23 Oktober 2006
It's ALIVE!!!
Ok, here I am again. For a month now, I've been free of this whole Zivildienst Bullshit. Never again, YEAH!!! ^_^
Feels great.
(Of course, now I'm unemployed, have, once again, no idea what I should do in life and way too much time at hand, but still, no slavery any more. Silver lining and all that.)
But, with loads of time at my hand, I now can actually get stuff done!!! (Or try to, at least...)
So I thought a bit about my project of the next months, things I want to get done some time in the furture:
-Gaming, Gaming, Gaming
I have time, I have tons of games, so I damn well will have games.
Luckily, seems I'm not the only one who thinks this way, which is why I finally get a game going a week ago. Sure, it wasn't much of a game, more a one hour nervous breakdown of fighting robot pirates in a post-apokalyptic disneyworld, but it was a fun introduction into Wushu for my players and hooked them, so it was a success. ^_^
In case anybody's interested, here's the [Actual Play] write-up I did on RPGnet:
-Lulu Rocks.
And I plan to use it in some way.
For a while now, I've wanted to do a "Gamers calendar", as an analog to things like the Jungbauernkalender ("Young farmers calendar"), ie. a calendar featuring erotic pictures of cute gamers, both male and female. Now, obviously that's quite an undertaking and I have no idea wether I'd actually find any modells, who'd take the picture and, maybe even the most important aspect, if this thing'd actually sell? Right now, I have none of that. No modells, no idea if this would sell or whatever. But I have an idea and I think I know how I might get the rest.
The first think in my plan is to find out wether there are gamer out there that would modell for the calendar, buy it and how much they'd pay for it. To do that, I plan to grab a few of my friends and make a survey on the next Vienna Fantasy Gaming Convention, approaching potential modells (ie. cute male and female gamers) and customers and polling them on the prospect of a gamer calendar. Now, the next convention is in 4 months, so I'll probably do a bit of asking around until then, gathering people interested in the project and so on. Who knows, it might actually work.
Should I actually find people interested in modelling and buying, production would begin. Hopefully, the survey found 12 cute male and 12 cute female gamers willing to get (slightly) naked in front of their camera and have their picture plastered on a calendar for, well, not much money. (If any. Without any money for investment, actually paying people might be a problem. Which means they'd either have to modell for free or for a cut of the final income, both of which is a bit of a pain in the ass. Well, we'll see.) But let's assume that I'd actually find 24 people willing to get nude pictures taken for whatever conditions I can give them.
The next step would then be to get that thing printed, which I'd get done by Lulu.com. It's easy, it's fast, it needs zero investment (And thus lessens the chance to loosing huge ammount sof money on something that won't sell.) and it seems to do a good job, judging by the huge number of Indie Game Designers that use it to get their books printed. Lulu would allow me to stop worrying about stuff like "How many calendars do I have to get printed and where do I get the money to do so", while instead letting me spend my time and effort to get the word out, pimp it on websites and so on. It'd also spare me the headache of setting up a webshop.
Ah, well, that's the idea anyway.
--------------------------
Well, that was it, the first new post on this blog. No idea if there will be other posts, but we'll see.
Mood: Just had great Sex. Nuff Said.
Currently Listening to: FM4 radio
Feels great.
(Of course, now I'm unemployed, have, once again, no idea what I should do in life and way too much time at hand, but still, no slavery any more. Silver lining and all that.)
But, with loads of time at my hand, I now can actually get stuff done!!! (Or try to, at least...)
So I thought a bit about my project of the next months, things I want to get done some time in the furture:
-Gaming, Gaming, Gaming
I have time, I have tons of games, so I damn well will have games.
Luckily, seems I'm not the only one who thinks this way, which is why I finally get a game going a week ago. Sure, it wasn't much of a game, more a one hour nervous breakdown of fighting robot pirates in a post-apokalyptic disneyworld, but it was a fun introduction into Wushu for my players and hooked them, so it was a success. ^_^
In case anybody's interested, here's the [Actual Play] write-up I did on RPGnet:
Monday, I finally got the chance to run some Wushu again. The whole thing was planned pretty spontaneously, seeing that everybody has (surprisingly) time to play. I just wanted to show them Wushu (None of them had really played it before.) and have a good time, maybe flexing the old GM-muscles again a bit. (Haven't GMed in a while.)I'm defenitly planning to run another game this months, this time with a bit more focus and less chaos. Maybe I'll finally run Roanoke, because it rocks.
Funny Thing: One called to say he was sick and couldn't come, but we met him in the street when we bought snacks before the game (He was on the way to see a doctor.) and he just said "What the hell, I can still go to the doctor later on" and played nonetheless.
As more or less always, I had prepared nearly nothing, only coming up with a few scenarios for different genres, because I had no idea what people were interested in. The genres and ideas:
-Cyberpunk: Either Transhuman Space-style "Xox-Hunters" (People hunting down illegal copies of uploaded persons, Mad AI and all that stuff.) or tribal gang warfare in a pseudo-Shadowrun setting with cyberware and magic.
-Fantasy: Iron Kingdoms-Style gang war and crime story in Five Fingers, a city of crime, piracy and conspiracies.
-Roanoke: Well, to be honest I had no idea for a Roanoke game, so I'd just have winged something. Either strange beasties or Viking Zombies, probably.
Asit turned out, we used none of them. Once we got back from shopping, we ate a bit and generally bullshitted along, talking about what we wanted to play. Two of the players wanted to play something cyberpunk-y and somebody the joked that we should combine all ideas into a single whole where we fought pirates in cyberspace while running as tribal gangs through 16th century america and so on. Completly wacky and way to complicated, I immediatly told them there's be no chance I'd run something like that. But even as I said it had an idea so I said that I'd run something that at least combined Cyberpunk and pirates. They were interested and we started creating characters for a cyberpunk based gang campaign.
Character creation took about an hour, mainly because people had a bit of trouble thinking of characters (There wasn't much of a setting beyond "More or less like a wierd, more advanced Shadowrun." so they didn't have much to work with.), but with a bit of prompting and with everybody throwing around ideas, things went along rather well. An interesting thing I noticed: The players struggled a bit with the trait-based nature of Wushu, mainly because they weren't really used to it, but with me and the other players giving advice, everybody got the Character done in the first hour. (And that included lots of rollling around on the floor, laughing at stupid shit, throwing dice and generally having a good time.)
The characters I got:
-The Babe:
Doris, my girlfriend and the player with the least experience with "normal" rpgs, made a character that was more or less defined by her relationship to her Troll boyfriend. ("Bitch" or "Babes Bitch") They loved each other, waded into combat together and generally sticked together, him the giant Meatshield and her the brain of the pair. She had connections everywhere (Though that never came up in play.), always had a bunch of usefull, flying Drones handy when necessary but was also overly confident.
Traits:
-Double Pentration 5 (Representing her and her Troll lover)
-Deep Impact 4 (Well connected everywhere.)
-Fly, my beauties, FLY! 3 (Lot's of flying cyberstuff.)
Weakness: "I can take it all"
(Yeah, she does have a strange sense of humor...
-The Monk
Andi, the player who was sick and didn't plan to come, wanted to play a telepath. After a bit of talking, he came up with some pseudo-buddhist telekine/monk with a bit of Martial Arts-flair and the ability to hack machines with his mind. His social trait was something like "Calm Aura", but, again, that never really came up.
Traits:
-Post-Modern Buddha 5
-Thinks like a Machine 4
-Calm Aura 3
Weakness: ??? (I don't remember anymore. It didn't come up.)
-The Dog
I felt Manfred struggled the most with the free and trait-based character creation and so I spent as much time as possible trying to help and guide him. What we finally came up with was a ganger with heavy, animal-themed Biomods (Claws, fur, grappling tail, the whole stuff.), a dirty, agressive demeanor and the ability to influence animals.
Traits:
-Beastman 5 (Fighting, sneaking and lots of stunt-fu.)
-Dirty Old Bastard 4(His "social" trait.)
-Alpha Male 3 (Controling Animals and stuff.)
Weakness: Wet dogs stink. (He hated getting wet.)
All in all, Character Creation went well and was extremely funny. I think Doris had the least problems, while the other two (Both experienced gamers.) had more troubles. But I liked the results and so we proceeded. We decided that we weren't the leaders of a (not really defined) gang but the lead enforcers/elite fighters.
The starting situation I came up with was that the gang had lost it's territory to an undefined threat (Some ideas were thrown around, from enemy gangs over mutant laser sharks to a megacorp using the land for a giant arcology, but nothing was really decided. Didn't really matter anyway.) and so started wandering, trying to find a new undefended piece of land to settle on. I started the game describing how there had been travelling a while, when they came upon what looked like paradise, the perfect place for them to stay: The ruined skyline of DISNEYLAND!!!
A few narrations to build up the feel of scary, abandoned Amusement park later, the characters, sent forward to scout the place, entered a ruined building only to be attacked by ... ROBOT PIRATES!!!
After he left, I talked a while with Doris and Manfed about the game and how wether they had fun or not and where they had trouble. We all agreed that a game with a bit more preparation on everybodies part and where we all knew the setting before the game started should solve most problems we encountered. They (Manfred in particular) also commented on the differences between Wushu and other games and they all agreed that you had to "unlearn" quite a few things. Doris, the one with the least experience, has the easiest time getting into the free narration of Wushu combat, and we all felt that she delivered the best narration. (Focusing more of what a camera would see and describing more what she did and how it effected things, then stuff like "I try to do X", like Andi und Manfred.) Manfred loved it, though, and defenitly wants more.
I think most problems should fade with more experience.
All in all, I'm satisfied. Fun was had (Although I plan to talk to Andi a bit more, as I didn't get the chance after the game and felt that didn't have as much fun as the others.), I introduced my players to Wushu and I finally got to run something again. Storywise, it was completly wthout content, a chaotic "beer and pretzel" style game of silly action, but who cares, it rocked and I think it hooked at least Manfred and Doris.
-Lulu Rocks.
And I plan to use it in some way.
For a while now, I've wanted to do a "Gamers calendar", as an analog to things like the Jungbauernkalender ("Young farmers calendar"), ie. a calendar featuring erotic pictures of cute gamers, both male and female. Now, obviously that's quite an undertaking and I have no idea wether I'd actually find any modells, who'd take the picture and, maybe even the most important aspect, if this thing'd actually sell? Right now, I have none of that. No modells, no idea if this would sell or whatever. But I have an idea and I think I know how I might get the rest.
The first think in my plan is to find out wether there are gamer out there that would modell for the calendar, buy it and how much they'd pay for it. To do that, I plan to grab a few of my friends and make a survey on the next Vienna Fantasy Gaming Convention, approaching potential modells (ie. cute male and female gamers) and customers and polling them on the prospect of a gamer calendar. Now, the next convention is in 4 months, so I'll probably do a bit of asking around until then, gathering people interested in the project and so on. Who knows, it might actually work.
Should I actually find people interested in modelling and buying, production would begin. Hopefully, the survey found 12 cute male and 12 cute female gamers willing to get (slightly) naked in front of their camera and have their picture plastered on a calendar for, well, not much money. (If any. Without any money for investment, actually paying people might be a problem. Which means they'd either have to modell for free or for a cut of the final income, both of which is a bit of a pain in the ass. Well, we'll see.) But let's assume that I'd actually find 24 people willing to get nude pictures taken for whatever conditions I can give them.
The next step would then be to get that thing printed, which I'd get done by Lulu.com. It's easy, it's fast, it needs zero investment (And thus lessens the chance to loosing huge ammount sof money on something that won't sell.) and it seems to do a good job, judging by the huge number of Indie Game Designers that use it to get their books printed. Lulu would allow me to stop worrying about stuff like "How many calendars do I have to get printed and where do I get the money to do so", while instead letting me spend my time and effort to get the word out, pimp it on websites and so on. It'd also spare me the headache of setting up a webshop.
Ah, well, that's the idea anyway.
--------------------------
Well, that was it, the first new post on this blog. No idea if there will be other posts, but we'll see.
Mood: Just had great Sex. Nuff Said.
Currently Listening to: FM4 radio
17 Juni 2006
Stupid idea #10253-2
So I've had the crazy idea of starting a gaming club. Yay me...
But then it's not like I have something else to do with my time when I'm not hauling around old peoples. (Besides wanking and surfing the net.) And who knows, maybe i'd actually work and I find some socially capable, interesting, olfactory acceptable gamers interested in trying out Indie games.
As a reminder for myself, my plans and ideas so far:
Mood: Doom and gloom...
Currently Listening to: Schandmaul
Most hated THING right now: My Headset. (Why does it have to break down when I'm trying to skype with my girlfriend?!? Piece of Junk...)
But then it's not like I have something else to do with my time when I'm not hauling around old peoples. (Besides wanking and surfing the net.) And who knows, maybe i'd actually work and I find some socially capable, interesting, olfactory acceptable gamers interested in trying out Indie games.
As a reminder for myself, my plans and ideas so far:
-Look at the gaming clubs already in place.
There are already a few gaming clubs and similar organisation around, though none that really focus on anything but the main mainstream. So far, I haven't really been all that active there (Different tastes and all that. ) but checking them out seems like a good idea. Maybe there's no need to reinvent the wheel after all, and who knows, maybe there are some real gems there.
-Create some sort of web presence
With many people being connected, setting up a website I can redirect people to and that acts as a meeting space, information center and whatever else proves usefull seems like a good idea. I've had good experiences with pbwiki and I can see myself using it to set up the site, maybe with something like a forum if people are actually interested. I'd try to have as much stuff online as possible before I actually start recruiting people, so potential members can instantly see what this is about and so on.
-Get the word out
The best website is worth shit if nobody knows about it, so I have to make the website known somehow. So far, I've been thinking of the basic no-budget advertising tricks: Posts in forums, flyers (or something like that) in gaming shops and good old-fashioned word-to-mouth. Should I suddenly decide that I have too much money, I could imagine that small poster/sticker-thingies might be a nifty way to advertise, but probably not as (cost-)effective as the basics.
-Find some comrades
Starting a club as a single person is kinda ... awkward, IMO. Not only is it probably a metric shitload of work (Even more so with me being a Zivildiener.) it also looks kinda strange and I'd imagine people are more likely to check something out if they get the impression that there are already a few interesting members. So I'll probably tour my circle of friends with the newest in a long line of wacky ideas, trying to find people interested in setting it up.
Mood: Doom and gloom...
Currently Listening to: Schandmaul
Most hated THING right now: My Headset. (Why does it have to break down when I'm trying to skype with my girlfriend?!? Piece of Junk...)
12 Juni 2006
Strange Internet Stuff
Some wierd links:
The Worlds Largest Bunny is a German! - I can't say I'm suprised...
Patric Steward likes Naked Women! - Well, that doesn't really suprise me either. ^_^
The Worlds Largest Bunny is a German! - I can't say I'm suprised...
Patric Steward likes Naked Women! - Well, that doesn't really suprise me either. ^_^
11 Juni 2006
Roleplaying Troubles
I haven't had a really successfull game in... In a very long time. Most of the time, it's a combination of a bunch of reasons, some trivial, others not so much, but I think it boils down to two things:
I suck, and so do my players.
I realize, a large part of the current situation is my fault. I am, bluntly put, a lazy fuck. I don't prepare for my games, my attention span is really bad as far as games are concerned and I spend too much time on the internet. (Yeah, the irony...) Now, some of those are taste things (I don't prepare much because I prefer to riff of the players input, for example.) and I also don't have as much time as I'd like. (It feels as if Zivildienst is sucking me dry.)
But that doesn't change the fact that I think I'm a lazy GM. At the very least, I could try to get this gaming ADS under control.
Of course, I haven't exactly been gifted with players either. I love them dearly and they are all my friends or more, but I'll be damned if they aren't just as lazy as I am. Sometimes it feels as if I'm the only one who actually wants to play. Oh, who am I kidding, it feels like that most of the time. To their defense, it's hard to be enthusiastic if you don't have anything to work with. (With me being too lazy to preapare much.) But maybe actually reading the damn books would help with getting enthusiastic about the game!!! (Yeah, they're that lazy. No, I can't kill them and take their stuff, they're friends.)
So where does that leave me? I have a group of players who aren't enthusiastic about the games I'd like to run because I'm not willing to their work for them and they are too lazy to read up the settings and rules for themselves. And because they're not enthusiastic about the games, I don't get the player input I need to be creative and thus can't really produce anything to them to really hook them.
Great, we have an Impasse. -_-;;
Obviously I could try and shape up, getting my ass in gear and start to work on my "GM who does all the work for the passive group" act, but that's easier said than done. Not only am I lazy (And thsu reluctant to stop being lazy. ^_^), I also HATE this style of gaming with the passion of a thousand suns. I hate, HATE, HATE it!!! I don't want to do all the players work and I don't see it as my job to fucking entertain them! We're all in this to have fun and that also means we should share some of the work and responsability. I want a group of equals not a passive audience. I want players willing to work with me, players that realize that we're all responsible for each others fun just as much as our own.
I want active players.
Which leads me to the next option: I could try to find new players. Again, easier said then done. Looking for new players would probably be like wading in a pool of Shit to find the diamonds somebody threw in it. I'd have to find players, I'd have to contact them, I'd have to meet them to see if it looks like we might be compatible and then I'd have to play with them to see if we actually are. And, judging from my experience with the gaming community and past efforts to find a group through online means, the chances of finding agroup of players that are (1) willing to be active, (2) willing to play the games I like and (3) people I'd like to socialise with outside of a game (I don't game with people I don't like. I may be desperate but I'm not that desperate.) are pretty slim.
So, what am I going to do? Well, I'll try my best with the players I have, I'll try to shape up myself and maybe, just maybe, things wll even work out.
Mood: Foul. Sad. Whatever.
Currently Listening to: Some mixed playlist...
I suck, and so do my players.
I realize, a large part of the current situation is my fault. I am, bluntly put, a lazy fuck. I don't prepare for my games, my attention span is really bad as far as games are concerned and I spend too much time on the internet. (Yeah, the irony...) Now, some of those are taste things (I don't prepare much because I prefer to riff of the players input, for example.) and I also don't have as much time as I'd like. (It feels as if Zivildienst is sucking me dry.)
But that doesn't change the fact that I think I'm a lazy GM. At the very least, I could try to get this gaming ADS under control.
Of course, I haven't exactly been gifted with players either. I love them dearly and they are all my friends or more, but I'll be damned if they aren't just as lazy as I am. Sometimes it feels as if I'm the only one who actually wants to play. Oh, who am I kidding, it feels like that most of the time. To their defense, it's hard to be enthusiastic if you don't have anything to work with. (With me being too lazy to preapare much.) But maybe actually reading the damn books would help with getting enthusiastic about the game!!! (Yeah, they're that lazy. No, I can't kill them and take their stuff, they're friends.)
So where does that leave me? I have a group of players who aren't enthusiastic about the games I'd like to run because I'm not willing to their work for them and they are too lazy to read up the settings and rules for themselves. And because they're not enthusiastic about the games, I don't get the player input I need to be creative and thus can't really produce anything to them to really hook them.
Great, we have an Impasse. -_-;;
Obviously I could try and shape up, getting my ass in gear and start to work on my "GM who does all the work for the passive group" act, but that's easier said than done. Not only am I lazy (And thsu reluctant to stop being lazy. ^_^), I also HATE this style of gaming with the passion of a thousand suns. I hate, HATE, HATE it!!! I don't want to do all the players work and I don't see it as my job to fucking entertain them! We're all in this to have fun and that also means we should share some of the work and responsability. I want a group of equals not a passive audience. I want players willing to work with me, players that realize that we're all responsible for each others fun just as much as our own.
I want active players.
Which leads me to the next option: I could try to find new players. Again, easier said then done. Looking for new players would probably be like wading in a pool of Shit to find the diamonds somebody threw in it. I'd have to find players, I'd have to contact them, I'd have to meet them to see if it looks like we might be compatible and then I'd have to play with them to see if we actually are. And, judging from my experience with the gaming community and past efforts to find a group through online means, the chances of finding agroup of players that are (1) willing to be active, (2) willing to play the games I like and (3) people I'd like to socialise with outside of a game (I don't game with people I don't like. I may be desperate but I'm not that desperate.) are pretty slim.
So, what am I going to do? Well, I'll try my best with the players I have, I'll try to shape up myself and maybe, just maybe, things wll even work out.
Mood: Foul. Sad. Whatever.
Currently Listening to: Some mixed playlist...
I'm really, really bored...
Well, here I am, posting in a blog. Well, not even any old blog, nope, it's actually my own. Clearly it's the end of the world. Again.
I'm not a blog-person, never been. A couple of friends tried to convert me to MySpace a few months ago, but I was turned off by the people there. And the fact that I never really had anything to write about. And that it was really SLOOOOOOOOOOW on my shitty computer.
All in all, MySpace really sucked for me, I guess. (But it's not like I wanted to like it, so...)
So, why did I start this blog now? Aside from me being bored silly and generally feeling a bit strange today, I read a blog I really liked. In it, a really cool artist presents "teh intarweb" with a heavily censored but nonetheless interesting view of herself and her life. After reading it for the first time, today, I took two things away with me: First, touring seems to suck so much I'm actually feeling kinda guilty about having fun at their concert and, second, being able to post shit that bothers whenever you feel like it seems like an interesting thing to do. (And who doesn't like the illusion that he's writing something that's worth reading?)
So, here I am, writing in my blog. In English. Which is also kinda strange, given that I'm not a native speaker, but I think I'll leave that mystery for some other post. Maybe.
I'm not a blog-person, never been. A couple of friends tried to convert me to MySpace a few months ago, but I was turned off by the people there. And the fact that I never really had anything to write about. And that it was really SLOOOOOOOOOOW on my shitty computer.
All in all, MySpace really sucked for me, I guess. (But it's not like I wanted to like it, so...)
So, why did I start this blog now? Aside from me being bored silly and generally feeling a bit strange today, I read a blog I really liked. In it, a really cool artist presents "teh intarweb" with a heavily censored but nonetheless interesting view of herself and her life. After reading it for the first time, today, I took two things away with me: First, touring seems to suck so much I'm actually feeling kinda guilty about having fun at their concert and, second, being able to post shit that bothers whenever you feel like it seems like an interesting thing to do. (And who doesn't like the illusion that he's writing something that's worth reading?)
So, here I am, writing in my blog. In English. Which is also kinda strange, given that I'm not a native speaker, but I think I'll leave that mystery for some other post. Maybe.
