Ye Olde Staging Point

Last night was the much-anticipated (by me, at least) Halloween RPG Night. The purpose of this annual tradition (actually, it only happens about every other year, but I like to think of it as an annual tradition) is to get together with friends, eat enormous amounts of Halloween candy, and play a one-shot, horror-themed roleplaying game of some sort. And now, through the miracle of blog technology, I shall provide you with a rambling report on the festivities.

In sum, it was a success--people had fun, much candy was eaten, and the RPG was played. My original plan was to provide a bag of stale tortilla chips and some salsa as the evening's snack, but Michele trumped this several times over by preparing caramel apples, popcorn, several bowls of Halloween candy, and apple cider. Have I mentioned that she is amazing? If I haven't, allow me to state for the record: Michele is amazing.

Stocked up with Halloween-themed food, we proceeded on to the RPG. This year, we played Deadlands: the Weird West. Deadlands is a quirky game, set in an alternate-history Wild West where unspeakable horrors wander the plains, the Rail Wars are fought with gatling guns and sorcery, and grizzled, six-shooter-wieldin' law dogs dispense indiscriminate justice out on the frontier. I had originally been wavering between running a Name of the Rose-style Dark Ages Cthulhu game and a Ghostbusters-style Orpheus game, but decided on Deadlands because I knew several RPG newbies would be playing, and I figured it'd be easy to jump right into a game based on well-known Western archetypes. (Plus, we watched The Magnificent Seven and Unforgiven not long ago, and I was in a gunslingin' mood).

So Deadlands it was. I bought a PDF copy of the rules from RPGNow, printed out some cardstock miniatures, and was good to go. It was a lot of fun--everyone really got into the pulpy feel of the game, and it worked well despite the fact that none of us had ever played it before and were learning the rules as we went along. The cast of characters was great: Calamity Kate (Michele, playing a lassoo-wielding buffalo girl), Jahab (Steve, playing the world's most over-the-top hell-and-brimstone preacher), Sherriff Sassafrass (Lindsey, who reminded us from time to time that it rhymes with 'kick your ass'), and Victor Victoria (Heather, playing a hex-slingin,' spell-castin' huckster). The adventure was short, and consisted of the characters experiencing a train ambush and then laying the smackdown on a bunch of desert zombies. Good times.

One of the really neat things about Deadlands is that it uses playing cards and poker chips (in addition to dice) to resolve certain things in the game. During fights, everybody draws cards from a normal playing-card deck, and then you "play" your cards at the appropriate times when you want to take an action. You can use poker chips to gain certain advantages during the game, such as rolling extra dice or avoiding damage. The game's magic system actually involves building a poker hand; the better your hand, the more powerful the magic you can cast. These sorts of elements really added to the game's ambience and were a lot of fun. In fact, I liked the playing-card combat initiative system so much I'm thinking about using it in other games, although it does seem best-suited for a Western-themed game.

So all in all, it was a great way to spend the night before Halloween. It helped that the weather yesterday was perfect--lots of wind, and lots of bright autumn-colored leaves gusting about. Happy Halloween from our gaming group to yours!

Posted by Andy at 2:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear Mr. Asmodeus,

As you know, I was recently contracted by the Higher Powers to conduct an independent audit of Hell's operations and security in the aftermath of last week's incident (hereafter "The Incident"). I refer to the events of last Monday, when a lone Space Marine gained entry to Hell and, in the course of just a few hours, inflicted a staggering amount of damage to Hellish property and personnel.

The Incident has effectively disrupted Hellish operations (not to mention its budget) for the indeterminate future. It takes time to re-spawn so many slaughtered demons, and in the meantime, temp workers must be hired to torture the souls of the damned. In addition to the costs of breeding and training an entirely new staff, we are now faced with the considerable challenge of finding a construction contractor willing to descend into the Stygian depths to repair the very extensive structural damage. We may even be forced to temporarily suspend the processing of newly-arrived souls due to these personnel losses.

Management tasked me with a straightforward job: review current Hellish security and operations and recommend action steps that will ensure that this sort of thing never happens again. Over the last week, I have interviewed survivors of The Incident and toured the nearly-demolished facilities in search of ways to avert future Incidents. I am pleased to present the following recommendations, which I feel will significantly decrease the chance that the legions of Hell will ever again be slaughtered by a lone Space Marine and his shotgun.

1) Better Master Plans. No offense is intended to you or your strategic planners, but it should be noted that this Incident--actually the third such Incident--occurred during your efforts to, and I quote, "bury the pitiful souls of humanity beneath a tidal wave of eternal darkness." During all three of your invasion attempts, a Space Marine has snuck into Hell and wreaked havoc. Perhaps future invasion plans should budget more money towards protecting the Hell-gates, perhaps by fencing them off or requiring I.D. checks at entrances.

2) Clutter Control. The severity of The Incident would have been greatly reduced had the Space Marine intruder not been able to find and use health packs, ammunition, and high-tech weaponry that were inexplicably scattered--unattended and unsecured--throughout the Abyssal caverns. There is absolutely no good reason to leave rocket launchers and chainguns (or ammunition for them) lying around on the ground where they can be picked up by any passing Space Marine. I recommend that you increase the janitorial budget, institute a stricter "clutter-free workplace" policy, and do everything possible to keep cutting-edge weaponry safely and legally secured and out of reach of intruders.

3) Better Combat Training for Personnel. Many casualties could have been avoided had the Hellish hordes received better training in basic combat tactics. It is important that Hellish staff be able to adjust their combat tactics in response to the Space Marine's own actions. This is most important for your so-called "Boss" personnel, many of whom were tragically killed because they refused to deviate from their "patterns of attack" despite the fact that the Space Marine had clearly caught on to their tactics and was exploiting them. In one instance, two otherwise intelligent Hellknights were left hopelessly confused by the Space Marine's strategy of ducking behind a pillar in the middle of the room. A demon with a more "can-do!" attitude would have investigated the pillar instead of standing still and being repeatedly struck by missiles until he died. I recommend longer and more in-depth combat training for all Hellish denizens.

4) No Toying Around. I know it is tempting to "play" with the Space Marine--gloating, issuing threats, and "toying" with him by letting him live just to see if he is able to overcome your fiendish traps and demonic guardians. However, after a certain point, I recommend that you stop toying with the Space Marine and simply kill him. For instance, instead of blowing up a bridge in front of the Space Marine and then gloating that he will never find a way across the chasm, why not just blow up the bridge while he's walking across it? It's less satisfying, but letting him live because you find his "pitiful" efforts "amusing" is just inviting the sort of disaster we experienced last week.

I think you will find that applying these recommendations to future operations will significantly decrease Hell's vulnerability to lone Space Marines, and will improve morale amongst a demonic workforce that has suffered through not one, not two, but three Space Marine rampages in the space of only ten years. I hope you find my report helpful, and would be more than happy to assist you should you have any questions about it. I remain

your faithful servant,
Mephisto
Auditor from Hell

Posted by Andy at 11:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (1)

Wow--this article somehow manages to capture all the wonder and horror of online FPS gaming. Great read.

Online gaming--particular gaming of the first-person shooter variety--is a fascinating and bizarre little world of its own, one that is just waiting to be the subject of somebody's doctoral dissertation (if it hasn't already been). It gives rise to a lot of interesting behavior of the sort referenced in the above article, ranging from racist taunting to player-enforced rules of "fair play" to extremely strong-held beliefs about what is and isn't a "legitimate" strategy. UT2k4 is my poison of choice these days, and I've found that the quality of the online gaming experience depends rather heavily on the willingness of other players to abide by the unspoken rules of "fair gaming," especially in team games.

I'd write more, but it's dinnertime. Maybe more later.

(While you're at it, the most recent episode--#39--of Red vs Blue contains a pretty hilarious parody of a typical online deathmatch, starting 5:45 minutes in.)

Posted by Andy at 6:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been catching up on my blog-reading (so many blogs, so little time!) and I noticed that Bill beat me to the punch on the comma-(mis)use topic by two days (see his Point #5)! Uncanny. Bill, my post was not intended as any sort of subtle commentary on your use of commas, which I find quite commendable in every respect. Just in case, you were losing sleep, over it.

Posted by Andy at 6:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

...and while I'm tossing out these short posts (hey, that Perdido Street Station post tired me out), you really ought to check out this interview with Neal Stephenson over at Slashdot. Even if you aren't that interested in Stephenson, scroll down to question #4.

Neal Stephenson is pretty much the coolest guy ever.

Posted by Andy at 11:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Truly, you have not lived until you have heard Dave Mustaine growl out a Megadeth tune in Spanish.

Trust me on this one.

Posted by Andy at 11:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How would the world's major religions react to the arrival of Superman? An interesting little essay.

Posted by Andy at 9:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

People, need to learn, how to use commas correctly.

Posted by Andy at 2:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I learned today that one of my college friends is designing a strategy game called Empires of Steel. It looks very cool!

Posted by Andy at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's Halloween season again--perhaps my favorite time of the year--and I've been giving some thought to different ways to get into the spooky holiday spirit. I noted recently that game designer and overall cool guy Bruce Baugh is posting specifically about worthwhile horror movies this month, which seems like a fun idea to me. It prompted me to think about scary games I've played--and while I can't possibly come up with one for each day of October, I'll try to share some "scary game recommendations" with you over the course of the month. Stay tuned.

Posted by Andy at 8:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Michele is in the other room waiting for the vice-presidential debate to start.

I'm here in the computer room, wrestling with that most vexing of dilemmas:

Watch the vice-presidential debate?

...or play Doom 3?

Become a better-informed, critically-thinking citizen?

...or blow apart the denizens of hell with a virtual rocket launcher?

I just don't know. But I have a sinking feeling that this isn't going to be a victory for Democracy.

Posted by Andy at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In recent months, I've been watching episodes of the newly-released (in America, at least) anime series Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It's an animated series based on the characters and setting of the Ghost in the Shell manga (and movie). It is excellent--easily one of the best anime shows I've seen in quite a while--and I thought I'd take a few minutes to ramble about one of the show's most interesting elements: brain hacking.

In the "hard" sci-fi, cyberpunk world of GitS, virtually everyone bears a electronic implant which grants constant, low-level access to a virtual world (called the Net) vaguely reminiscent of the present-day internet. (If you're familiar with the cyberpunk genre, you know that some form of "virtual reality" is a key trope in such stories.) The protagonists of GitS are members of a special-forces military unit, and presumably have relatively advanced implants and Net access, but it's clear that even "everyday citizens" possess and use implants in their day-to-day lives.

The implants are fused with the bearer's optic nerve and spinal cord--essentially hardwiring Net access into the the brain. Among the "features" this allows:

• the ability to communicate wordlessly with others elsewhere on the Net (digital telepathy, if you will). Characters can carry on silent conversations with others without moving their lips.
• a graphical interface overlaid onto one's field of vision, and the ability to instantly call up information on objects within your line of sight.
• the storage (and broadcast) of personal identity, medical information, and history.

You can probably think of other applications of such a device. But one of the most fascinating side-effects of such a system--and a topic frequently explored by GitS--is the possibility that a brain with an implant can be hacked. The idea is simple: if your implant is sufficiently fused with your brain, a hacker who gains control of the mechanical implant can influence or gain complete control over your brain functions. The implant, with its permanent Net access, is actually a tremendous point of vulnerability.

Now, it's clear that most implants are heavily secured against digital intrusion. Nevertheless, the world of GitS contains more than one super-hacker-villain with enough skill to hack into people's brains in this fashion. In GitS, particularly crafty criminals can commit their crimes vicariously by hacking into innocent bystanders and using them to do the dirty work. Need a government official assassinated? Hack into his bodyguards and reprogram them accordingly. Need something stolen from a corporate facility? Hack the janitor and have him nab the goods for you.

In one recent GitS storyline, a villain trying to assassinate a politician released a virus into the Net that affected certain unsecured implants; the result was hordes of hacked citizens storming the politician's hotel and taking potshots at him as he tried to flee through the crowd. In another instance, a villain hacked into the optic nerves of crime-scene witnesses to blur out important details--they watched the crime unfold in front of them, but their implants blurred the criminal's face, so they couldn't afterwards describe it to police sketch artists.

I find this a fascinating concept, especially given its relevance to current questions of computer and network security (insert Microsoft Outlook joke here). Hacking a bystander and reprogramming him or her to do your dirty work is reminiscent of spammers or crackers working through vulnerable, unsecured third-party computers to confuse the electronic trail leading back to them. In GitS, it creates interesting legal and moral situations in which the people who physically commit crimes are often completely innocent. Only if the police can follow the hacker's electronic trail (which often involves backtracking through a long series of hacked bystanders) can they track down the criminal, since clues left at the crime scene (fingerprints, that sort of thing) aren't those of the actual criminal.

Anyway, I thought the concept of brain-hacking was fascinating, and while I don't think we'll all be wearing brain implants of this sort anytime soon, it's a logical evolution of modern-day internet technology. What do you think?

(side note: I'm aware of the distinction between 'hackers' and 'crackers,' but I use the term 'hacker' here as it's used in most cyberpunk stories.)

Posted by Andy at 9:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)