Star Crossed Musing

In session three, the characters get back to the house and are determined to get back to 1930 and find out where Wallis Simpson is and what exactly is going on. When they talk to Ronnie, however, he flatly reminds them that they have to stay with him until the recalibration is done and get him back to the Citadel. So they set up in the house and start the waiting game. About 20 minutes in, they realize that on the same corner they met Eddie and Reg earlier, they can see the barkeep standing about nervously. He seems to be looking for something -- or someone. Caroline is tempted to go out and see what he wants, but everyone else says no. Jason says he looks like bait, waiting to ID someone, and everyone agrees it's probably them. Instead they decide to spread out throughout the house and keep an eye out. Ronnie is trying to get through things as fast as he can (holed up in the first-floor bathroom) but he realizes he's having trouble syncing the time resonances -- almost lik...

The group goes to the pub to get something to eat. The pub is rundown — not much business. A couple of locals drinking at the bar, talking to the bartender. Everyone in there is suspicious of a bunch of people coming in. There’s a grease-spotted paper menu on the table with some oddly German-seeming foods on the list, along with some more traditional Scots bar food. No flags and such on the walls, just bottles of booze and old pictures and newspaper clippings.  The characters order food (pretzels with mustard and fish& chips) and listens in for a bit. Eventually they make conversation with the barkeep (Solomon tries and fails, while Micah and Jason succeed). They still aren’t sure what’s going on, or even if anything’s going on, but their time-abnormality-senses are going off like crazy. Not long after they get their food, Eddie comes in, panicked, and tells the barkeeper “they got Reg!” Reg, as it turns out, is Reggie, Eddie’s older brother. They are both the sons of th...

So not having run a game in a few years, but wanting to design a couple of Gumshoe hacks, I decided some time back that when our bi-weekly Monday gaming group hit the end of the most recent Promethean story (run by Matt) that I would throw my hat in the ring to run the next game. I really wanted to do Bookhounds of London (a take on Trail of Cthulhu ). The group agreed, albeit with some misgivings, but the more I sat with it, the more I realized that it just wasn't the right group for what I wanted to do with that game -- don't be a Book History scholar and run an evil books game for laymen, is what it basically boils down to. I'd spend my time excited over paper types and whatnot, and they'd be -- well, not as enthused, by and large. So instead I took that back and suggested running TimeWatch, and the idea was met with approval. We generated characters and then last week had our first session, albeit a slightly short one. Characters The characters are as ...

 I am home from Gen Con 2018! *falls over* *sleeps* *writes this post* Okay, so Gen Con was a thing that happened last week. It was huge, pushing 70k unique attendees in a 4 block radius, roughly. Some weirdness happened, which I'm not really going to touch on since a Google search can reveal it, but suffice it to say that Ms. Sarkeesian's presence touched off a wave of fetid attendees who felt their right to be politically icky was being threatened. Overall, though, the con and its attendees were fantastic, and I am thrilled we were able to be there and join together in fun and imagination. So, let's talk about what happened on my trip! First, the swag: The pic above shows the RPGs we bought. Cypher System , Unmasked , and Predation : At Origins we got to play Numenera for the first time, which yes, I know, I'm late to the Monte Cook Games party. I really enjoyed it, and as a result, when I found myself in the Monte Cook booth at Gen Con, we walked away ...

So there's a game I've been working on (or rather, it's been simmering on the back burner) for *mumble* years now. It's a cyberpunk game called Daedalus. You see, I wrote a setting way back in the 2000s for a company called Guardians of Order, which was published in their Ex Machina book -- there were four cyberpunk settings and mechanics for their system. My setting, the aforementioned Daedalus, was pretty kindly regarded, and I was pretty proud of it. When GoO folded, I got the rights back in lieu of payment for other debts, and we called it good. Cue Life. (Life enters, pursued by a bear.) Time passes, as it does, and in the interim I lived in Seattle and did a whole bunch of work for various other people and finished my bachelors degree. Then I moved to Cleveland, went to grad school, got married, and finished my doctorate. Gosh, it sounds so simple when I say it like that. Anyway, in the midst of all that, my husband Matthew and I started our own game compa...

Lo, I have returned! Arise from the dead, blog! Arise and stretch forth your reach into the Internets! *maniacal laugh* Well, not really all that maniacal. Mostly just normal and slightly relieved. You see, dear reader, I have finished my doctorate! I am tired and still somewhat braindead from the effort, but still recovering. I am also employed for the next school year, which is really all I wanted from my degree. Alas, the doggie pictured above, my dear sweet dim Leo, has left this earthly sphere at the ripe old age of 12-13, which is no small achievement when you're a purebred lab with bad hips. I have his picture to keep me company, at least. Wherever he might be in the cosmos, Leo will always be as pictured above: happy to see you. With that in mind, I am returning to blogging, finally. Likely topics to come will include game design, knitting, my research in 18th-century lit, my dogs, my house, my family, political opinion, and possible media reviews. I will also be ...