ChrisTalbot.com

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

I don't get quite the excitement over Hallowe'en that I used to get as a kid, teenager or even an early-twentysomething, but I still enjoy the fact that there's one night every year where people are encouraged to get dressed up, watch horror movies and eat a ridiculous amount of candy.

It's unfortunate that the cutesy factor of Hallowe'en is far more important than the horror aspect. It's certainly reduced my fun on October 31st. Some parents get upset when you try to frighten their children, after all.

I finished reading the BtVS RPG last night. It was a good read, and as I read it, I had a vision of the type of Buffy game I'd run. As I don't like canonical games (I never could get the hang of running a Star Wars game, sadly), I'm positive I wouldn't ever set a Buffy game in Sunnydale or have the players take on the roles of the TV show cast. I'd have an alternate Buffyverse, for sure.

I'm attracted to the idea of running a historical game set in the 1920s or 1930s, with a heavy focus on gangsters, Prohibition and how the vampires and demons fit into the underworld of the era. I could just imagine demon gangsters dressed in pinstripe suits and wearing fedoras, all the while toting Tommyguns and peddling alcohol at speakeasies. That could be a lot of fun.

The core book itself had a lot of good advice for running a Buffy game, but unfortunately (but not unexpectedly), the book was really focused on helping gamers to participate in a canonical game where the players take on the roles of Buffy and the Scoobies. That's simply not of interest to me. As I mentioned above, I don't like canonical games, and I don't run them very well at all. I always feel creatively restricted.

Now that I've finished reading BtVS, I'm back to going through Call of Cthulhu. Although I'm postponing the game, which was to take place this weekend, I still want to get the characters finished this week. I have to whip up a private investigator, a parapsychologist and a lawyer. I haven't created a CoC character in years, so this should be interesting.

Dammit! I just bought into the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, and now Eden has announced that the RPG lines for Buffy and Angel are ending. I think I may have to snap up the supplements for Buffy (and pick up the Angel core book) that are available quickly so I don't have to go looking for them on eBay in several months.

EDIT: Actually, now that I take a closer look at what's covered in all the Buffy supplements, I think the only one I might grab is the Slayer's Handbook. I don't think I really need a book full of monsters (I'm perfectly capable of making them up myself). Ditto spells. And I don't think I'd ever actually run a Buffy game set in Sunnydale. I'm not big on running canonical games. They're too restrictive.

Cats. Need I say more?

Although I should be reading Call of Cthulhu, creating characters for the Hallowe'en one-shot, brushing up on the rules, studying the adventure (we're going to do The Haunted House from the core book) and otherwise getting all Lovecraftian, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG arrived from Amazon yesterday and I've found myself reading through it.

Why do I get the feeling I'm going to be cramming for CoC at the last minute?

I'd suggest to my players that we swap CoC out and Buffy in for our Hallowe'en game, but I know that won't go over well. Half the group despises the show and the other half likes it a fair bit.

Besides that, I don't think I want to try imagining any of my gaming group (including me) as a teenaged, blonde vampire killer. *shiver*

This is what happens when you cross a casual gamer with guys wound too tightly. Uh, not work-friendly. Also, not Logan-friendly. ;)

Oh, happy day, happy day! The Dungeons & Dragons cartoon series is coming to DVD.

I have new (well, used, but you know what I mean) RPG books in my hands today -- a couple of Tribe 8 books, the core books for Chivalry & Sorcery 3E, Over The Edge and The Dying Earth. My eyes keep drifting over to where the pile sits. I can't wait to dig into them.

An old D&D ad from 1984. It's so cheesy it hurts.

There's a generic RPG out there called Universalis. My understanding is that the game is set up to be GM-less, and the session/campaign itself is based on "tenets" chosen by all participants. Gameplay seems to be entirely based on who is currently in control of a scene, but my interpretation of the Website could be somewhat off from the reality of the situation.

While considering the idea of Universalis and the tenets that are chosen at the beginning of play (for instance, someone might choose "zombies," while another chooses "a spaceship orbiting Saturn," and yet another chooses "the return of Jesus" -- and then all of those have to be mish-mashed together during the play experience; again, this is my understanding of the game as I've read about it), I just came up with the idea of maybe mixing the idea with 1000 Blank White Cards. What kind of chaotic fun could be had by having my RPG group take blank index cards and scribble various ideas onto each one, then shuffle them all up and flip over X number of them?

Would it work? Would it be fun?

Is it possible to generate an RPG campaign that uses Cowboy Bebop as inspiration and have it live up to its full potential? The idea intrigues me, but I think the most difficult part would be generating characters with enough life and depth to fit the feel of the anime.

And if I could make this work, I wonder what the best game system would be to use for it. I suppose the most obvious answer is Traveller because of the focus of that game, but I wonder if Wushu (for the freeform martial arts action) or even Big Eyes, Small Mouth (because it's an anime) might be the answer.

I've been suffering through a cold this week, which has contributed greatly to my lack of energy, sleep and even productivity. It's also contributed to my apathy towards my blog.

One of the worst kinds of letters arrived in my mailbox today. Apparently I'm on the possible list of jurors for next year.

I'm not happy about this at all, but I thought I'd have a much stronger negative reaction the day I was told I might have to serve jury duty. Perhaps I'll be a bit more annoyed if I actually get called.

Bizarre taxidermy. That's just creepy.

Sometimes you forget a previously-learned lesson and need some re-education.

This weekend, I was re-educated on the dangers of Mai Tais.

A board game is being made out of my favourite novel. Holy shit! If you have a fondness for cathedrals or have an interest in the Middle Ages, do yourself a favour and read Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth.

Dammit! I've been trying to cut down on the number of must-have games, but this one just skyrocketed right to the top of the list.

EDIT: Son of a bitch! Even the board and bits look cool.

If he can be Optimus Prime, can I change my name to Grimlock?

I hadn't heard of this before. Great stuff.

I really hate the "hard sell." Some guy from Rogers just came around pushing the Rogers Home Phone service on the neighbourhood. He didn't want to take "no" for an answer.

"When would you like us to schedule your activation date?"

"I wouldn't, thanks. I'm interested in your service, but I haven't made up my mind yet."

"But you can save..." Yadda, yadda, yadda.

"Uh-huh. I research before changing service providers, and I've only heard one customer testimonial. And that person switched to Rogers and then switched back to Bell."

More assurances from the Rogers guy about all technical glitches have been fixed and yadda, yadda, yadda. As if assurances from the Rogers rep mean a damn thing.

"So when can we schedule your activation date?"

"No, I'm still thinking about it. I'd like to research it more before doing that."

"But you can call to cancel it if you decide not to go with the service." I started to wonder if this jackass gets paid commission based on how many people he signs up for activation dates.

"Right. And then that means extra time I have to spend if I decide I don't want it to happen."

"But you'd have to call Rogers anyway to change over."

"If I change over." I stressed the "if." He didn't get it.

More selling. More assurances. More B.S. I was starting to get annoyed, but I kept my cool. I knew I was going to lose it soon and I'd be ripping this guy a new one if he didn't knock off the hard sell routine.

"When can I set up your activation date?"

"No, really, I'll call Rogers if I want the service."

"You can call and cancel if you decide you don't want it."

"Yeah, and then I have to rely on your customer service people to cancel it."

"Well, they have to cancel it if you say so."

"Uh-huh. I've dealt with Rogers customer service for a long time, thanks."

That finally shut him up.

Service providers piss me off. I'm happy with Rogers for the most part -- much happier than I am with Bell. Why must they push their luck and start making me think about cancelling my services with them? I don't get it.

Did I mention I hate the hard sell routine?

Over the weekend, Jacquie and I attended her brother's wedding up in Fenelon Falls. It was a busy weekend, but it was fun. It was so tiring that I really wasn't into drinking and dancing on Saturday night, though. I danced a little bit, but I certainly didn't get silly like I did at the Jack & Jill on Labour Day weekend.

As much as it is hard to believe, I didn't drink all that much, either. I think over the course of six hours, I drank a rye and Coke, maybe three or four glasses of red wine (at most) and maybe a beer or two. I wasn't even feeling a buzz when I went to bed sometime after midnight. For those who aren't aware of my drinking habits when there's an open bar, trust me when I say this behaviour is very unlike me.

Since the wedding, several people have got sick with some kind of flu bug (or something). Thankfully, I'm not sick, but Jacquie has been feeling pretty bad all week. She's even been home from work.

Like me, Rawl will probably get a kick out of this page about how to make a Ghostbusters costume.

Okay, that's two links to Hallowe'en costumes. I should probably start thinking about what I'm going to do for any Hallowe'en parties this year.

How to make your own retractable Wolverine claws. Very cool. I'm far too lazy to even try it, though (not to mention I'm not a handy type of guy).