Traveller
That’s right, I’m not dead yet. I just haven’t felt like journalling at all in months – my creativity and ability to string words together has been darn near zero.
But sometimes, going through my old work will inspire me a bit. To that end, here’s a video walkthrough of the video game level I designed – an addon for Excalibur: Morgana’s Revenge, a game still available for play on Mac, Windows, and Linux via the Aleph One game engine.
Designing game levels is fun… and doing something I haven’t done in years may be just what I needed to stretch my muscles a bit!
Level 80
Mirandala hit the level cap. I barely know what to do with her now, she didn’t manage that at 60 in original WoW or at 70 in Burning Crusade.
Also, she made a pair of X-Ray Specs: a gadget which, from her perspective, strips all the other player characters in the game down to their underwear. But what else would you expect from me?
Arrgh, we are warriors, arrgh, so there, arrgh, I mean it, arrgh
So, here’s a trailer for the Star Trek MMO coming early next year (y’know, if there aren’t any delays, which never happen to MMO releases anyway, right?) Windows-only at this point, so we Mac folks will have to either dual-boot or forget it and just keep giving our money to Blizzard, who’s been happy to take it for years.
I know that lots of the audience for multiplayer online games want to be the badass characters, so we get the Klingon trailer first. But as usual since TNG, the Klingon narrator sounds less like a proud warrior and more like someone compensating for erectile dysfunction. “Hi. My name’s K’Bob, and I’ve had this terrible inferiority complex since the Dominion War…”
Interesting, by the way, that in a setting placed decades after “Voyager”, the Federation’s still using Constitution-class ships (ones that look like Shatner-Kirk’s Enterprise). When your ship design’s still in use 200 years after the first launch, I’d say you’ve earned your contractor fees.
Upcoming events
VTSFFC has announced plans to hold a Technicon in 2010.
I realized this morning that the first part of my last post could be a bit impenetrable if one doesn’t know at least a little gamer slang. Luckily, there’s not many people reading my journal who don’t… and the rest are sharp enough to work it out from contexts.
Thanks to everyone for the support! This is weirding me the hell out, but I have no intention of getting all drama-queeny over it (even if sometimes I want to). Having you folks watching my back helps an enormous amount.
Poorly-copied DNA
GM to me: “Roll your Body dice, target number 5, and we’ll see what the doctor says.”
Me: “Okay, that’s 3d6 – ”
GM: “Inflating your stats a little?”
Me: “Shut up. I rolled a 4, a 3, and a 1.”
GM: “No successes, huh? Checking the chart… okay. You have kidney cancer.”
Unfortunately, the GM isn’t talking about my game character, either; looks like I’ll be going in next month for surgery after all. The surgeon’s very optimistic, and I should still keep the unaffected portion of that kidney. That’s one of a long list of ways I’m fortunate right now, but it’s a little hard to focus on them with that word “cancer” rattling around in my head.
Two ways to tell that I’m really stressed: I start stuttering a bit, and my sense of humor gets really twisted.
Burning sensations
Strange dream last night. I was at a USS Yeager meeting circa 1994, and in charge of getting everyone together for a group photo; however, every time I hit the timer button on the camera and stepped over to the group, people started chatting and wandering away before the shutter fired. I would have to badger them back into position, and try again. Iron Chef Morimoto, who’d graciously agreed to pose with us, was getting fairly impatient with the whole thing.
Can’t say that I think there’s any deep meaning in that dream: since I was gamemastering last night, I already was in ‘herding cats’ headspace, and I’ve recently been taking more pictures. I think I’m more excited about pictures these days, since the Web’s been giving me more places to show them off. I don’t know what Morimoto was doing there, though.
Then I woke up with heavy coughing caused by a combination of pool chemicals and last night’s GM oratory. Got back to sleep, eventually, but my throat still burns a bit this morning. I’ll be so relieved when I can put the super-bleach away, I’ve been dosing that pool with this and that for weeks now trying to get it usable for what remains of the summer. Next year, I’m starting in March.
We’re finally on the new Shadowrun adventure, but we got rolling a little late, so the evening was spent in negotiating the job and traveling to the site. Our heroes are investigating the disappearance of a Draco Foundation science team that was researching Crater Lake; the GSSC had been providing security, and needs some deniable assets to cover their butts. I’ve got an action sequence ready to start the next session, and some curious plot points prepared.
Tonight: moving stuff into the attic. And more pool work.
RPG character quiz
Taken from funwithrage, since it looked entertaining.
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Out of all of your characters from any game, who would you…
Take to lunch?
I can’t remember his name off the top of my head, but my Deadlands character was a cross between Abraham Van Helsing and Egon Spengler. I think he’d have some fascinating stories and insights, and the fact that he’s slightly mad wouldn’t hurt a bit.
Want to rescue you?
“Professor K”, the mysterious mentalist I played in some Shadowrun sessions. He’s appeared in lots of fic written by our crowd, and he’s pretty good at the whole rescuing thing – plus he has some interesting resources at his disposal.
Never want to meet in a dark alley?
I don’t really play many scary or disturbing characters, but after thinking about it, I’m not sure I’d want to meet “Circy”, my World of Warcraft warlock. She looks pretty friendly most of the time, but even when they’re the “good guys”, warlocks in this game are not nice people. Besides, she’d be backed up by a Voidwalker demon or something.
Hug?
“Mirandala”, the gnome mage I play in WoW. She’s adorable, and I think of her as pretty sweet, if a little butch at the same time.
Be for a day?
“Professor K”, definitely. Knowing his backstory info that never made it into the game, I’d love the chance to play with some of his tech toys and visit some of the places he had access to… such as Federation starships. (Yeah, our Shadowrun games could get weird.)
Steal powers/skills from?
I’ve played “Nebula” in several game systems and worlds, and she’s almost always an accomplished musician, generally as a singer and keyboardist. I’d love to have those abilities gifted to me.
Take to an amusement park?
In the post-apocalyptic Deadlands: Hell on Earth, I played a powerful Wiccan whose personality and look I created by trying to imagine a very angry, bitter tzel. I think a trip to Disney World, or even Busch Gardens, would have done her a lot of good. At least she’d have some good memories to help bolster her the next time she fought techno-zombies.
See their story made into a movie?
“Professor K” and “Nebula” would require their own high-budget series, with possibly several spin-offs. Actually, I think the flying armored “Eclipse” from ptownhiker‘s Marvel Super Heroes game would be a fun movie subject, especially once the “ancient astronauts” part of his backstory came back into his life.
Never trade places with, ever?
In a Technicon LARP, I played the Prince of Russia in an alternate 19th century of Imperial expansion and high-stakes diplomacy. Given the constant backstabbing, betrayal, and threats of war, I’m not sure how he ever got any sleep.
Get stuck on an island with?
Well, the flying mage “Bombardier” from Shadowrun and “Eclipse” would each be useful, as they could fly us home. “Mirandala” could teleport us out, and “Professor K’s” friends have hi-tech ways to find us and retrieve us. If I’m really seriously stuck, though, I think “Nebula” would be a pretty charming companion.
My first fan convention
RoVaCon (the Roanoke Valley Convention) Seven was held at Northside High School on the other side of town from where I lived. Since I was only thirteen, and had neither a bike or many friends back then, I had to count on my dad for a ride there. (At thirteen, I was convinced that I couldn’t possibly stay upright on a bike for longer than a few minutes. Eventually, I figured out otherwise.)
I had read about SF conventions in books about Star Trek fandom, and this sounded exciting as heck – I wanted to go so badly. The advertising I’d seen said that the event ran for the whole weekend, but for reasons I can’t remember, my dad wouldn’t take me on Friday. He then wouldn’t take me on Saturday, either – I don’t remember whether there was a scheduling conflict, he didn’t feel well, or he was being obstinant; these things don’t matter when one’s an overeager thirteen-year-old fan. Finally, though, he took me to the con… on Sunday… at around 2pm. Yep, I paid a day rate to get into a con that was already shutting down. What a way to start my fannish life, eh?
The only guest I remember was Laura Banks, an actress with a small background part in that year’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I didn’t get to see her speak, she was already done for the weekend, but I remember her on the con posters – I was thirteen after all. I do remember seeing a fan who’d already obtained or constructed a “monster maroons” uniform.
The total con experience for me was seeing a few costumes in the halls, and wandering through the dealers’ room, in which I only remember Hitchhiker’s Guide LPs, Starfleet Battles miniatures, and exotic gaming dice, none of which my dad was in the mood to purchase for me. Crushingly aware that there was nothing else to see, I told my dad to go ahead and take me home.
Thankfully for the path I’d take in life, RoVaCon Eight would be much better.
30 Con Questions
Bob Snare put this test up on Facebook, and since it didn’t ask me for all my FB profile data first, I decided to go ahead and take the test:
—–
1. Fan, fen, geek, gamer, otaku, or other (if “other,” what)?
Gamer geek fan.
2. First con attended?
RoVaCon 7 (1982), late Sunday only. Took a while for me to forgive my dad for that one.
3. At what age did you attend your first con?
I’d have been in my late thirteens.
4. Suffer from “post-con depression?”
Not so much. I’m often kinda relieved to turn life back down a few notches.
Corporate Shenanigans
Seems that I have two VHS copies of the “Gentleman’s Agreement” Shadowrun movie. I found the better of the two, but I still played with the brightness settings a bit in iMovie to make Jerry’s Toaster work show up better. The initial team meetup scene remains dark as heck, though.
This is Part One…
