Creative Limit

Archon 32 Recap

This past weekend was Archon 32. I started Friday afternoon by making a trip to Office Depot to pick up name badges, folders and sheet protectors for the materials of the Kobolds Ate My Baby LARP. I arrived at Archon where I ran into a bunch of old friends and signed up for games with my buddy Jim.

We headed out to dinner at Applebees. There he filled me in on the latest goings-on in the world of politics. I must admit that I had been busy with convention prep and didn't spend enough time to understand the details of the recently signed $700 billion “emergency” financial market bailout bill. Jim told me that it felt like a stealth tax to subsidize mortgages for poor folks and to profit politicians. I agreed with him that some of the fundamental problems still exist even after the massive give-away.

After dinner I joined Jason's Circus Imperium game. We were joined by a group from Ohio. We teased two of the girls from Ohio by calling one of them the “nice” one and the other the “mean” one. Both played the game enthusiastically and were amusing.

Jason has a room party that night. His was the only party that night. Once he told folks that he wasn't giving away free alcohol, the foot traffic to the room died down. I played a little Rock Band and a dice game. I left around 1 AM to go home to print out all of the materials for the Saturday morning game.

The Kobolds LARP started at 10 AM Saturday morning. I was surprised that we sold out all of the slots for 15 players. I was even more surprised that all of them showed up. In 2006 we had a number of no-shows. I had writing help this year. Jason and Adam contributed a number of ideas I tried to incorporate into the game.

The LARP was set in a school of magic. The players were divided into two houses with three of the players having no house alignment at all. Each house had six players. During the writing process I drew influence from chess pieces. I realized that there are six different types of pieces: pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, kings and queens. So I spent some time thinking about high school archetypes and how they might correspond to chess pieces. For example I wrote a bureaucrat that corresponded to a pawn and a class president that corresponded to a queen.

Jim's two oldest boys joined the game. They are grade schoolers with little gaming experience. So I made with House Elfs. Their goal was to help their school house, much like a brownie or a billiken.

We ran three different contests for the House cup competition. The first was to write a drinking song. Since Adam decided to sleep in, we drafted one of the house elves to help judge. In a stroke of hilarity one of the players bribed him with a dollar bill to vote for his house.

The second contest was a competition called Snatch the Troll's Stash. We lifted ideas from the game Devil Bunny Needs a Ham. We laid out a grid on the floor using paper plates. We marked off a line using masking tape. The goal was to go from one end to the other on the plates. They draw cards for movements. If they drew a King or an Ace, then the Kobold that was furthest along was moved back to the beginning. Unless, of course, they were past the marked line in which case they drew against the Troll Cave Horrible Death Chart to determine their fate.

The last contest was Headditch. In our last brainstorming session Jason got the idea to set it up like fuss ball. We laid down six parallel strips of masking tape on the floor. Players had to stay on their strip of tape. We gave them sticks with nets on the end. We pulled the head off of a Kewpie doll and used that as the ball. The players moved the head to the end of the room to their goal to score a point. We did some improvisation, but it worked out.

Next I played a game of Living Greyhawk using Dungeon and Dragons 3.5 rules. The players were cool but the game was kind of a bummer. It ended by having us watch a village burn to the ground.

I headed to White Castle with Jim to pick up some carry-out. I wanted to make a 7:30 PM Arkham Horror game so we got the order to go. On the walk back to the convention hotel a mini-van pulled out of a parking lot. We thought the driver was slowing for us. Jim started crossing in front of him. But he lurched forward. Jim quickly ran out of his path. Then the van swerved toward me! I put a death grip on our sack of Slyders and spun around to deflect most of the force of the speeding van. Only then did the driver decide to stop. He opened his door and asked if we were okay. We were shocked but fine. The only damage was that the chicken rings that were sitting on the top of the sack were not strewn all over the ground. Ah well, another Archon, another White Castle adventure.

Will ran a game of Red Dragon Inn. It was a fun casual game and a nice change of pace from the inexplicably short Arkham Horror game.

Then, somebody started a game of Werewolves of Millers Hollow. This game requires eight players. So Archon is about the only place I get to play it. The game started with around 12 players. A couple of tables were added and the number of players expanded to somewhere around 30. I snapped some pictures with my cell phone camera and uploaded them to my Flickr account.

I didn't make it home until around 5 AM on Sunday. I was exhausted and slept most of the day. So, this year was another great Archon. I met some new friends and spent some time with old friends. We are already talking about plans for next year's Archon and discussing writing games for next year's Die Con.

Toward a Perfect Character

I recently had a disagreement with the organizer of the Spycraft LARP. We worked under considerable schedule pressure to produce the game. Characters were being changed up until minutes before they were printed out. Even though most of them were proofread a week before, some ugly looking mistakes were introduced during the final two days of development. The typos and the misspellings are an area I identified for improvement. The LARP organizer responded that it is impossible to eliminate mistakes. I disagree.

Character Development FlowchartVolumes of books have been written about defect management. There are times when it is impractical to eliminate all possible defects from a system. It could take more than a year to test every possible combination of characters that could be entered into a tax preparation program. This is no good when the program has to change every eight months due to new tax laws. So in order to eliminate defects you must be practical.

I believe it is possible to implement a process to reduce, and maybe eliminate, errors in character sheets. I know the word process summons images of straitjackets to some. But those folks are only fooling themselves. Processes improve quality.

Here is my process. I introduce the concept of a status to a character sheet. When a character sheet is first written is in the working status. Once the author feels it is ready, then he submits it to the scrutiny of a peer review. Let us call this a review status. Other authors have the opportunity to examine the character and provide constructive criticism. If too many defects are found, the character is rejected and returns to the working status. Otherwise the defects are fixed and the character gains the accepted status. Once a character is accepted, the project leader must review it. If there are more than minor changes, then it returns to working status. If not, then the character is ready for the player and reaches the finished status. If an accepted or finished character is modified, it returns to the working status and must be reviewed again.

Now this process is not so rigid that it cannot be bent. There is little benefit in sending a character back through for review for relatively minor fixes. The important points are 1) all characters are subjected to the scrutiny of your peers and 2) the project leader has the final approval on characters.

You may point out that this requires more time in order to produce a character. But I believe the turnaround time for peer reviews can be improved by setting a reasonable deadline for comments and gathering them electronically, i.e. through the character's wiki talk page.

Does this seem unreasonable for a volunteer project? I do not think so esp. if your goal is to produce characters without embarrassing flaws.

Am Quietly Man

Kevin bought me a copy of a book entitled 52 Fifty-two Poems for Men.

It inspired me to try my own hand at poetry. This one is dedicated to the lovely Signgirl.

AM QUIETLY MAN

We left for
a trip
to the place
up north

You drove your
big car
and listened
to tunes

We always
go back
for something
we forgot

DieCon 7 Recap

The lovely Signgirl and her son D joined me for the first night of DieCon this past weekend. Jon Bancroft's daughter took us through a game of KinderBunnies. During the game Jon dropped off a coupon which Signgirl used to buy some games for D.

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.

I Know What You Did Last Weekend

I spent the Memorial Day weekend writing characters for the Spycraft LARP that Atomic Squash plans to run at DieCon this Saturday. I started Friday after work and worked morning to night on them. I took a few breaks to play Battlefield 2 and do some shopping. More on that in a bit.

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):

• Vittorio Esperto: an Italian collector visiting the United States. (White Tux, Greased Hair, Pinky Ring)
• Malcolm Whitlow: a former Prime Minister of Australia. (Bald, Charismatic, Bold tie)
• Clodomir Uteem: an exiled islander and activist. (Dark Skin, Beard, Scowl)
• Nicole Mason: an Australian government official. (Plain, Flat Hair, Nice Dress)
• Jamal Riggs: a European Union tax agent. (Wrinkled jacket, Wing tipped shoes, Soul patch)
• Izanami Kishi: a famous Japanese actor and martial arts expert. (Black Formal Robe, Bald, Short)
• Hong Gildong: a Korean-born Texas oil magnate. (Comb over, False Teeth, Designer Tuxedo)
• Jeremy Wade: the assistant to Izanami Kishi. (Flamboyant, Curly Hair, Pink Shirt)
• Juan Kerr: the bodyguard to Elsa Beisheim. (Eye patch, Muscular, Van Dyke)
• Cynthia Pride: a British journalist working for The London Times. (Pantsuit, Short Hair, Notepad)
• Elmyr: a little known artist seeking some exposure. (Ascot, Chain Smoker, Earrings)
• James Camelot: a hacker who claims he has a program that can determine if paintings are fake. (Young, Nerdy, Skinny Tie)
• Pat Pennyworth: a beautiful auctioneer working for Fukabun Naka Auctions. (Stiff Prosthetic Arm, Stunning, Red Dress)

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.

Spycraft LARP Gets a Wiki

I 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:

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.

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.

This Just In

It was a busy week for me this past week. On Thursday I met Signgirl's family and went to her graduation from Southwestern Illinois College. I brought my Olympus EVOLT E-500 digital SLR camera. In an attempt to appease her anxious five year son I let him snap a few pictures with it before the ceremony. He was mostly careful with the camera but thought it was cute to press his face against the lens. After the ceremony we went to a get together with Signgirl's classmates and friends.

On Friday Bella Rose and her husband came over for an impromptu BBQ. I told Signgirl I usually like to plan things like that out better. But lately I've been trying quite a few things outside my comfort zone. Things were fine. I think everyone enjoyed themselves.

The next day Signgirl took me to a graduation party hosted by a classmate, VA. VA recently moved into a house in Belleville not too far where I used to live on North Charles. She has already done some great work remodeling the place. Out back was a building that was once used as a bakery. It is now being used to house a couple old cars and a refrigerator.

Later that evening we met Nicholas and his fiancee, Delaney, for dinner at Union Station in St Louis. Afterwards we toured the mall stopping to see the floor show at the Fudgery and feeding the mutant koi in the pond under the train shed. There was some discussion about Ren Faires including the recent trend for pirate only faires. Arrr, looks like Signgirl wishes to go to one of these later this summer.

Jason came over on Sunday. I have been helping him write characters for the upcoming Atomic Squash Spycraft LARP game. We hammered out the backgrounds for a dozen or so characters. Jason laid out his plans for the two weeks we have left before we run the game at DieCon. He wants me to figure out how to print out the characters in a format suitable for our players. So I plan to be occupied with game work this week.

Signgirl is making a trip out of town. Her and D came over yesterday and stayed until I dropped them at the airport around 5 AM this morning. When I got back home, I climbed into bed and fell asleep. I woke around 11 AM and sent an email to my boss saying that I was going to be out today. Then I fell back asleep and didn't get up until around 5 PM. Yeah, I am a bum.

Quick Update

I've been doing more writing for the Spycraft LARP. I added information to our wiki about the now defunct Spycraft Collectible Card Game (CCG). It was difficult to find the information. As recently as two years ago there was an active community around the game. Now there is hardly a trace of it. I had to go to the Wayback Machine to find information on the game's factions. When a game dies, it disappears.

I went over to CptSquash's place Monday night. We played a game of Power Grid. I have had a copy of the game for two years now and haven't had the opportunity to play. It was a fun game, but I lost terribly.

The terms of my mortgage were different than I had discussed with the company before the closing. They are redoing it with terms I like better. That means I have to close again. Yeah, more paper signing! LOL! Thankfully they are waiving the closing fees for the redux.

Chili and Bergamont

Friends, 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.

NaNoWriMo, Part 1

I decided to give National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) a shot.

I'm feeling kinda tired so I decided to start with some stuff I wrote for the Kobolds LARP last month. Why do I make so many decisions while I'm tired?

Here is my novel so far:

Kisses for the Kobold Queen
by Tom Conder

Written: November 2006

It was a day just like any other day. It was a Tuesday. Monday had run its miserable course. Wednesday was preparing its hump. Somewhere in a dark musty cave lived a creature called a Kobold.

Kobolds have silly, short-lived lives. They are a race of little dog-like humanoids. They stand only two feet tall, are covered in bristly orange hair and have large mouths filled with sharp, pointy teeth. They are stupid creatures who spend their days causing mischief and when attempting anything remotely complicated usually fail miserably.

A little known fact is that Kobolds are gourmets. The food that they eat must be the best available. A typical Kobold Feast includes interesting dishes such as Emerald's Cheesy Chicken Casserole, Blackened Elf Shank with Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Rosemary, Rat Filets Roasted with Coffee Beans, Red Peppers and Creamy Grits with Greens and Mushrooms, Braised Dog in a Bordelaise Sauce Garnished with Truffle Pate and with a Fried Egg on top and, of course, a yummy HUMAN BABY, LETTUCE AND TOMATO SANDWICH! If these fines foods are not available, cannibalism is encouraged. Kobolds are terribly tasty when seasoned with chile pepper and garnished with cave crickets.

There are no words for "personal hygiene" and "aerosol deodorant" in the Kobold vocabulary. Kobolds carry a stench that smells like a cross between a wet dog and a school cafeteria. Although the odor is quite repugnant, Kobolds seem unaware of its existence. Creatures with weak dispositions have been known to become nauseated and vomit in the presence of the scent. Gusts of wind in the wrong direction have spoiled many Kobold surprise raids and fancy Fey creature celebrations.

On this particular Tuesday a Kobold named Belzak was lounging on a mound of dirt in the St Louis Zoo. Strange thing is that Kobolds do not normally live in Human zoos. They almost always live in caves. But much like a grade school student's homework project, Kobolds are not exempt from strange and twisted fates.

Months ago rival Kobolds disguised as the famous Kobold chef Emerald and his kitchen staff visited Belzak's cave. Kobold chefs are fanatical about Emerald, a celebrated gourmet chef. The learned sage Dorf noted in his autobiography that Emerald once cooked a feast for the Kobold King that lasted three weeks. Recipes from this epic event have become staples in Kobold kitchens everywhere. Due to his influence many Kobolds have chosen to dedicate their lives to cooking creative gourmet meals. Dorf wrote that if Kobolds had bigger brains, they might realize that most dishes smell like unwashed gym socks. Contemporary sages say that Dorf was a mad crackpot and an outrageous liar.

The sneaky rival Kobolds arranged a cooking demonstration. When Belzak and the rest of his clan showed up, they were taken by surprise and captured in a huge wooden cage. In a display of ravenous and arrogant dominance, the clan leader was cooked in an epic-level BBQ. While their enemies dined, a strange Gnome arrived. He said he was Phil T. Olaf, an entertainer and entrepreneur. In exchange for two pairs of shiny boots, a bag of cheesy doodles and a yummy Human baby, the Gnome acquired the entire clan! Then he transported Belzak and his clan to the St Louis Zoo where they are sold and put on exhibit as a rare type of prairie dog.

Now the Kobolds spend their time digging holes and dreaming about fancy dishes they once prepared at their feasts. There wasn't much for Belzak to do this Tuesday. But that would soon change.

Suddenly the ground begins to swim under Belzak. He hops up and looks around. The earth seems to jump up before him. With a ripping sound a wide crack appears in the ground just a few feet in front of him. The earth continues to shift. With a loud roar the crack closes again.

"What?! Hey, did anybody else feel that earthquake?", Belzak says as he spins around. "Come here. There was this crack right here!"

Frightened Kobolds back far away from Belzak as he points to the ground and tells his story. Nobody is sure if the word "aftershock" ever existed in the Kobold vocabulary before this day. About ten minutes after the earthquake there was a horrible splitting, tearing sound. A giant crevice opens under the spot in which he was standing.

It is was not for the yelling and the screaming the darkness into which Belzak fell could be considered peaceful. In a way Belzak felt the rush of air and the sensation of free-falling were a welcome relief from months of captivity. Terror only struck him when he thought about jagged rocks bringing his fall to an end or the idea that the crevice could close again burying him alive.

Eventually he fell into a tube just barely wider than himself. He starts clawing and cursing. The cussing does not really help. But Belzak manages to slow down his descent to a complete stop. As he gazes downward he sees a light! Slowly he climbs down until he finds a ledge leading to an opening. It is bright as daylight. There is green grass and river flowing into a waterfall.

There is nothing like a climb to work up a thirst. Belzak dashes toward the river to take a drink. As he drinks, the earth grumbles violently. Pieces of rock start to rain around him. As he shields himself a large rock lands on his head. Belzak's vision narrows. Then all colors turn gray. Finally, darkness settles in his clouded mind. He has lost consciousness.

[Ed: I'm not happy with this.. It could be better. And I need to fix the past/present tense in some paragraphs.]