Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Dogs in the 'Verse (Actual Play)

Brandon beat me to it!

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=16975.0

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Thursday, September 22, 2005

Ceremony in Firefly in the Vineyard

I have just posted a topic (see link) on the Forge about what I am thinking about for Ceremony in FitV.

As a taste, here are the 3 quotes that I based it on. You may interpret them as you like.

“A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying.”

“Let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job, and then I get paid. “

“You're on my crew. Why we still talking about this?”

(for context, here is the full exchange:

Simon: Captain... why did you come back for us?
Mal: You're on my crew.
Simon: Yeah, but you don't even like me. Why'd you come back?
Mal: You're on my crew. Why we still talking about this?”)

Dogs in the 'Verse

So, we've started our new Dogs game, using the Firefly TV show as inspiration. We did character creation and most of the accomplishments last night (Wil had to leave early, so we'll do his next time). And we did a little impromptu job that turned into something really great. And even though he's never run anything like this before, Brandon is a really good Dogs GM.

I'll try to get an actual play report up on the Forge this week. So far things are working out really well. I got to use my favorite trait ever ("I don't know when to quit 3d4") several times already.

This post is here to remind me to write that AP report, and to encourage you all to bug me about it if I don't do it soon.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Why is Victorian History so Dull?

Lately I've been studying up on the Victorian Era, but I'm surprised to find how few engaging books I can find on the subject. Almost every book I find seems dedicated to the endeavor of making the Victorian era as dull as possible. I'm particularly interested in the Victorian English and their preoccupation with the supernatural. You'd think that with fairies, spiritualism, the Rosicrucians, and the Theosophists there'd be something interesting written. But every book I find seems to skirt around the interesting stuff and instead dwell on page after page of dull exposition.

I'm reading a book on Victorian fairy painting now, and this passage is typical: "This was the last painting Dadd painted before he went mad." Apparently Dadd, the most renowned of Victorian fairy painters went Mad and knifed his father to death. He became obsessed with assassinating the Duke of Austria and was eventually confined to Bedlam, where he created some of the most quintessential English fairy paintings. But also, no details of this drama are included. Instead we get a functional descriptor of a painting which I can see perfectly well myself because it's printed on page 125.

But Victorian History is exciting, as the occasional glimpse reveals. George MacDonald Fraser's excellent Flashman series provides a fictionalized (but very well researched) look at several major military events of the era. Bill Bryson's A Brief History of Nearly Everything has many startling portraits of the great scientists of the time. Nevertheless, most of what I've been able to find is dull dull dull.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Wolves of the North

I just ran a 2-shot Dogs in the Vineyard game for Brandon, Phil, and Tony. The Actual Play write-up is on the Forge now.