at the end of the day I play just when I want
On a whim I've been reading over the most recent crankreport columns. I was delighted when I discovered that feed and I'm always happy when I see a post, but ever since I added it I've had unlucky timing with the schedule. New material always seems to come up when I don't have the time to sit down and digest it, and then once I do have that time its been pushed off my LJ friends page by other things and I forget about it. So I sat down and read through several columns, because I was in the mood.
Its good to see that the Reverend is just the same as ever. This man's writing informed a lot of the gaming transformation that took place with me in college, helped me to pupate and finish the transition I had begun in high school. He and I have very similar thoughts on certain things.
Plus, I pick up fun new vocab out of the deal. "Pixelbitching" is a term I've heard used before but never understood too well, until now. Its a useful one. Although nowhere near as useful, or fun, as "frangible," which may be my new favorite word whether or not I'm talking about games.
His writing is just the same as I remember it, right down to it being only barely edited and a little scatterbrained. Pete's repeating himself a bit, but then he's always tended to do that. Refining the same core bits of advice through years of giving them, until they're stripped down to the bare essentials. His most recent columns read like a litany of his greatest hits: Take gaming seriously enough to let it touch you, but not so seriously that you forget that its just a game. Tell a good story; the game stats are only as important as you let them be.
It makes me miss being a player. More to the point it makes me wistful, nostalgic for a certain subset of the college gaming crew. I never really finished out pax_malificus's Mage game, because I moved away before it finished. He and rollick and spreadnparanoia and I made up quite the little gaming circle. The group dynamic was allowed to mature in a way that I'm starting to realize is rare. We were near enough to like-minded individuals to be able to all appreciate a particular style of gaming that was to me sublime. Its not a style that's for everyone, but it worked for us.
Its funny that in writing my retrospectives I skipped by writing one of that game. It means at least as much to me as any game I ever personally ran. Maybe I feel like I don't deserve to, because I missed the ending. Or maybe its still too close to me in my memory. I don't get a chance to be a player that often, and even less often a player in a game that goes on for a while. And to be a player in a game that goes on for a while in that sort of deep, very character-driven, very mellow and conversational style? That's really only happened to me once or twice, and I miss it.
But missing it also makes me strive to do better with the games I run. So that's something good, at least.
EDIT: The Reverend has a regular old livejournal (kinesys) in addition to his gaming blog. Dude!
Its good to see that the Reverend is just the same as ever. This man's writing informed a lot of the gaming transformation that took place with me in college, helped me to pupate and finish the transition I had begun in high school. He and I have very similar thoughts on certain things.
Plus, I pick up fun new vocab out of the deal. "Pixelbitching" is a term I've heard used before but never understood too well, until now. Its a useful one. Although nowhere near as useful, or fun, as "frangible," which may be my new favorite word whether or not I'm talking about games.
His writing is just the same as I remember it, right down to it being only barely edited and a little scatterbrained. Pete's repeating himself a bit, but then he's always tended to do that. Refining the same core bits of advice through years of giving them, until they're stripped down to the bare essentials. His most recent columns read like a litany of his greatest hits: Take gaming seriously enough to let it touch you, but not so seriously that you forget that its just a game. Tell a good story; the game stats are only as important as you let them be.
It makes me miss being a player. More to the point it makes me wistful, nostalgic for a certain subset of the college gaming crew. I never really finished out pax_malificus's Mage game, because I moved away before it finished. He and rollick and spreadnparanoia and I made up quite the little gaming circle. The group dynamic was allowed to mature in a way that I'm starting to realize is rare. We were near enough to like-minded individuals to be able to all appreciate a particular style of gaming that was to me sublime. Its not a style that's for everyone, but it worked for us.
Its funny that in writing my retrospectives I skipped by writing one of that game. It means at least as much to me as any game I ever personally ran. Maybe I feel like I don't deserve to, because I missed the ending. Or maybe its still too close to me in my memory. I don't get a chance to be a player that often, and even less often a player in a game that goes on for a while. And to be a player in a game that goes on for a while in that sort of deep, very character-driven, very mellow and conversational style? That's really only happened to me once or twice, and I miss it.
But missing it also makes me strive to do better with the games I run. So that's something good, at least.
EDIT: The Reverend has a regular old livejournal (kinesys) in addition to his gaming blog. Dude!