Ye Olde Staging Point

It's Thursday evening, and my thoughts turn to the usual assortment of weekend plans. Saturday is sort of a special day for me and Michele--it's the day I proposed to her while we sat on a bench at the Saugatuck waterfront; we're hoping to spend a good chunk of the day strolling thereabouts lost in blissful remembrance. Isn't that romantic?

Tomorrow is game day--and my, it has been a good week for gaming. On Tuesday I played (instead of my usual DMing) in a D&D game with several friends, and tomorrow evening I'll be running another D&D game for a different group. I've saved valuable game-prep time by recycling an adventure I DM'd two Christmases ago; I'll be running "Tears for Twilight Hollow," which Peter, Mark, and Jason may remember from a year or so back when they played through it. Fun, fun.

Aren't you glad you know all that? I'm off to write up the stats for the Devourer that will be making a cameo appearance in tomorrow's adventure (shhh, don't tell my gaming group). Have a good Friday!

Added: Found the Tears for Twilight Hollow module for Neverwinter Nights. Very cool.

Posted by Andy at 10:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I hate the Internet.

Posted by Andy at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Michele and I spent much of this past weekend visiting my relatives in Ohio. Many of them couldn't make it to the wedding, and we wanted everyone to get a chance to meet Michele (and it was high time that Michele see what she had really gotten into by marrying into the family).

I like my relatives. They're a pretty diverse bunch; most of them have personalities, interests, and quirks that differ drastically from mine, which makes them an interesting bunch with which to hang out. I heard a lot of good stories, caught up with a lot of people with whom I haven't spoken in years--your typical visit to the relatives.

One thing that struck me on this particular visit: my relatives--in particular my grandmother and several of my cousins--witness a lot. That is, they bring up the topic of faith, Christianity, and salvation in conversation on a regular basis--far more frequently than I'm used to hearing in my conversations with friends and family. It's a rare conversation that doesn't turn at some point to a mention of how the topic under discussion reminds them of a Bible verse, or an offhand recollection of time spent handing out religious tracts at local businesses, or of people they know who recently were, or are being, convicted of the need for Christ. My grandmother makes regular references to Bible verses and Jesus in a typical conversation, whether or not the conversation is specifically about any overtly religious topic. My aunt casually mentioned in conversation the opportunity she had at our (Michele's and my) wedding to witness to an agnostic next to whom she was seated at the wedding reception. My cousin matter-of-factly referred to the time she and her sister decided, on a lark, to go around to local businesses handing out religous tracts (incidentally, their witnessing efforts were rudely rebuffed by the 'nice old lady' working at the Hallmark store but received with interest by the owner of a sleazy-looking music shop). They're not boasting about their spirituality, nor are they scary religious zealots--it just seems that their faith is so immediate to them that it spills right over into everyday conversations.

I find myself wishing that my faith cropped up in my everyday conversations more often. My default social setting is to generally avoid specific religious topics for fear of intruding upon others' intellectual "personal space;" everyone's experiences with and relationship to Christianity is different, and I hate the idea of making an unwilling conversant talk about such an intensely private subject as their relationship with God. But on the other hand, several of my relatives manage to talk about faith without making me, oversensitive to such things as I am, uncomfortable, so it's certainly possible to do so.

I think they don't make me uncomfortable with their religious talk because they don't bring up these topics with ulterior motives; they're not trying to ferret out the status of my spiritual life and they're not manipulating the conversation to set me up for an evangelism attempt. While I'm a Christian, so there's technically no need to evangelize me, I have a feeling that they'd relate conversationally to a nonbeliever in much the same non-aggravating way. Their tone communicates to me, "My beliefs are integral to who I am; they can't be separated from my words or deeds." They give no offense, but demand that the listener acknowledge that reality.

It seems to me that their ability to casually discuss religious topics (some of which would make your typical churchgoer nervous) springs from the fact that they are very, very comfortable with their faith. It's not as separated from their everyday lives as religious belief is for many Americans; when you see God's hand in every aspect of your day-to-day life and feel His presence with you in every situation, it must be the most natural thing in the world to have that immediacy reflected in your social relationships with other people.

My grandmother and cousins aren't perfect, of course, and if we were to sit down and start chatting theology, I'm sure we'd disagree on a wide range of issues. Nor do I want to undergo a personality change to become more extroverted. But talking to my relatives makes me wish I were slightly more comfortable discussing my faith with others, even (especially?) with others who don't share that faith. My Christian faith is the most important aspect of my life. Isn't it odd that I'd keep it carefully separated from the second-most-important thing in my life, my social interaction with others?

Posted by Andy at 1:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, it seems that several of my fellow bloggers are posting their dreams online and asking for (or at least receiving) interpretations from helpful readers. I had a rather bizarre (and, I think, blasphemous) dream last night and would like to solicit your feedback.

As the dream began, I was attending a chapel service at my old high school. The chapel speaker had just finished his message. As he left, Bill Cosby walked up to the podium and announced the next event. The event was titled (this is an exact quote), "Decorate Jesus in Three Minutes."

After announcing the event, Bill Cosby led the entire assembly through a backdoor behind the chapel, and we emerged into a gigantic indoor ice skating rink. Several dozen snowmen were scattered about the rink. I somehow intuitively understood that a giant statue of Jesus was in the center of the rink (although perhaps significantly, it was obscured by snowmen and I could not see it), and that we were supposed to skate around it and decorate it with Christmas ornaments until the three minutes had elapsed. People began skating out and quickly surrounded the Jesus statue, decorating it. I had never ice skated before and so stayed nervously along the outside edge of the rink. As the dream finished, I noticed that my friend Mark (who had suddenly appeared in the dream) was ice skating in front of me and casting magic spells to steady himself each time he wavered or seemed about to fall. Then the three minutes elapsed, and the dream ended.

Thoughts? Condemnations? What does this all mean for my life?

Posted by Andy at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

This image made me laugh.

Posted by Andy at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A conversation today with Joel reminded me of my introduction to the world of computing and the silliness that occasionally resulted.

My dad, something of a computer expert himself, quickly encouraged me to start tinkering with Basic programming on the C64 (the tape drive gave us the remarkable ability to permanently store data). I have very fond memories of Saturday mornings spent with Dad, both of us huddled at the keyboard manually copying Basic code that you could find in the backs of computer magazines of the day. But at some point, I realized that simply copying already-written code was not enough; I was ready to make my first foray into the world of programming.

Of course my creation had to be some sort of game, but it had to abide by my rather limited knowledge of the rather limited Basic language. I spent an afternoon feverishly tapping away at the C64 until I had expressed in code my vision for the perfect game. It would combine my love for World War 2 history with educational value in one amazing bundle of gameplay that would finally make learning fun again. The result was a true epic in the history of gaming: the ambitiously titled Math Bombers.

A typical session of Math Bombers went something like this:

Welcome to Math Bombers. Do you want to start a new game?
> y

I don't understand. Do you want to start a new game?
> yes

What is your name?
> andy

ANDY, you are flying above Germany in a B-17 during World War 2. What is 25 + 31?
> 56

Correct! Your bomb lands directly on target. What is 13 + 82?
> 98

Incorrect! You have been shot down by anti-aircraft fire and are dead. Do you want to start a new game?
> n

I don't understand. Do you want to start a new game?
> no

SYNTAX ERROR IN LINE 80
Do you want to start a new game?
> HELL NO

It only got better from there. Simple but eloquent gameplay, if I do say so myself. So when you see Starcraft 2: Math Bombers on the shelf of your local computer store, now you'll know where they got the idea...

Posted by Andy at 12:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday marked the anniversary of Hirohito's famous surrender announcement, which effectively brought World War 2 to an end. The announcement makes for an interesting read, both for what it says and for what it quite specifically does not say. (Just as interesting is the story, which I cannot find online, of the attempted Japanese government coup that almost stopped the surrender broadcast.)

I posted some World War 2/Japan thoughts earlier this month, so I won't rehash them. But this seemed like a reasonably important date to remember.

Posted by Andy at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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Posted by Andy at 8:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

(Before I begin, a quick aside: It's getting difficult to post anything game-related that can match up to Ed's recent string of excellent gaming posts. Great stuff, Ed.)

While I was at Gencon, I stopped by the White Wolf booth to see what their much-hyped "big announcement" was going to be. For those not familiar with White Wolf, they're a major roleplaying game company that publishes a lot of "monster" RPGs with names like Vampire: the Masquerade and Werewolf: the Apocalypse. They had a pretty big impact on the world of RPGs when they debuted with Vampire way back in the 90s. For reasons I won't go into now, I'm not a big fan of their games in general (although I did pick up a hefty batch of Mage and Werewolf sourcebooks recently when my local gaming store went out of business), but they do happen to print one of my favorite RPGs: Hunter. In Hunter, instead of playing a monster, you play an everyday human "gifted" with the ability to see the evil creatures around you and tasked with the job of dealing with them. It's a worthy game, in my opinion.

So what is White Wolf's big announcement? They're blowing up all of their gamelines. Well, most of them--all of the games set in their World of Darkness universe, which includes all of the aforementioned games and a slew of others.

Included as a major plot/setting hook in each of their games since Vampire has been the idea that the end of the world is just around the corner, that your characters are living in the final days of the earth, and that the entire universe is teetering on the brink of destruction. It's big, it's epic, and I suppose it's gotten a bit stale now that we're a few years past Y2K. So over the next few months, they'll be ending the game lines by having Armageddon finally arrive, presumably destroying everything in a series of climactic in-game events.

My first thought upon hearing the news was disappointment that the Hunter line would be ending, but it was impossible to deny the coolness of the basic idea. They're blowing up not just one game, but a whole group of games--some of which are exceedingly popular, sales-wise. I was impressed that they're actually taking on a project with such a huge potential to enrage loyal fanboys.

Mostly, I'm just jealous--because writing a sourcebook detailing the end of the world for a roleplaying game sounds like an incredibly fun job.

Even beyond that, I'm feeling quite inspired right now to run a World of Darkness campaign--Hunter or otherwise. How cool is it to be on hand to play in the closing scenes of the gameworld? Not many games set you up to actually participate in the End. It sounds pretty fun to me.

It's somewhat cheesy, but in a let's-have-fun-with-this sort of way. The countdown to the End, in the form of a daily news ticker at their website, has begun, and reading the news items, I see they're already killed off one major character from the Hunter setting (the August 5 entry--the former Marine/activist), and possibly a second (if I'm correctly guessing the identity of the man in the August 4 story). So far, so good--here's hoping Hunter goes out with a bang.

So yeah. I thought it was cool, anyway, and I'm suddenly a lot more interested in White Wolf's stuff than I was before they made their announcement.

Posted by Andy at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Woo hoo, it's my birthday! Dinner tonight is my favorite dish in the world--teriyaki chicken, courtesy of my beloved wife. Doesn't get much better than this.

Posted by Andy at 7:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

So, after several enjoyable experiences at car repair places, I've come up with this tried and true formula for determining how much it's going to cost to repair your car:

• if x = what you think is a reasonable cost to repair your car (in dollars), and
• y = the actual cost to repair your car (also in dollars), then
• y = x + (5d6 * 100)

Actually, my car (a Chevy Cavalier) has been pretty reliable, and I feel somewhat indebted to it for transporting me to and from Chicago on a regular basis over the last few years without incident. But moneywise, a few trips to the mechanic seem to go an awfully long way...

Posted by Andy at 7:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This thread made me laugh.

Posted by Andy at 6:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

So, Bob Hope died recently. I'm vaguely familiar with Bob Hope, although I have never, to my knowledge, actually seen him in any of his movies or comedy acts except perhaps in brief excerpts; the general consensus seems to be that he was a pretty funny and influential guy. Good for him.

Which brings me around to the point of this rant. In my Internet travels over the weekend, I came across this article at Slate (found by following a link from AndrewSullivan.com) about Bob Hope. Specifically, about completely shredding Bob Hope's life and career on the grounds that he wasn't really all that funny.

Now, I'm a pretty average sort of person, intellect-wise, but "humor" seems to me to be one of the more subjective, eye-of-the-beholder type concepts out there, which makes me wonder why a journalist is taking time out of his busy schedule to rip apart a (recently deceased, remember) comedian that he doesn't happen to find funny. Along the way we are treated to a nice quotable quote about the sort of people who apparently enjoyed Bob Hope's jokes:

This is comedy for people who have no sense of humor and who come determined to be entertained and laugh to show that they "get it."

So it turns out that everyone who found Bob Hope funny is a dull-witted moron whose intelligence pales before the vast and witty intellect of Christopher Hitchens.

But this gag-inducing pretentiousness aside, after reading this article, I was left with one question: What is the point of this exercise in bitterness? And how does it come to grace the (virutal) pages of a major online journal? What would inspire someone, especially a trained journalist, to take up their pen and spew such vitriol all over the life of a harmless person whose jokes, funny or not, so many people appreciated? I'd like to think that when you set out to write something--be it a humorous piece, informative story, thoughtful critique, or thought-provoking opinion--that writers are bound by some sort of moral injunction that they be doing so for purposes loftier than simply reveling in the puerile glee of having savaged something that others cherished. Did Mr. Hitchens put down his pen after writing this article and feel anything like pride at what he had written? Of all the evils he could be addressing from behind his Internet pulpit, the target of his viciousness is... Bob Hope. The sheer pettiness is just astounding.

Ahem. Apologies for the rant. Nothing to see here--move along, move along.

Posted by Andy at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Last night, freshly imbued with gaming inspiration in the wake of Gencon, I ran a D&D game for several friends. It went extremely well--better, I think, than last month's Star Wars session, but that may just be a result of my greater experience with D&D. I was hoping to start using some of the "revised 3.5" improvements, but I haven't had time to sufficiently internalize them yet.

The adventure was about as straightforward as they get--"track the bugbears to their lair and rescue the hostage"--something that D&D does quite well. The players used 5th-level characters (a ranger, bard, cleric, and wizard) I had created in advance; the adventure itself was a modified version of "Vanity" from Dungeon #93. Much fun was had by all as the characters cleverly dealt with the bugbear sentries, then lured the remaining beasts out of their lair and into an ambush. Chaos ensued, and when the dust cleared, the ranger was dead (smashed by an ogre), the wizard was comatose at -9 hit points (also a victim of said ogre), and the other two (both of whom were darting through the skies with the benefit of Flight spells) in serious but stable condition: a tough but well-earned victory.

Good old-fashioned gaming at its best, and not a bad way to pass a too-muggy-to-venture-outdoors summer evening with friends.

Posted by Andy at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)