Spycraft LARP VideoSpycraft LARP Video
 Posted at 8:38 PM
DieCon 7 Recap
I wrote and helped run the Spycraft LARP for Atomic Squash. In all we had about 22 players and wrote 35 characters. Sorry Jirel, but the Cynthia Pride character was cut due to lack of players. Thanks again for writing up the information on the collectible card game. Our biggest asset for LARP development was the wiki. I believe the ability to work online and see the edit history and recent changes made us more productive. It took some time to become adjusted to the wiki-style formatting. But everyone who used it seem to pick it up fairly quickly. We published a guest list, a list of characters, on the Atomic Squash forums before the game. The feedback to the list helped us gauge player interest. We were better able to select which characters to put in the optional column in case not enough players showed up. For a three to five hour game I feel that a 300-400 word character description worked well. It gives the player a good feel for the character and improves their game. For example I gave the Doctor Lo character a family. It was not important to the immediate events of the game, but helped define the character. There were not big stories that encompassed a large number of characters. This allowed us to safely cut characters and augment the game by playing the museum curator and auctioneer as non-player characters (NPCs). Most players had at a couple goals that encouraged interaction with other players. Making Otto's disappearance a mystery discouraged players from sticking to their small circles and encouraged them to circulate among the other players. A couple players told me how much they enjoyed their characters. Seeing them enjoy the game made all of the hard work worth it. I was thrilled to see Signgirl laughing and enjoying the LARP. Big points for you, sweetie! Now I'll have to draft you to help me write a new Kobolds LARP. Posted at 3:43 PM
I Know What You Did Last Weekend
We managed to post a list of characters for this year's game. In total there are a total of 35 characters. Since we usually have around twenty players, the unfortunate reality is that a third of these characters probably will not make it into the game. I just hope some of the ones I sacrificed my holiday weekend to write find their way into the game. Here is the list of characters on which I worked the past three days (in the order on which I worked them):
Yeah, I'm a slacker. I have a new respect for writers. Getting my head around most of these characters was a challenge. How do you make a tax agent interesting? What motives a wealthy Texas oil tycoon? What would compel somebody to spend time with a former Australian Prime Minister? I am convinced that writing involves hundreds of these little decisions. Good authors are the folks that make the best decisions. I managed to accumulate enough points in Battlefield 2 to get promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant. So far I have earned 75,099 points and have played the game for a total of 825 hours. I picked up Ozzy Osbourne's new album, Black Rain. It definitely rocks. The album features some juicy guitar riffs, or as I heard a DJ once say, ".. the sound of finely tuned chainsaws". It's a beautiful thing. The lyrics were adequate but fell short of being great. Thankfully Ozzy did not completely disappoint me like Sevendust's last effort did. Posted at 3:05 PM
Spycraft LARP Gets a WikiI am continuing to work on the Spycraft LARP for Atomic Squash. Our setting this year is an art auction. Here is the description of the game if you have not read it yet: "Invitations to high society events are commonplace in the world of celebrities, world figures and spies. What's interesting, though, is that the event's host, Otto Beisheim, hasn't been seen by anyone - including Mickey took twenty eight pictures of art items for the game. I spent some time last night uploading them to our game wiki and creating pages for them. By the way while I think wikis are terrible for software project documentation, we have succeeded in using one to organize our character sheets, art items, game rules and reference materials.
his wife - for over a year. Coupled with rumors of Otto's death and the donation of certain mysterious pieces of fine art, this makes for a very strange series of events. Join the fun and intrigue of another Atomic Squash Spycraft interactive event. Black tie dress is suggested but not required for play." Atomic Squash Spycraft LARP When: June 2nd 2007 We are also trying to think of some nice items to give away as prizes for players. Last year for the Fight Night game Atomic Squash gave away a pair of boxing gloves. Cool, huh? Ideas? I saw this on a fortune cookie yesterday: Doing what you love is freedom. Loving what you do is happiness. Don't panic! I just found out today is Towel Day, the annual celebration of the life and humor of Douglas Adams.
Posted at 1:50 PM
This Just In
Posted at 6:57 PM
Chili and BergamontFriends, I've been productive lately. I refinanced my house and closed on the new loan on Friday. If you have never experienced a closing, then let me explain what's involved. You and an agent sit down with a mountain of papers. You then proceed to sign, sign, sign. I discovered that refinancing has even more paperwork than buying a house. I think it took 1.5 hours for me to sign 20+ documents totaling over 120 pages! Whew! Last night Jason and Adam came over to work on the Spycraft LARP that Atomic Squash is putting together for DieCon 7. Before the meeting we were log jammed on ideas. I think we made progress establishing the premise of the story and fleshing out about twenty characters and several art items. I made chili, cornbread muffins and oatmeal raisin cookies. The chili was average. Adam gave me some ideas to improve it. I asked somebody if she can make neon green soap with the words "Atomic Squash" on it. I'm thinking we can give them out as prizes at the Spycraft LARP. She sent me a list of scents that are available. So, what does Atomic Squash smell like? There are fragrances on the list of which I have never heard: bergamot, frangipani, yuzu and pikake. I must live a sheltered life. Posted at 9:35 PM
Open Office OwnsIf you use OpenOffice, I highly recommend upgrading to version 2.2. Autokerning is now enabled by default. It makes a noticeable difference in making documents easier on the eyes. I tried out the Folding@Home client on my Playstation 3. It is interesting to watch the ball-n-stick molecule model twist in real-time. In the background is a rotating Earth with points of lights around cities. The program caused my PS3 to run hot. The fan was so loud I had difficulty getting to sleep. I decided to move the PS3 out of its shelf in the entertainment center and place it on top where it can get better air circulation. I believe the trouble with my Linux box is the Ethernet adapter card. Since NewEgg didn't have the Intel card I wanted I decided to get a Trendnet TEG-PCITXR gigabit Ethernet card. It is supposed to have good Linux support. Does anybody have experience with this card? I am helping to write the Spycraft LARP (Live Action Role-playing) game for DieCon 7. I set up a Wiki for the all of the authors to use. I have spent the better part of the past week creating pages for last year's characters and brainstorming pages for this year's game. I'm a little disappointed that the organizers don't have more of a sense of urgency since the game is close to eight weeks away. Last week I changed my plans in order to get together with the others. I didn't hear anything so I contacted one of them who told me the meeting wasn't going to happen. Frustrating! Ah well, I gotta tell myself I am only volunteering my help. If I was in charge of getting the game together, I would do things differently. Posted at 8:14 PM
Pictures from the Spycraft LARP My buddy Cpt Squash has finally posted pictures from the Spycraft LARP that his Atomic Squash group ran at DieCon 6
There are a few pictures of me in there. I'm the guy wearing the blue shirt with the Japanese fish on it and the Converse high-tops. It was good to see and play games with so many of my friends. I seriously needed the stress relief after the events of the previous four months. Posted at 7:13 PM
DieCon PostmortemI had fun at DieCon 6 this past weekend. I was good to see all of my buddies. I had a blast playing Rock High, a role playing game based on a high school full of mutants, and the Spycraft LARP. I lugged around a backpack full of books. That was mistake. I had serious back pain yesterday and self-treated it with ice packs and aspirin. Today it was a little better. I called in sick to work and am nursing my back with heat packs and Aleve. I hope to be well enough to limp my lame self around the office tomorrow. The weekend before last I took my boss' sister to a tribute show at Pops. That's the closest I've come to a date in a long time. We had fun watching the tribute acts to Kiss, AC/DC and Ozzy. The Kiss tribute band had a lady who stood out front of the stage and translated the show in sign language. It was interesting to watch Kiss lyrics being signed by a cute blonde woman. The AC/DC band was good. The Ozzy band played a few too many obscure tunes for my taste, but still did a decent job. Posted at 6:12 PM
DieCon This WeekDieCon 6 starts Friday, June 2 and runs through Sunday, June 4. It is an annual gaming-only convention held at the Gateway Convention Center in Collinsville IL, which is a short drive from St Louis MO. This is not a poker tournament where you gamble away your hard earned money. It is all about having fun without paying too much. This year's Gaming Guest of Honor is Patrick Kapera. I had the honor of meeting Patrick at GenCon last year. He is a talented game designer whose author credits include Spycraft. Word is that he is making a cameo in this year's Spycraft Interactive (LARP). Posted at 3:10 PM
Settlers and SquashI played a few friends in a game of Settlers of Catan last night. I won the game, which was the second one I've ever played. I got lucky and acquired points early. That made me a target but also psyched out the other players. Isn't it interesting how sometimes part of a game is playing the players? I met with Jason to help with the newly formed Atomic Squash Productions. We are putting together next year's Spycraft LARP for Die Con 6. I'll post more details in the future. Spycraft LARP at DieCon 5This past weekend I went to DieCon 5. My buddy Jason ran a Spycraft LARP Saturday night. We had fun. It was a casino story that took place on a boat. I was a deep cover operative working as a bodyguard for a boss named Hugo Gauge. Ultimately my cover was blown. Boss Gauge took me out in a fight that started by him shooting a flamethrower cigar at me. I kid you not! I look forward to next year's DieCon and the SpyCraft LARP. For now I am making plans for this year's GenCon Indy Posted at 10:58 PM
Command DecisionLast weekend I attended DieCon 4. As luck would have it my first game Kobolds Ate My Baby! was cancelled. I found a few friends playing Command Decision. The game master graciously let me join the game. I ended up playing that game the rest of the convention. Command Decision is a modern-day miniatures war game. The game master says that he also runs these scenarios to train military people to face difficult command decisions. The detail of the tanks and landscape was incredible. I have included some pictures to give a sense of scale and the detail in this game. Every detail was covered down to the railroad crossing signs and other road signs. My tanks even had a small crest painted on them. My role was to play the Croatian defense. The U.N. was played by several other players including troops from the United States, Germany, Russia and France. My goal was to prevent the refugees from leaving the town and heading to Croatia. The game played out over a day and a half. Even though I was massively outgunned I was secretly aided by the Russian player. I successfully blew up the one bridge leading into the town making it difficult for the Ohio National Guard player to move his tanks in. It was tense at moments. The game master made sure each of us felt the pressure of having to make critical decisions. We got into the game, had a few laughs and pondered what decisions real military leaders would do in the same situation. Overall, it was a brilliant game in a beautifully modeled town. If you are at Origins later this month, be sure to check this game out. The game master and his team promise to be there.
Posted at 11:21 PM
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