At Loki’s suggestion I did some designs for a potential green machine last week. The major parameter for this work was that the machine should be able to eject or “throw” the boxes that were painted last week. Also, if possible, it should be machine-ish in appearance and have a part which appears to break off in a jagged crack at the end of the scene.
(click picture for detailed view)
Hopefully the following diagrams, along with accompanying text, will assist in achieving those meager goals.
This shot you guys took of a truckstop patron caught my eye and gave me a chuckle:
I showed it to She Dragon and She in turn wryly pointed out the salty growth of barnacles that’d recently taken hold on my own face:
Proof once again that people with shag carpets shouldn’t throw lice.
Or something slightly more coherent.
The recent Ultima entries brought the subject of Live Action Roleplaying (or “LARPing” as it’s known in the “industry”) to mind. But I was a little hesitant to post this stuff on such a highly accredited website as to Protozoic. As Loki has pointed out information on this hobby abounds on the internet already and I hate to fool anyone into thinking the stuff I’ve written on LARPs is particularly more informative than any existing LARP-ocentric sites already out there.
The stuff below may serve as a general introduction and outsider’s totally biased critique of LARPs, but does suffer slightly from being pulled straight out of my ass. Not that I’m saying anything made from whole cloth, or even in part intentionally fictitious. But while I’ve followed table-top roleplaying games (RPGs) in general alot over the years, as I’ve mentioned at other times, I sort of steer clear of LARPs. I’ve picked up a few tidbits about them here and there, but my knowledge of LARPs is about as informed as my knowledge of football: I might have a vague ideas of the rules and paraphenalia, and maybe remember an amusing anecdote or two someone told me about the game, but when it comes to the background, sub-culture, and details of specific games/teams/conferences/etc. then I’ve been pretty much willfully ignorant of the whole deal.
Still, even though my understanding might not be perfect, I would like to discuss it at the moment. So, for the sake of argument consider the following a primer written by an outsider, or better yet a straw dog to be beaten apart so as to stimulate more elucidating discourse.
With that excessively long disclaimer…
Continue reading Them’s Me Magic Spells: The twisting paths of live action roleplaying.
The discussion of torches and immolient soaked toilet paper rolls got me thinking: Surely there must be a way to have flaming textiles or paper products portably contained in such a manner as to avoid burning through their support structures or leak through the non-factory joined seams of their containers. To that end I’ve devised (probably re-invented) the hanging lantern on a stick (a.k.a. “flail lantern”).
Occasionally I get these urges to see some little corner of the universe fall before my concept of fasciest perfection. Usually these things ferment (or foment) upstairs for quite awhile, eventually falling on She Dragon’s patient ears but rarely traveling further. But now that The Mindlab is my podium to the world everyone can know the narrowly focused brilliance of my visions.
So far though there are only two real world-changing visions I can remember having and deigning to share here, the first being The Ideal Pants. But my more recent, further reaching ideal, fresh off the drawing board is sure to revolutionize not only this website, nor just the internet. Nay it will impact the very structure of the English language itself.
Ladies and gentelemen I bring you (crudely rendered with in the modern alphabet): The Alpha-eps!
Loki, I may just not fully understand what the problem is but I think I may have figured out a solution to the the floating sofa issue. Actually the picture of the sofa you provided in your last entry on the subject gave me a hint.
But let me take a step back from this issue for a moment and digress heavily.
In spite of it’s many foibles I and many others very much enjoy the Dungeons & Dragons game, especially in it’s d20 system iteration. Perhaps one of the major reasons for game’s popularity both in it’s current form and historically is the evocative, tone setting, and somewhat customizable character archtypes it offers in the form of mythic races and heroic classes.
Character classes range from the simple (ie. Fighters) to the extravagantly abilitied (ie. Bards, Druids, Rangers), covering a wide range of occupational and lifestyle choices. However, one potential drawback of this sytem is that each sort of class is very much focused in a particular area of magical and/or mundane expertise. And this can be fine if you simply want warriors who kill things and magicians who sling spells about…
But what if you’re interested in playing a different sort of warrior: a cavalry man with who has studied history a bit and has better strategic, diplomatic, and leadership skills? Or a wizard who’s not just a walking toolbox of magical effects, rather a wise man who has studied up on arcane lore of all sorts, strange creatures, alchemy, poisons, spirits, and the planes beyond?
Continue reading d20 New Character Classes – Just These Guys
Dog Soldiers was probably advertised a couple years ago when it came out, but I recently heard it touted as a tone setting example on the Delta Green mailing list. As it turns out Lovecraftian Dog Soldiers is not, but in this case that’s not a bad thing.
Last night was our weekly D&D game again. Only this week it was possibly one of the most exciting sessions I’ve ever had for a character… ever. I know it’s not “real life” but I feel like bragging about my virtual/storytelling experience anyway. And since I’ve been taking a sabatical from RPG.net forum postings you guys get to be bored with the tale of how it went in that forum’s stead.
Liking semi-obscure bands is a mixed blessing. If they’re well represented on the web they’re likely to have a free sample or two. However, if they’re too obscure you can barely find any reference to them at all.
One other band I thought I’d mention, although precious little of them is on the web and no free music I can see, is The Receptionists.
The group is comprised of three women whose recording studios apparently consisted of largely of Vassar dorm rooms, and whose instruments of choice are guitar, accordian, bells, mandolin, and xylophone, supplimented with a large dose of whistle.
The Receptionists instrumental sound is a dissonent cacophony and reminds me alot of the NPR clip years back where a group of musicians made music on whittled out vegetables. On top of that their vocals are usually an off-key monotone.
But somehow with The Receptionists all the discord seems to fit together brilliantly. It’s like these girls really know their stuff but got bored perfecting the craft, maybe got larangitis, and one of ’em said, “Hey, let’s just break out the veggies and jam a bit.” And that was fine with everyone else.
This is a bit of an exaggeration though. There are a few of their songs that wouldn’t sound totally out of place in the medieval-reenacting female folk singer repitoire.
On Raphsody only their song Soren Loved Regina (apparently a reference to Soren Kierkegaard’s relationship with Regina Olsen) is available, and that only on a compilation “American Pop Style”. Cashing in a gift certificate recently netted me their only available Album The Last Letter, though supposedly there’s another set of their songs out there under the title of Keep Your Secrets.
Of the songs on The Last Letter, probably the most accessible is The Piracy of Saint Philomena, backed by accordion accompanyment. A few, like Soren Loved Regina and In Love Again are sweet. And others like the Laundry Song and Stamp Song are amusingly wrought micro-ballads about the ironies and injustices of life.
Unfortunately though it looks like their latest recordings on the Last Letter album were done in 1997. And since the first few pages of google searches turn up only a smattering of cursory reviews and advertisements for their work, I think it’s safe and sad to say that The Receptionists are now defunct.