Month: January 2008

I purchased an advance order of In A Wicked Age, the new indie game from D. Vincent Baker (designer of Dogs in the Vineyard). I got a PDF of the game, and will have the printed version sent to me when it’s released.

It’s a fantasy story-telling game, owing more to the great Once Upon A Time card game than any RPG. The players and GM deal out cards from an “Oracle” (a specifically-created random adventure element generator with 52 options), and list the characters explicitly stated or implied in the elements drawn. Each player picks one of those characters to play, with the GM playing everyone else. There’s a system for what characters continue into the next chapter, with other players choosing new characters from the new chapter’s Oracle, etc.

Very nifty stuff, all in all.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get a chance to play it….and in fact, I’m not even sure if I need to. The main draw for me was the Oracle concept, which is a BRILLIANT imagination-sparker for writers. A full four-suit Oracle comes with the game, and there are a bunch more online, in various genres, created by fans of the game.

Readers of my game products will know that I’m a sucker for random generators, and these particular generators are not only useful for gaming, but for a writing aid as well.

For example, using the “God Kings of War” Oracle from the original rules:

A demon of rage and avarice, secret power behind a great tyrant’s rule.

A youth or maiden, the reincarnation of a great hero, whose soul remembers glory.

The mutiny and revolt of a prestigious cavalry company.

The arrival of a hundred fearsome warships on an unprepared, prosperous, peaceful coast.

My head starts filling with ideas and connections between those ideas…..

A lot of folks (including family) have asked me why I’m for Obama. There are many reasons, and I’ve gone into a bunch of them. Here’s a major one, very well-stated in the endorsement of Obama by South Carolina’s newspaper, The State:

“But we also have a good idea what a Clinton presidency would look like. The restoration of the Clintons to the White House would trigger a new wave of all-out political warfare. That is not all Bill and Hillary’s fault – but it exists, whomever you blame, and cannot be ignored. Hillary Clinton doesn’t pretend that it won’t happen; she simply vows to persevere, in the hope that her side can win. Indeed, the Clintons’ joint career in public life seems oriented toward securing victory and personal vindication.

Sen. Obama’s campaign is an argument for a more unifying style of leadership. In a time of great partisanship, he is careful to talk about winning over independents and even Republicans. He is harsh on the failures of the current administration – and most of that critique well-deserved. But he doesn’t use his considerable rhetorical gifts to demonize Republicans. He’s not neglecting his core values; he defends his progressive vision with vigorous integrity. But for him, American unity – transcending party – is a core value in itself.”

That’s a big one for me, and I have the hardest time understanding why many Democrats seem blind to it. The Clintons back in the White House (and trust me — it’s a “package deal”, as a family member replied to me when I asked why we’re seeing so much of Bill in the news recently) would lead to at least another 4 years (and possibly 8) of our recent nasty cut-throat national division. Red vs. Blue. 51 vs 49. The whole ugly package.

Enough already.

How cool is this?

The script for the fan-created Star Trek New Voyages film series has been placed on the preliminary ballot for the Nebula Awards.

The episode, “World Enough and Time,” featured George Takei reprising his role as Sulu, and I liked it quite a bit.

It’s also up against Steven Moffat’s “Blink” from the last series of Doctor Who, which is my personal choice for the win, but still — an episode of a fan-created series up for a Nebula. That’s fantastic!