to give a fuck about me."  I thought and moved on.  With my free drink.  Damned fine lemonade.  Sweet, sweet lemonade.

Later that night, I decided to try to get some sleep.  Not a whole lot seemed to be going on and the town seemed to be mostly milling about or whatever.  At that point, the fuckery started.

After I went to bed in the 'hostel' (thirty or more mattresses laid out on the floor) lock picking window climbing in zombies made it inside three different times and were beating on my fellow sleepers.  Since my character literally had no combat skills, I just tried to get some sleep during the carnage.

I was doing alright until the violin started at eight AM in the goddamned morning.

So now I'm on four hours of sleep.   Meh.

Nobody else was screaming in rage or murdering the violinist so I just got up and went with the flow.  It turns out that someone (I forget who - sorry) was making really great biscuits and gravy for the camp.  This was great because there was no 'meal plan' at this event.  Lots of different people brought their own food.  You could buy food at the Lemonade Stand, but that cost in game money and newbies do not start with any in game money.

I still regret not getting a second helping of biscuits and gravy even though everyone was threatened with death if they did.  So good.  So good.



MY CHARACTER

Although Seth had encouraged me to read the rule book or even help build my own character, I decided after looking at their thick assed rule book (3cm?) 'oh hell no'.  Seth made my character who was a tinkerer.  My character had the ability to make basic shit and repair shit.

Also, he made my character a 'rover'.  This is pretty much a person who travels a lot.  Good fit.  The required costume for this 'strain' (like a race but not) is that they have to wear a lot of scarves.  Bandannas seemed close enough to me and since in real life I am kind of a rover, I own a bunch of these.  I knotted several together and made a loop I put over my head and one arm to mark me.

Because I was feeling super lazy and would only be going to two total sessions of this game before going back to Eurasia, I decided to just use the back story of my NERO character and have him on this world.  Since magic and all the fantasy realm stuff (aside from zombies) wasn't going on, he would figure he was having a weird hallucination or something.  Having Lumsie talk about insane stuff would be fine I reasoned because chances are great anyone living in the DR world should have heavy PTSD and quite a few different types of insanity.

For two events, it would work.

I  discovered a couple downsides of my character as I went through play.  First, for 'basic stuff' there was zero market.  The next tier up of goods was plentiful and cheap - nobody wanted basic.  Also, repairing a basic suit of armor means sitting around at a work bench tapping one thing on another for ten minutes.  Why nobody was using that time to say build real actual chain mail (or something useful) escapes me.

Also, extremely cheap people said that repairs should be done for free.  If people don't repair the armor of the fighters, it is argued, then the zombies will over run and kill everyone.  I responded that I needed money to buy food.  Whether I died from hunger or zombies didn't seem to be that huge of a distinction in my mind.  This did stop the tightwad and made him think a bit.  After that, I just told people 'will repair armor for food' and everyone seemed happy with that.

I didn't go hungry.

Note that my 'build shit' skill (not the official name) did get me one quest - which took all Saturday.  (See below, 'the quest for the doctor's bag').



ECONOMY NOTES

Although I was told it is changing, there seemed to be two types of people at the event - rich and poor.  I personally found two rich people.  Everyone else seemed to be (or said they were) dirt assed poor.  I sat down and spoke to one of the rich merchants to find out what the deal with the economy was.

In NERO, it is a 'murder economy'.  All treasure originally comes from killing monsters.  DR flips that on it's head.  Killing monsters is the drain on the treasure.  Treasure comes from farmers, brewers, scroungers (etc).

A note on scroungers.  Back in the old days of NERO, some times staff would go out into the woods and leave module cards or perhaps even treasure.  This eventually tapered off because it was extra work, some cards and such were never found - or acted on, etc.  Basically, thin staff and laziness.

In DR, they have an entire profession whose job it is to go out and find crap lying around.  They can take a certain amount/kind of stuff and must leave other stuff behind.  Staff does indeed leave stuff lying around for them to find.

Stuff in DR is priced in 'money'.  "This costs one money."  A couple people called it 'credits'.

All but the yellow cards are examples of various money.  Each is printed on a credit card looking/feeling/size hard plastic tab.   Hopefully, someone in management has been clever enough to make larger denominations but the only ones I've seen are ones, fives and tens.  The yellow cards are scrap which are almost always worth 'one money' each.

Food costs - a drink or a taco, 1 money.  Double stuffed taco, 2 money.  Nachos with lots of meat, 3 money.

At the low end, the economy is pretty simple:  1 money = 1 scrap = 2 herbs.  That's really all you need to know.  Of course if someone has bought up all the scrap or herbs, the price may alter.

Talking to a PC merchant, I found that mid level characters with the right skills, connections and the ability to be able to do things like pretend to farm a ten by ten section for hours of real time can make about ten money per hour.  This is OK but for clever folks they can make that in minutes with the right deals, travel and such.  If I lived in the USA and played this game a few times a month, I have no doubt I could get there.  But since I don't and won't...

One thing the wise merchant did say is that the only real limit for him was actual time...



DAYTIME AT LAST (SATURDAY)

During LARPs, Saturday generally goes one of two ways - either people are busy running modules or they are sitting around 'role playing with each other'.  In NERO, this generally means 'a shit event without much plot is going on'.

People seemed to be mostly sitting around talking to each other here but unlike NERO events having a decent time doing it.  Weird.  I admit I have no idea why.

I have been assured that there is plot going in.  Unlike NERO, I didn't see groups regularly (or even irregularly) wander off on adventures.  Certainly, there was no 'town adventure'.  (For the record, IMO 'town adventures' were almost always super lame and best avoided.)  I've been told that the plot build up is more subtle and such here.  People that use to play NERO and now play DR tell me that DR is more of a 'sustained investment' than NERO plot.


LOGAN'S QUEST FOR MONEY AND FOOD

I went back to the Lemonade Stand because there was food there.  I reasoned that where there is food, there may be some way for me to get food.  It seemed very unlikely that Seth and I would leave the camp to get food - there seemed to be nothing (other than a bar which if you live in a small town you probably need) there that served meals.

So I needed to get some food.

They had something like a job board there.  Small medallions with things printed on them.  One was 'sell ten newspapers'.  I forgot to ask how much this would pay or read the reverse side of the medallion which would have told me.

I was given ten newspapers and went around selling them for one money each to various PC's.  To help them to want to buy the paper, I would make up various outrageous headlines ("Pretty girl buys newspaper, read all about it!" type of thing.)

After selling them, I went back and received...one money.

Well, fuck this I thought.  I'd felt lucky to have sold off the previous ten newspapers and had no desire to spend another half hour or hour to try to sell ten more.  Fortunately, they also gave me a lemonade.  Probably because they saw the look on my face when I got paid.

I decided to try to use my character's abilities to get some money going so that I could buy lunch.  The biscuit and gravy I'd had earlier helped but hunger would come later so I had to hustle.  I began the quest for the Doctor's Bag.  (Play dramatic music).



THE QUEST FOR THE DOCTOR'S BAG

After asking around, I found that a guy who claimed to be the head of the tinker's guild was working at a workbench.  I went and asked him what needed doing.  He tried to recruit me to the tinker's guild.  I explained that I was a rover, not around for long and probably would never be back.  I failed to mention that unless he could actually provide work I saw no benefit at all to joining any guild.  He said that he did have some work but since he didn't have any glue, he didn't have anything for me.

I asked him how much he was paying for glue.  Five money.  After going around and talking to some other people I tried to get more money out of him but he was firm on five.  He eventually agreed to give me the five and I would get the glue for him using that money.  Fortunately, the 'rover' strain has a thing where they won't break their word if they shake on it.

One herb was needed to make glue.  No herb was initially available but eventually I managed to talk someone in to selling me two for one money - the standard rate.

To make glue, I needed a brewer.  Found a farmer who could do basic brewing - but he had no distillery.  So I had to find the brew thingee.  Found it but hey, it's not free to use.  So I had to rent the time as well as pay the farmer to brew it.  Ended up with two glue brewed for four money (including the cost of the herbs).

Now in order to get the cards that say 'glue', you have to take the brewer, the card for the distillery and the card for the herbs and walk your happy ass to the depot (aka 'logistics') which is a long way away through potentially zombie infested areas.

Super.  My one coin of profit had to go to tipping the person the farmer had an arrangement with to help guard us.

But eventually, I had two glue - one extra!

I went back to the head of the tinker's guild and presented him with the glue.  He seemed a bit surprised as he'd heard there was no herb left in town.  "Where is the project?" I asked lest he lose focus and wander off - a common adventurer problem.

Eventually, he got me a blue print for something called a 'doctor's bag' and all of the stuff to build it, including the glue I'd just gotten.  He told me he'd pay me five money to build it.

Considering how long it took just to get the glue made (including walking, finding people, haggling, etc - couple hours) I was less than thrilled but assured that was 'standard guild rate'.

Well, fine.  I hoped to then make a total of ten money off this deal - five for putting together the doctor's bag and hopefully selling the head of the tinker's guild the extra glue.  The glue wouldn't expire for an entire year and I'd been told that it was used in a wide variety of things so...

So I spent time making the 'doctor's bag'.  Normally this would have taken thirty (??) minutes but since I'd learned the skill 'educated', that knocked a flat ten minutes off.  After finishing up tapping a small bottle on a work bench with the blueprint (like a NERO formal scroll in many ways) and materials (components) in front of me I was done.

Not really.

No, I had to make the trip to the dreaded 'depot'.

Hey, fortunately, a large group of people were also headed that way.  I could tag along with them.  Super.

Seven people fucking died.

I managed to (very very slowly) escape and help raise the alarm.  Other people came and looted the bodies of their friends.  The massively powerful twenty damage swinging skull faced zombie who was leading three beings covered in blood had wandered off.  Note that my starting hit points (amount of damage I could take) started at eight so I can only presume that had I been hit, my family in distant lands would have also taken damage.

Fortunately, the lady who owned the table (and got the tag for the table - needed) still wanted to go to the depot.

{Because the players need to visit the depot all the time in DR, it use to be manned twenty four hours a day.  Because some of the people weren't sleeping at all, they knocked it down to a mere twenty hours per day to try to convince some of the staff to sleep.

NERO people, let that sink in.  They have enough staff to keep a desk manned by usually two people twenty hours per day.  Yeah.  On top of that, NPC'ing is mandatory.   There is no whining about needing to do it.  It is an expected part of the culture.  Being able to opt out is possible but the event costs twenty dollars (20USD) more and there are a limited number of 'opt out' slots.  Mind blowing.  Note I'm not saying that they are actually using all these NPC's well - I have no idea.  I didn't see many of them.  Perhaps they were creeping around in the woods.  Maybe there were modules going on of which I was completely unaware.  I'm not sure if the NPC shift is four hours or longer.  [For non-gamers I am sorry I could not find a good definition of 'module'.  Generally, it is an entire or part of an adventure in which a group of PC's go out and do stuff.]}

So, at long last, I got the doctor's bag card.  As is normal with pretty much every LARP I'd done in the last couple decades, after a big attack the roads are safe for an hour or so.  The three of us wandered back to town.

I turned in the blue print, doctor's bag card and extra components to the head of the tinkering guild.  He paid me.  I asked if he considered our deal complete.  He said he did.  We shook on it.  I then pulled out my extra glue and offered to sell it to him at the same price as the first.  This should be a good deal for him - especially given what a pain in the ass it was to get.

"I don't have any money left." he responded.

For folks that are new to LARPs, here's a hint.  If you present some newbie stuff to a 'guild master' and they claim not to be able to afford it run.  Don't work for them, don't join them and avoid them.  Either they really don't care about you the newbie enough to give you a minor amount of newbie treasure or they are not competent enough to have a decent pile of money sitting around.  Either way, you don't want to get in with them.

So I questioned people, found out who someone else was that was rich, told him my tale of woe and sold it to him.   I figured he was just being kind to a newbie.  But, since it was fresh, something that was widely needed and a huge pain in the ass to get made - I figure both of us did OK in that deal.

After various tips, spending money on food and such, I ended up with twelve money.  Talking to other players, they often claimed to either have made no money or under four on their first event.  No clue what is up with that.



SUNDAY

At NERO, you get up, clean up and take off.  Maybe to eat with others, maybe just go home.

At DR, the culture is completely different.

I woke up fairly early, took a shower and changed into my civilian clothing.  I'd have done well to have a second costume for my character.

Everyone played from about eight in the morning till noon.  Not kidding.

After that, there was stuff to go through.

You had forty-five minutes to clean up the area you slept in.  This had to be signed off by a marshal.

Then, on the character sheet, you had an area you were assigned to help clean.  You go there and do as asked until they are happy and have a marshal sign off on that as well.

Then, as you are getting ready to leave another marshal takes the sheet, checks both signatures and off you go.

I was asked what happens if someone has to leave early and was told they would be assigned some where to clean at that time.

In conclusion, no cleaning means you definitely get no build.  Not sure if there would be any other repercussions.   This is probably a better system than I've seen in NERO where it often ends up with the same few people doing the cleaning for the masses every time.



OTHER LITTLE NOTES

The rules book (which you can buy on site but not the t-shirts for some reason) is available at the site for sale.  Also, it is an 'in game' book they call the 'survivor's guide'.  It is a thick assed book.  There are also other books which are apparently stories and illustrate the world, etc.

If you go to this game, bring timers.  Really.  Everything takes real life time.  You might be at a bench for minutes or hours depending on what you are doing.  Or in a field.  Bring some stopwatches or egg timers.

The economic system in DR is amazing and has a LOT of potential.   They have a lot of stuff which is only available through certain chapters and many things which not only come from only one chapter but are seasonal.

Apparently, you get less XP when traveling.  I'm not sure of the exact amounts but after what I found out, the XP you gain from travel (assuming you are clever) matters 'fuck all'.  It's all about the trades/contacts/money/blue prints/etc you can bring back to your home chapter.  Anyone who has any kind of brains and skill can make traveling well worth their wild.

Unlike (badly run) NERO, it seems that DR has a much stronger team leading it.  Reminds me of 'old fashioned' franchising vs McDonald's style.  In the old days of franchising, you would pay some money to a person to use their restaurant name.  What was served might be completely different.  In McDonald's style franchising, if you don't use the hamburger buns they tell you to, they yank your license and poof - you are no longer a McDonald's.  I have no idea if DR does this but they seem to all be going from one script.

Story Tellers (AKA ST's) have a shift (six hours?) and then play the rest of the time.

I checked on the DR website and for reasons that escape me, they don't have just regular DR t-shirts.  You can only get chapter specific ones.  Weird.

There was a definite feeling of comradery within the DR community.  I don't know about all of the chapters but this one did not feel 'clickish'.  Since the game is strongly set up on 'groups of people doing things together' (to even make fairly basic things) that seems reasonable.

I do personally see a bit of a problem in that (at the moment and in the chapter I was) 'one money' is still considered a bit of wealth.  Will it become less so over time?  Something like 'dragon poker' (or any gambling) I've not yet seen because even a small amount of money is considered quite a bit.

Unlike NERO, the system they use (from my extremely limited understanding) is made for the 'long haul'.  With something like NERO, once players progress beyond level thirty, they begin to get unwieldy - especially with swinging damage.  Example - in NERO, getting to the point of swinging tens doesn't take all that long.  The problem is that these days, there are people who can literally swing one hundred's.  Balancing monster hit points for both the hard swinging groups and more modestly swinging groups is not really possible.  In DR, swinging tens might be possible but if someone is swinging above that (up to twenties is what I'd heard about) they are burning resources to do so.  Also, I spoke with an experienced (300 build/xp/whatever they call it) character who told me that putting things into thirds (one third into body aka HP, one third into skills and one third into mind which is often the limiter for skills and abilities) is the way to go.

Simpler combat (no stupid spell incants) but a much more complicated social/economic dynamic.  I am totally great with that.

I've been told DR is made for groups.  Solo play is super hard but possible.



IN CONCLUSION

It seems that both the system and leadership of DR are light years ahead of NERO.  Also, DR seems to be growing very quickly.  I've heard that a chapter in CA which is only a year or two old has already bought a permanent site.   The numbers of players at DR events seem a lot larger than any of the regular NERO events I've been to or heard about.  Heck, this (WI) was a newish chapter and it had fifty or sixty people.

But what the hell is the draw?

I feel like I've seen a duck floating on the water.  I know that the legs under are kicking feverishly but wasn't able to see them this last event.

Not sure what the draw is with DR.  I feel I am missing a vital piece of the puzzle.  Hopefully, I will find out more at the next event.

For those thinking about DR or have been to an event and didn't like it - I'm thinking, try to find a large event.  Go check out an event of a few hundred people and see if you can find out what the draw is.  Let me know.

I'll put up more after the Colorado event in a couple of weeks.

SEMI-POPULAR CULTURE

Since I'm currently not wandering around - and nothing special is happening in the town - this is a blog entry about various forms of entertainment Logan has been doing while he waits for August first!



MOVIE REVIEWS

The Age of Adaline, 2015.

Unfortunate name of the film.

There are some of the normal tropes one would expect to find in a "I live forever" movie.  The woman (immortal) has the Sherlock Holmes look at someone and know a bit about them thing going on - which is nice.  Her money is in long term stocks - great.  She speaks a few languages.  Her daughter now looks like her grandmother.  She makes out of date references.  (I don't have the stocks thing going.  Sad.)

Generally though it is a love story.  Which makes Logan sad.

You'd have thought this would have tipped me off.

There are some gaping plot holes in the story.  Early on (organization) tries to (spoiler) her and she escapes.  The logical thing to do for (organization) is to keep an eye on her daughter.  This is not complicated stuff.  Naturally, she keeps in contact with her daughter.  Illogically, they don't manage to find her.  It's a whole lot of WTF.  Also, the writers seem to think (organization) will give up on chasing someone they believe to be an immortal after a couple decades.  Because they obviously don't keep written records.

Also, she gets her new ID's from some nerd who works out of his own house.  This guy is clearly not a professional and I wonder how the hell he is doing this without getting busted.  At his house.

Generally, with fake ID's you get what you pay for.

She also decides to go on a date with someone who is either persistent or a stalker - depending on your point of view.  I'm thinking he's going more toward the creepy stalker type.  But, he's rich and women forgive rich guys for a lot of bad behavior.  See Fifty Shades of Gray for more information.  After just a couple weeks he is expressing love.  Rich and good looking apparently works.

One of the little romantic flourishes they do in this movie is offer to take each other to "some place they've never been before".  I keep hoping "bum fight" but apparently, it's not romantic enough for them.

I do like her 'move every decade' thing.

Though Highland did have some WTF plot holes, it was still twice the story.

I understand that she's still emotional and all but I'm wondering how much involvement with regular folk you'd want after a bunch of decades.

Sadly, wild coincidence meets the plot when the immortal meets up with (spoiler) who just happens to be (spoiler) and what do you know!  Riiiight.

Wild coincidence continues to rear it's ugly head when they play Trivial Pursuit and (ola!) all of the questions seem to be from the time period the immortal was alive during.  Which is to make the audience think since she was alive then, she would know.  Like people alive today know all of the trivia that is going on right now.

Harrison Ford is in the movie though, which is neat.  Sadly, not even he can save this rather lackluster movie.

"Even my stupid looking glasses can't save this horrible movie!" - Harrison Ford.

It is funny that - if you think about it, the (spoiler) ends up tagging the same (spoiler) that his (spoiler) did.  This is usually something people might vomit about or morally object to.  I'm guessing not a lot of people think in these terms though.

Unfortunately, rather than staying (spoiler) she became (spoiler).  I'm thinking "This is not a fucking happy ending."

This movie also highlights the importance of doing background checks on all your lovers if you are an immortal.

Because hey - they might just be The Kurgan.  You can never tell.

4/10


Comedy movie "Spy" (2015)

They were making fun of the hotel room the lady was in and I was thinking "Hey, that's pretty nice!  Look how big the bathroom is!" and so on.

Sigh.

There are several good laugh out loud moments in the film.

I'd thought that this might be one of those movies that only makes it through the first ten minutes before being deleted forever but I liked the action, the jokes and even the story.

This scene wasn't in the movie at all.  But, ever since my traumatic childhood incident I have been careful NOT to spoil movies for others.  Why this picture?  Because when I googled 'spy 2015' it came up for some reason.  Totally different movie.  Weird.  But, it fits in that it is wacky.  And Spy was a wacky movie.

8/10 - bumped up from 7/10 for the number of actual laughing out loud moments.  I am not an 'easy audience'.

MMORPGS

(If you don't like MMORPG's, skip this entry)

I've been looking around the internet to see what MMO's are out that don't suck.

Only ESO doesn't suck - but I've played the shit out of it.  Oh, but they have so much new stuff, yada yada yada.  Yeah.  It's the same game of kill shit, level up and get gear.

Oh but Logan, all games are like that!  Well, unless they have good crafting systems are more 'sandbox' than 'theme park', I suppose you could be right.

A picture of a theme park game.  Eh, close enough.

But there are several good games, I'm told, on the horizon.

Which is the problem.

They are always on the fucking horizon.

"Well, yes, most of the released games suck so much ass that you will want to kill yourself for having spent money on them after a mere couple months but in the future - IN THE FUTURE!"

I've been hearing that rubbish for about fifteen years.

They've put in a new twist called 'early access' now.

That means you can pay money to get access to a half completed buggy piece of shit.  Which people do in droves.  I suspect simply because there aren't enough good finished games out there they haven't already played the hell out of.

With all these games that are going up on Kickstarter, I'm wondering what their motivation for upkeeping and updating the game after it is released is.  You've paid for the game, they released it.  It will be buggy as all new MMO's are.  I suspect they'll fix the biggest of the bugs but after that, the product is 'done'.

Good luck with paying for half (well or much less) completed shit.

We'll see how this goes.

There are several games which I looked at on various youtube videos.  It's amazing how well they get reviewed and when you go over to look at Steam, they basically warn you that you'll be bathing in dog shit if you buy this game.

"Don't do what Johnny Don't does."

But in the future!  Oh, in the future we'll have flying cars and games which don't suck!

Picture is inaccurate only in that both these bitches aren't texting.

So what am I looking for in a MMO?

Well, I've done the kill stuff level up, get better gear, kill bigger stuff quite a bit.  Theme park style games are where you go to the area you'll hunt in when you're characters around level twenty then over to here when you hit level twenty five and so on.  Been there, done that.

I still feel Minecraft is a landmark game though many can't get past the graphics.

Open worlds are nice when you have the option of going to anywhere and hunting anything.  Better still if it has a good crafting/gathering system.  I would like it if you can build stuff and change the terrain around.

Games which look interesting then I become wary of are ones which have forced PVP.  An example of that is the partially completed alpha buggy you can pay twenty dollars to get in on it 'Reign of Kings'.  In addition to forced PVP, you can also tie a rope onto someone's ankle, drag them around, stick them in a cage and torture them.

Which all sounds fine until you consider this could be done to you.  Over and over and over.

Possibly by this guy.

Reading up on their reviews, it looks like as with every other forced PVP game I've heard of, they have gotten the cream of the crop in terms of scumbags.

Other than what looks to be an Ultima Online 'hey lets grief the new people till they quit' type of community, it doesn't look too horrible.

I am hoping they address two of the big problems I brought up a decade and a half ago (bet they don't) about being able to build/destroy stuff.

If destruction is free, your shit will be destroyed and looted pretty much as soon as someone finds it.  Which apparently is happening in 'Reign of Kings'.  Regularly.

If you can build stuff which doesn't have any real purpose other than 'being pretty', you get large waste lands of 'pretty buildings' which serve no purpose.

We'll see how it plays out... IN THE FUTURE!  Oh, the future.



LARPING

How to write a character background for LARPing.

by Logan Horsford (player of Lumsie) with a special thank you to Kyle Kent.  He reviewed this article and gave valuable feedback and insights to it.  Thank you, Kyle.


Before starting, realize that the entire purpose of a 'character history' is to inspire plot to use parts of it in an ongoing game.  Histories filled with deeds of no current relevance are just poorly written fiction.

It's all about plot hooks.  If you can't write things that fire the imagination of the plot team, just submit a 'hi, my name is' badge instead.

1.  Since you are probably not a professional author, brevity is your friend.

Even if you are a professional author (such as Jim Butcher, who has played NERO), your initial character history turn in should be a double spaced paragraph.  Double space it so plot may easily write notes or comments.  Note that some plot people want to read longer histories.  The safest course of action is to ask them ahead of time but generally it will be a page or less.

Rather than using descriptors, use bullet points.

(Note, I wanted a picture of bullet points using real bullets.  Apparently, nobody else on the internet has yet come up with this idea and my current lifestyle doesn't do well with the whole 'hoarding ammunition for funny pics' thing.  So, use your imagination.)

If the plot person wants more information, they will ask for it.

If you don't see anything enter game within three events, tell them you are going to approach your character history from a different perspective and you will write up something different.  Obviously, your first effort wasn't good enough to warrant getting bumped up to get in game after three sessions.


2.  Most character histories follow a tired pattern.  Don't.

The normal character history is "My character's parents were killed by [fill in creature] and the [fill in over powered object that your low level ass is never going to get hold of] was lost.  I am now seeking revenge on those creatures and to find the bauble.

As an addendum to this, be sure that whatever you write will be fun for the plot team.  If it is something that has been done before, it probably won't get run.


3.  Writing character histories is ongoing.

Update your character history as you go.

You don't have to flood the plot team with information all at once.  When I first started playing Lumsie, the only part of my character history I knew was that both of my parents were dead.  Twist - they were still moving and talking.  Undead.  Dad was a liche, mom was a vampire.

Later, it was revealed they were from an evil kingdom named 'Fa'.  Still later, this kingdom is in a different dimension.

Had I submitted the fact that my character could travel at will through dimensions, was a product of cloning, had been to the USA with a bunch of clones and watched the film "The Highlander" in a theater at the outset, any reasonable members of plot team would have said "Yeah, no."  But since it was brought up a little at a time over a period of years, everything in Lumsie's history ended up getting played out in game.

You will have to get a feel for how often to update your character history.  If you go to events outside your home chapter and plot doesn't 'happen to you', it won't need to be updated often.  Otherwise, every three or so events where your character has plot happen is a good amount to keep it updated without becoming a nuisance to plot.  Be sure to let the plot team know what direction you would like your personal plot to head in.  They may or may not accommodate this.


4.  Do not connect your character history with current plots

Keep all organizations generic.  Let plot choose to plug it in to already existing things.   This allows them to have more creative control and no other players can get pissed at you for getting in on what they thought was their proprietary character history.  Don't try to specify levels, gear and so on for NPC's.  Don't put in too much detail - that is for plot to do if you have an idea that grabs their imagination.

If plot has published anything about the world, you can get a village name (like 'Janis Falls') to be from.

5.  Anything you write should use a minimum amount of NPC's.  If your plot stuff can get done by one person, it is much more likely to happen than if it takes three.

There was a character named "X" (he had a much longer name but everyone just called him X) who was being hunted by the sorcerer tower that had trained him for some reason.  Due to matters of honor and custom, they would only send out one guy at a time to duel him in hopes of killing him.  This was a brilliant bit of writing and only used one NPC at a time.


6.  If you want to have other PC's in your narrative, be sure to talk to them about it beforehand.  Unless it is hearsay (I heard Tempest the dragon passed this way or I saw the Drakes go through town) people may rightly object to you dragging them in to your poorly written fiction.


7.  Why are you with the adventuring party you are with now?

If the reason is mercenary, met at a pub or old family retainer, skip the background and hope the plot team comes up with something more creative than you can.

Mercenaries - not so cool as this looks.  Plus, due to safety, no actual mounts in LARPs.  Ain't that a bitch?

Side note, avoid being a mercenary at all.  The nature of the world makes nearly everyone a mercenary as it is - you are being dull.  "Oh, you need to hand me some coins to go...or I could just get my cut like everyone else."  It's annoying and over used.

Ignore this section if you are traveling alone.


8.  Don't write yourself as an evil prick.  You will be playing with these same people for years.

Lumsie was a completely evil person - but only to NPC's.  He would execute them, enslave them, turn them into undead, torture them for his amusement and taunt them.  To the PC's, he was the soul of kindness.  Back in the days of ward keys, people would often leave theirs with him knowing he would keep it safe and not burgle them.

If you play an evil person in game, people will assume you are an evil prick outside of game - even if it is subconsciously.  Since Lumsie was the kind of character who would do his best to help his fellow adventurers and was a fun person to hang out with, people assumed Logan was nice.  I've been invited to stay (and have done so) at people's homes who didn't know me but had heard of my character.


9.  Do the twist.

Old timey people doing an old timey dance.  You can use them in your character history and say they were killed by 'good taste' if you want.  You're welcome.

Lumsie's parents not dead but undead.

A good plot twist may inspire plot to actually use your stuff in an ongoing game.

The best twists are done over a period of time and should not be so convoluted as to just be confusing and ignorable.


10.  Write someone you can play for a long time.

An example of what not to do is the 'mysterious guy who sits in the corner and broods'.  Those tropes only work in the books either because they are setting the ambiance of the scene or the main characters have to go talk to them.  Being the brooding lone guy in the corner with his face hidden under a hood is only fun for the first hour.  After you realize that nobody cares it gets boring and lonely pretty quick.

I remember walking into a tavern and finding four of these guys - one per corner.  I laughed my ass off as each tried to out brood and out sinister the others.  Nobody else noticed or cared.

Avoid is using a published character history as your own.   Years ago, we had 'Link' from 'Legend of Zelda' playing.  He'd pretty much just copy-pasted the whole history.  It's good for a chuckle and that's about it.  Do you want to play a stale joke for a few years?

Some plot teams won't allow the remarkably uncreative to steal names from popular media.  If you can't think of a name, grab a Scrabble game and give it a good shake.

I'm no longer allowed to play scrabble with children.  Or adults.

11.  Write it like a TV show.

If a character story arc isn't finished in three events, chances are it never will be.  Realize this limitation and write for it.

Just like your narrative, your goals should also be updated as you go.  Good plot teams may also come up with additional goals they see in keeping with your character.


Derek J - an expert LARPer and chapter owner - also adds:

Sadly, most character histories are just bad, if not completely wrong for the campaign that the player is introducing it to. It is best to work with a plot member that you think is skilled at creating interesting stories to aid you in writing your history. If you have a history already, work with a plot member to integrate it.

Do not just write a history and submit it to plot without working with them to integrate it into their game. Do some follow up on their thoughts of your history, how it can be reflected in the game, and how your character can become intertwined in the history of the campaign. Character histories are not a one way conversation from player to plot.


LARP biography:

Logan has played NERO for over a decade and has done more events than he can remember.  He has played NERO on more than one continent.  During his time in NERO, he has run rogue plot, assisted with many aspects of running events, written four in game books and compiled NERO terms from around the USA.

This picture will make sense only to some.

Logan is semi-retired from NERO and spends his time traveling the world like some sort of TARDIS-less Doctor Who.  His exploits can be read about at http://logansvoyage.blogspot.com/



TWITTER

Did you know you can subject yourself to one hundred and forty character rants from Logan?  His Twitter handle is Logan9a.  Go follow him there if you want to hear random short crap which spews forth from his gob.  At the time of this writing, he has done over nine hundred tweets, mostly to various celebrities who have no way of defending themselves from it.

FOUR DAYS TILL LEAVING SE ASIA

NARRATIVE

Still hanging around Cambodia eating Mexican food.  In about four days unless everything goes to hell a plane should be winging me rapidly toward Istanbul.   Since enough of this town has been seen to  be ignored, books have been read and a pretty awful free MMORPG called 'Crystal Saga' have been my only indulgences.

It will be nice to return to the Republic of Georgia.



SHOE STORY

Since making the extremely minimal effort at health known as 'walking around', shoes have begun to be demolished as rapidly as cheesecakes in times past.  Not only have my Czech walking shoes moved into the irreparable category but yet another pair of sandals has been lost.

Only the left shoe of the sandals seems to get destroyed.  Apparently left handed is indeed left footed as forensics has taught and the strain upon the primary foot greater.  This has ruined yet another left sandal.   Should it have been the right, perhaps mismatched sandals could have been added to patched and sewn shorts and - regrettably - tee-shirts.

Asia has become synonymous with a vast over abundance of shoe stores.   Should all shoe stores be forced to close and give their stock without charge to the inhabitants of the country, every person would be ten pair of shoes to the better.

Sadly the fashion of these shoes is regrettably Asian.  Shoes made by the same culture that thinks multicolored lights within a mouse which twinkle incessantly does not make the sort of unobtrusive goods I prefer.  Not being a teenage girl nor redneck, these sorts of overenthusiastic products are made to attract attention.

Better if my shoes made no sort of statement than quiet and competent.  Gaudiness pulls attention from where I'd prefer it - my face and my words just as the  overenthusiastic mouse draws attention from the computer screen with it's needless incessant carnival light show.

Knowing that any pair of sandals I purchased with the shoddy workmanship endemic to Asia will perish within a couple months, I went for low price and managed to ruthlessly bargain a poor lady down to $10.  Given that I may have been her only customer for the day it eludes me how she and others are able to keep their stalls open.




BOOK REVIEWS

John Keegan, "Winston Churchill - A Life".

Long have I had an abiding interest in Winston Churchill.  Arguably the greatest Englishman ever and certainly one of the most determined people to have lived.  Long conversations chiding my friend Matt Lunn that he wasn't nearly as cool as Winston Churchill come to mind.  His retort that I wasn't all that cool fell of deaf ears as I wasn't even English.

Reading this book helped dispel some of the illusions about W.S.  He was a great man - but a deeply flawed.  He was extremely smart but prone to many poor choices.

Overall, an excellent book.  It was detailed without becoming dull.  Unlike some of the other biographies of W.S. I've read this one kept things moving along at a fast enough clip you could listen to it without either nodding off or slitting your wrists.



Stephen Fry "Moab is My Washpot"

Prior to listening to this, I only had three thoughts on Stephen Fry:

1.  He is a 'treasure of England'.  This is the guy whose sonorous voice did the wildly money generating 'Harry Potter' audio books.  And, he just seems to be a 'treasure of England' though I'm sure that many people - including Stephen Fry - may disagree with that.

2.  He is a very smart person.  I've seen him on QI - 'Quite Interesting'.  I know that they feed him a lot of the answers and such via an ear piece, but this guy strikes me as very smart indeed.

3.  He is funny and has been in several comedy TV shows and movies.

After listening to the first twenty years of his life in autobiographical terms, my opinion of him is the same as of Winston Churchill after listening to a biography of him.  Both men are deeply flawed individuals, very human and it would be very nice to know them personally.  They are interesting people.

As to the book itself, Mr. Fry is very easy to listen to.  Much of what he says is interesting though he goes off onto huge tangents and a bit of rambling.  Since it is his autobiography, I feel he is allowed to do so.  Glad I heard it though it won't become something like the Discworld  series that I like to listen to again after a period of time has passed.


The Fry Chronicles - an Autobiography

This book picks up where 'Moab' leaves off and covers the next decade.

Although it is an interesting look into the rapid catapulting into fame, it wasn't as endearing as Moab.  Also, he makes  quick reference to many names, businesses, products and such that - not being English - I've never heard of.  For his countrymen, these probably bring a quick whiff of memory.  For foreigners, they become tedious lists of no consequence to the overall narrative.

Interesting but not as poignant as Moab.


Stuff White People Like


Currently listening to the book "Stuff White People Like".  As the philosopher Homer Simpson once said "It's funny because it's true."

They even covered an experience I've noted earlier in my blog about how upset other white people get when they are traveling abroad, in an obscure place and spot a fat white guy lounging around.  Since this destroys both their 'unique experience' as well as the 'authenticity' and they no longer feel like some sort of explorer, they become sad and upset.

Wack jobs.

The book itself is ironic and humorous.  Reading it immediately brings to mind many people who are white and middle class I know.  Disturbingly, I myself have done many of the things listed there.

More disturbingly, various directors and such listed are completely unfamiliar.

I don't feel like I am being a good white person.  I didn't even get a liberal arts degree.

I recommend this audio book.



LUMSIE STORIES (NERO LARP)

Lumsie loved the undead. Being a necromancer was great. Story: I was up at a chapter in Canada. It was dark and foggy out and all of the PC's were hiding in their cabins. "What's up?" Oh, I was told, there are loads of undead out there. We're going to stay in here till the morning. "Bugger that." So Lumsie wanders out of the warded cabin. Immediately two death knights jump out of the shadows. "Take me to your leader, beotches!" One is into it, the other makes lots of threats. I am taken to the leader. He rants about how it is his town, everyone is his subjects and he will crush everyone. Including me. Then, he asks who I am. "Brother Lumsie!" The guy playing the NPC and the NPC himself were both of one mind at this point. "Oh my god!" He gushes. "I have always wanted to meet you!" Big hand shakes and back slapping all around. Lumsie points to one of the death knights. "He was mean to me." Glower and a growled "I will deal with him...later..." The death knight shifted uneasily. I was then taken on a tour of the town and given armed death knight escort back to my cabin when tired. Upon gaining entry "Were you OK?" "Yeah", I responded. "Pretty quiet out there..."

Lumsie was hanging out in the woods.  There were half dozen ogres wandering around throwing up.  Their blood had apparently been tainted.  Tempest (Seth Warfield) wandered up and screeched in the high pitched dragon voice "Lumsie!  What happened?"  Lumsie, looking panicked said "Plague!  Real sudden like!  Best I should go!" and scurried off.  Tempest glared after Lumsie grunting "Uh huh..."


Big I'm not sure but one that comes to mind:  Lumsie has undead for parents.  'Not consorting' is simply not able to be done as it would be 'rude'.  So, it is Lumsie's birthday, Oct 31.

There were only a few people in the tavern.  Lumsie's mother (played by Amy L) - a very nasty vampire - swoops into the tavern with several minions.  Everything stops.  The people who are there are either unwilling or unable to take on this level of Fa King undead.  Plus, to do so might start a really nasty interplanular war.  They just sit, riveted to their seats.

Amy had baked me a chocolate cake.

It got very 'upper class English' after that.  "Lumsie are you being good?"  "Yes mummy!" and so on.

She would alternatively threaten and speak at the other people in the tavern.  Whenever she had her back turned, I stuffed as much of the chocolate cake into my mouth as possible.  When she looked back, sit up straight and attentive - with huge chunks of chocolate cake falling out of my mouth.

She utterly failed to notice - by design is my guess since my face looked like I'd eaten out a chocolate golem.

"Yes mummy!" I'd say in stereotypical upper crust English to whatever question she had or statement she made then back to the face stuffing.

The thing I remember most about that whole scene was the frozen looks on the witnesses faces, halfway between humor and horror.  It was a nice birthday for Lumsie.

Ramblings of An Old Man - Lumsie book

Back when I was playing NERO I had a character who wrote a trilogy consisting of four books. Yes, he was that kind of character.

Because some people have asked for the books I am going to put them here in my blog so that we can keep them around - well, for as long as the blog isn't deleted anyway.

I'm not sure how much you'll get out of these if you aren't into roleplaying games, LARP's and that sort of thing. If you're not into it, that's all good - skip any entries with 'Lumsie Book' in them in the blog. There are only four books and I'm not playing NERO any more so you won't be assailed unsuspectingly by more in the future.

There will be a total of four blog posts with this information on - one for each book for cleaner access.

Note that sadly the original difficult to read fonts didn't survive being brought into this blog. Very sad. Much easier to read - but still very sad.

I'd also like to thank Derek and Julie Jones who had these on their hard drive and were kind enough to send them over.

Keeping Your Skeletons Their Whitest - Lumsie book

Back when I was playing NERO I had a character who wrote a trilogy consisting of four books. Yes, he was that kind of character.

Because some people have asked for the books I am going to put them here in my blog so that we can keep them around - well, for as long as the blog isn't deleted anyway.

I'm not sure how much you'll get out of these if you aren't into roleplaying games, LARP's and that sort of thing. If you're not into it, that's all good - skip any entries with 'Lumsie Book' in them in the blog. There are only four books and I'm not playing NERO any more so you won't be assailed unsuspectingly by more in the future.

There will be a total of four blog posts with this information on - one for each book for cleaner access.

Note that sadly the original difficult to read fonts didn't survive being brought into this blog. Very sad. Much easier to read - but still very sad.

I'd also like to thank Derek and Julie Jones who had these on their hard drive and were kind enough to send them over.

Book of Tactics - Lumsie book

Back when I was playing NERO I had a character who wrote a trilogy consisting of four books. Yes, he was that kind of character.

Because some people have asked for the books I am going to put them here in my blog so that we can keep them around - well, for as long as the blog isn't deleted anyway.

I'm not sure how much you'll get out of these if you aren't into roleplaying games, LARP's and that sort of thing. If you're not into it, that's all good - skip any entries with 'Lumsie Book' in them in the blog. There are only four books and I'm not playing NERO any more so you won't be assailed unsuspectingly by more in the future.

There will be a total of four blog posts with this information on - one for each book for cleaner access.

Note that sadly the original difficult to read fonts didn't survive being brought into this blog. Very sad. Much easier to read - but still very sad.

I'd also like to thank Derek and Julie Jones who had these on their hard drive and were kind enough to send them over.

Book of Everything - Lumsie Book

Back when I was playing NERO I had a character who wrote a trilogy consisting of four books. Yes, he was that kind of character.

Because some people have asked for the books I am going to put them here in my blog so that we can keep them around - well, for as long as the blog isn't deleted anyway.

I'm not sure how much you'll get out of these if you aren't into roleplaying games, LARP's and that sort of thing. If you're not into it, that's all good - skip any entries with 'Lumsie Book' in them in the blog. There are only four books and I'm not playing NERO any more so you won't be assailed unsuspectingly by more in the future.

There will be a total of four blog posts with this information on - one for each book for cleaner access.

Note that sadly the original difficult to read fonts didn't survive being brought into this blog. Very sad. Much easier to read - but still very sad.

I'd also like to thank Derek and Julie Jones who had these on their hard drive and were kind enough to send them over.