More RPG stuff
Man I love the ApocWorld/Dungeon World family of games. There's so much good stuff built into the structure of the game, without making anyone play their character in a restrictive way. Doing bonds in the first session gets everyone - not just the most extroverted player - to introduce their own characters. And - this one's surprisingly clever - leaves everyone with the other characters' names written down on their character sheet. It's a little thing, but it means that you won't forget their names if you want to speak in-character, and that their stories feel more linked to yours.
I mean, there's a blank on the traditional D&D sheet for "Campaign" and maybe "Loyalty" or "Group" but there's no actual spot for writing down who your companions are. It seems kind of odd..
And I really do have an Exalted style group of characters, in the best way. Zuka has abandoned her powerful but distant empire, which she may have a birthright connection to (either Dragonblood or Night caste). Brin is a master at making ships run and obscure knowledge (Twilight). Ada is a tough survivor of a disaster, determined to protect others from the same fate (Dawn-ish), and Joan is the traveling servant of a god who may have caused that disaster (Zenith).
Still stoked for this, even as I find myself re-organizing the game room yet again..
I have all these books on obscure topics that I picked up at more used book sales. Viking Age Iceland, okay, that's pretty cool and different from what most people think life was like at that point. The Rise and Fall of the Medicis? Also pretty cool, one of the most infamous crime families in history. But... I generally don't sit down and read them. It's a nice idea but I just, usually, don't. If I need to know something about the Medicis, I run to Wikipedia because I need to know it now.
I'm not getting rid of all these books, but I am giving some of them back to the library. I hope they will find their way into the collections of a better, more widely read scholar than me.
The other thing I've been noticing as I try to go through the books is that, while I'm not as widely read as I would like (if I had infinite time, anyways) my tastes are a bit more broad than I like. While I do definitely still knock back a couple fantasy doorstoppers each year (Brandon Sanderson and at some point I'll finish The Name of the Wind) I also read a fair number of "modern whatevers" like the Felix Castor books, a few graphic novels (mostly Mouse Guard and Avatar), and some stuff that kind of defies easy categorization like Haruki Murakami.
No real take-home point there, either, but keeping the lists of what I read and what I've watched (I'll post that at the end of the year) sometimes provides interesting insights into what I think I read/watch and what I actually do.
I mean, there's a blank on the traditional D&D sheet for "Campaign" and maybe "Loyalty" or "Group" but there's no actual spot for writing down who your companions are. It seems kind of odd..
And I really do have an Exalted style group of characters, in the best way. Zuka has abandoned her powerful but distant empire, which she may have a birthright connection to (either Dragonblood or Night caste). Brin is a master at making ships run and obscure knowledge (Twilight). Ada is a tough survivor of a disaster, determined to protect others from the same fate (Dawn-ish), and Joan is the traveling servant of a god who may have caused that disaster (Zenith).
Still stoked for this, even as I find myself re-organizing the game room yet again..
I have all these books on obscure topics that I picked up at more used book sales. Viking Age Iceland, okay, that's pretty cool and different from what most people think life was like at that point. The Rise and Fall of the Medicis? Also pretty cool, one of the most infamous crime families in history. But... I generally don't sit down and read them. It's a nice idea but I just, usually, don't. If I need to know something about the Medicis, I run to Wikipedia because I need to know it now.
I'm not getting rid of all these books, but I am giving some of them back to the library. I hope they will find their way into the collections of a better, more widely read scholar than me.
The other thing I've been noticing as I try to go through the books is that, while I'm not as widely read as I would like (if I had infinite time, anyways) my tastes are a bit more broad than I like. While I do definitely still knock back a couple fantasy doorstoppers each year (Brandon Sanderson and at some point I'll finish The Name of the Wind) I also read a fair number of "modern whatevers" like the Felix Castor books, a few graphic novels (mostly Mouse Guard and Avatar), and some stuff that kind of defies easy categorization like Haruki Murakami.
No real take-home point there, either, but keeping the lists of what I read and what I've watched (I'll post that at the end of the year) sometimes provides interesting insights into what I think I read/watch and what I actually do.