Star Crossed Musing

Going by Wallis's reported date of death, the team showed up in 1924 a few days early, trying to get ahead of the time split (which they did). Solomon hung back at the Citadel for a moment/day/ever -- time travel tends to make that sort of distinction meaningless (their player was out). The team staked out her house and started looking for ways to find interference/figure out exactly when the event would take place. Micah starts off with his disguise as a groundskeeper at the Spencer household (she's still married to her first husband at this point). He sees a chauffeur working on the car outside the garage in back of the house, so he wanders over and starts a conversation. He has a pleasant talk with the driver, with the result that he learns there's going to be a party on Friday and the driver isn't needed to stay and wait. He also learns that her husband is gone for quite long intervals and is not terribly close with his wife.  Caroline, in the meantime, pays...

Leaving last session's dinner party, the group heads back to the Citadel for a quick regroup and identity change before leaping forward in time. They return to London in May 1930 at a swanky party that HRH Prince Edward is attending, where in theory he meets Wallis and her then-husband, Ernest Simpson.  Caroline and Jason keep the same personas, and thus are recognized by the people they met at the weekend in the country. Freda in particular seems very interested in Caroline and invites her to stay at her house, determined to find her a suitable husband and keep her around. Caroline, who is likewise interested in Freda, maintains her cool, keeping the conversation open.  Solomon acts as a photographer at the party, documenting and seeing how the crowd interacts. He's the observer, looking for things that might be out of place.  Micah's persona is very much himself, but as a captain after the WWI who stayed in England. He's a fish out of water a bit, but can p...

So after a significant RL hiatus, we picked up at the dinner party, reconvening after tea and rest to embark on the dinner portion of the evening. Things that were learned: 1) Prince Edward is bored and has a roving eye for married women. His relationship with Freda Dudley Howe is waning, and he's getting interested in Lady Thelma Furness. This is as it should be in 1930. 2) Prince Edward thinks that war is awful and should be avoided at any cost. He also thinks he has something to offer England and that the king should be thoroughly in charge, with a lot more power than his father chooses to wield. Also, he really likes Germany. 3) No one has heard of Wallis Simpson. She should be living in London about now with her husband Ernest. and they should meet Prince Edward in a few months at a party in town. 4) None of the women except Lady Anastasia, Lord Mountbatten's wife, seem to have any real affection for their husbands, and Anastasia is much more focused on her life as...

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 ...

Here, it's a picture of a cute pig from the Internet. Enjoy. So, Dear Reader, the last we saw of each other was when I got that amazing survey back and could not figure out what the heck I was going to do with it. (I am much closer to doing something with it, btw, but that'll take another few months.) I had every intent of posting again, and soon, but then... well, my dissertation ramped up and ate my life. I've been making good progress, but I'm on something of a deadline at the moment, so I'm forced to ignore pretty much everything that isn't it, including this blog. I still love you all, though. Truly. Would Little Piglet lie to you? No, it would not. Oink. In life updates though, in the past five months: Both my sons are graduating high school I've finished drafts of three and a half chapters I've been a guest at a convention (Breakout Con in Toronto, ON!) I've been elected president of a game developers trade organization (IDGN!) I...

Last week I thought to myself, "Self, you need to do a blog post." In trying to think of what this blog post would be about, I thought that maybe covering stuff that had happened in gaming last year from and by women would be a good topic. The problem, of course, was that I didn't have any data. I made a Facebook post querying about interest in the topic and whether people would help with information, and someone on my list suggested asking what women had been playing last year. I pondered this and decided that a "year in review" survey might be a good idea. I then took a few days of messing with Google Forms and ended up with the survey you see a portion of above. I thought I might get as many as a couple of hundred responses, assuming people were interested. Oh, what a sweet summer child past Me was. On Monday, January 9th, I started sending out the links to it. I posted it on Facebook, G+, and Twitter -- once each. It went live at 4:30 PM EST that day...

So, I really meant to post more in December, truly I did, but then the end of the semester happened, and then I fell and broke my thumb, which put a damper on my typing overall. I just got my cast off yesterday, and it's a glorious feeling. (See pic of my son cosplaying John Bender from The Breakfast Club to embody that emotion. :) ) It's sore, and I can't ask it to do too much, and I have a splint to wear at night for support, but it's so much better than it was. So I have more about game design to post, but I'm going to take a bit to do the obligatory end-of-year post. 2016 seemed like a year of huge upheaval for just about everyone I know. Some good, some bad, but lots of it regardless. My eldest son moved in with us and started his senior year again, for example. He's doing well, but it was an adjustment. My dad had health issues but is doing okay. My car got wrecked (by my son) and replaced with my parents' old minivan.  I had a chapter approved fo...

From the app game Monument Valley So I've been bitten by the fantasy bug, probably at least part in reaction to the whole election stuff. This isn't unusual, really -- look at Tolkien -- but it's unusual for me, because working at WotC and on d20 stuff for so long had seemingly inoculated me against fantasy stuff. I still can't play D&D or Pathfinder. It's like a mental contact allergy, except it involves ranting and a reaction to classes and levels. However, I've started putting thought into a fantasy game, and I think it a) actually has some legs and b) would be fun to play and c) does enough that's different to be worthwhile and not just another heartbreaker. So I figured I'd post about it as I go along and see what people think. So, first of all, I've figured out I have rules for game design overall, and even fantasy games have to fit within them. Here are my rules. 1) There has to be a goal of play.  I have nothing against sandbox...

Oh friends, readers, and countrymen, what tales I have to tell you. I have returned from London and completed revisions on my first dissertation chapter. I have started writing using the research I did in London for my fourth (written second) chapter. I have been teaching a class and I have made a prototype for a new card game, which is not a thing I have ever done before. I have made hand-raised steak and ale pies for my gaming group, and shared the joy of Jaffa Cakes. My company has even just finished a successful Kickstarter for a new Chill 3rd Edition supplement -- Monsters. We not only met our very realistic (aka not lowballed) goal, but we exceeded it by 5k, and as a result will be adding extra content in the form of more monsters! Closer to home and the present day, the weather is currently giving me fits as it yo-yos from 40s to 70s and back again, all of which triggers my migraines. Metatopia is this weekend, and I am not really ready, but I am likely as ready as I will ev...

This is the delicious fish and chips I ate. That is some big fish. No, seriously. That's a MEDIUM. Really well done, too. Cod, but that's like the least adventurous fish they have there -- I just like cod. If you get the chance, go to The Fish House on Portobello Road. The upstairs waiter is this very nice Italian guy from Milan. Two thumbs way up.  My hair loves it here. It's the humidity, I'm sure. Seriously, best hair in ages.  Sweating. So. Much. Again, it's the humidity (and that I'm fat, I'm sure). Because the temp isn't that high and the exercise is not that strenuous, and it seems to depend on the room I'm in (if I'm in a room) as much as anything. Not terribly fun. Better on lower humidity days. Laundry services. Expensive, but a super nice splurge. I can't afford to do it again, but I'm glad I did it once. They even got the spot out of my skirt!  I got a coat. Actually, let's be clear -- I think I could be in love ...

So, I thought I should probably post a bit about exactly what I'm trying to research, if only to give myself a chance to work through it. My initial plan was to look at reprints of famous novels, particularly in periodical format. Specifically, I'm looking at Novelist's Magazine , and trying to figure out what changed both in subsequent printings and in this particular format of the novel. I'm looking primarily for added illustrations, but I'll also take general decoration, typeface, layout, etc. I wanted to look at two novels: Pamela and Joseph Andrews . The image to the right is the title page from an early edition of Pamela  by Samuel Richardson. This is, of course, kind of appropriate, since Pamela was such a huge hit, and Joseph Andrews is Henry Fielding's response to Pamela by writing about her brother and his adventures. Now, I know from research that both Pamela and Joseph Andrews were published in Novelist's Magazine . And obviously, the...

The coffee shop/bakery across the street from me sells the best latte I've ever had. No, seriously. It is that good. Here is it. Apparently it's part of a small chain, but if it serves coffee this good, I don't care. Also, their regular coffee is quite nice as well. The only thing I don't care for is their insistence that everything should be served on a small plank. A plank is not a plate. Even trenchers had a carved indention. It's not that hard, people. If they tell you that they have crispy bacon, they're lying. Or else "crispy bacon" is code for "not-crispy-at-all bacon, but it has grill marks. See?" On the other hand, ham hereabouts is amazing, and I don't even really like ham all that much. Public restrooms are hard to come by. Some places don't have them at all, some places hide them unless you ask. - Traveling and being an introvert is hard. I'd been pushing myself because, after all, I don't have that long...

London has a serious thing going on with avocados. I mean, I like avocados a lot, and even I am now wary of finding them where they don't belong after a single day. Caprese salad should not have avocado. Just. No. Yay, I'm staying in a Georgian townhouse, on streets with a lot of other Georgian townhouses! I can pretend I've come to London for a season and can leave cards for people! Boo, I'm staying on the third floor in a Georgian townhouse, with three flights of stairs and no lifts, as they say! And the plumbing is wonky. And there's no climate control, though the gorgeous weather currently makes that less of a concern. I can eavesdrop on everyone, and only half of them are in a language I understand! Fun! :) Doggies are everywhere! Everyone's walking a dog. It's awesome. People are generally nice! It probably helps that I'm generally nice too. I still feel like I'm walking around a movie set. I'm not sure how many days it'll tak...

Here we are again with another installment of RPGaDay 2016! This week has been orientation week at school, so lots of meetings and prep for the next semester going on. Let's pick up where we left off, shall we? 15th: Your best source of inspiration for RPGs? My players, always. I mean, that sounds kinda cheesy, but I'm very much a player-driven GM. I don't come up with a story I want to tell until my players do. I figure out storylines over time based on their choices and backgrounds. I mean, I watch movies and read books and stuff like anyone, but I don't tend to set up a story or anything. A huge part of my enjoyment in something comes from the people I'm with, so that's what matters first to me. 16th: Historical Person you'd like in your group? What game?  Oh, this is such a weird question. Um, I'll reveal my 18th-century geekitude and suggest Jane Austen playing Monsterhearts. 17th: What fictional character would best fit in your group? U...

Here we are, coming to the end of another summer. I'm not ready. My youngest son is going back to Seattle at the end of next week. I won't see him again until Christmas. I'm not ready. My oldest son is starting school on Monday. He's getting a do-over on his senior year. This is his chance to make it work, and I'm overseeing it. I'm not ready. I leave for London in a week and a half, and I'll be there for three weeks. I'm both terrified and exhilarated. I am not, however, ready. Matt's already back at work. Has been since last week. I am still not ready. Next week is orientation for the new semester. Definitely not ready. I want to be ready. I want to be caught up on working and sending stuff over to my advisor. I want to feel like I've spent enough time with my kids, that I'm where I need to be, that I've spent enough time with Matt. Instead, I feel like things are coming to an end and nothing is quite okay, and that's ...