chaosaccountant

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 01:09:38 GMT

Okay, leaving date has now been set - we're leaving on Tuesday, just after our Europe railcards come.

This is likely to be my last post here for some time, as the internet conection is not paid for as of an hour and three quaters ago. It may still be working in the morning, when I remember whatever important computer-related thing I haven't done, but it's almost two in the morning, I didn't get enough sleep last night, and I really cant remember right now. For regular updates, as well as a hopefully vast collection of photos, I will be on http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/chaosaccountant/, because, as aformentioned, I can store an infinite number of photos there. Which is nice. It also has the benifit of being seperate from this journal, and thus it won't get swamped with random mundaineties in the future. That's not to say I won't be checking in here, and updating from time to time, but don't expect a detailed account of what's going on with the traveling here.

There is a system whereby I can have people emailed when I update (I don't yet know how often that will be). If that intrests any of you, let me know and I'll see what I can do when I next get online.

I had an odd experience on Thursday: the internet lied to me. To get my passport translated into Aribic, which is a prerequisit of getting into Lybia, Iran, and a few other countries, you need to get it translated by a sworn translator. The Lybian Embassy directed me to the Arab-British chamber of commerce, where they generally handle the random travelers. Of course, when I say 'directed' I mean they said 'go to the Arab-British Chamber of commerce'. rather than actual directions, but I thought, fair enough, I have my trusty friend, the internet.

And sure enough, I was quickly able to find a 'find your way arround London' type websight, with a telephone number address and handy map for the ABCC. So I phoned the number, wrote down the address and copied the map. It was listed as four minutes from Hyde Park Corner tube station, and 13 from London Victoria, where I had to be anyway, to get the pre-tranlation stamp put in my passport. Easy enough, I thought.

But it wasn't. The address I had was 'Upper Grosvenor Street'. The map had me going up Grosvenor Cresent, so it seemed about right. Except when I got there, it wasn't the ABCC at all. It was the Portuges Embassy. Fair enough, I had the address, the street names were about right, it couldn't be far.

After two hours of trekking, and the discovery that no-one, not even a London Cabby, knew where this damn thing was, we found the Eyptian Embassy. The Eygptian Embassy doesn't admit random visitors - if your after a visa or something, you go to the consulate. So we had to talk our way in, on the basis that they must know where the chamber of comerce was, as it was their chamber. Fortunatly they did, and we eventually discovered that the chamber of commerce was directly opposite the American Embassy, which any fool could tell you where it is.
But the internet lied to me - it told me great big stinking falsehoods, and I am not speaking to it any more.

Wed, 28 May 2008 21:35:48 GMT

Okay, as it seems my last entry has broken, here are the quotes again.

Jimmy on forward planning: We'll call that one Plan D. For 'Death'.

Plaid Lad, with limited control over Plaid.

Issue 50: Go To Hell?

Arthur: I just want to go on record as saying that you're a freak of nature John.

John and Harry simultaneously, in two separate conversations: “We're all going to Die.”

John: I do quantum

Charles: Who's she?

Jimmy: What's the smallest atomic generator you can imagine?

Harry: I can think of a very small atomic generator. It's very, very small. I'm imagining it now. I'm not amusing your geek brain, am I?

Blackman: Who's in charge?

Harry: No, no....why's everyone looking at me?

John: We need...a Dimension Drill.

Harry: A Diamond Dimension Drill.

Out of context: If I was a lion, this would be so hot.

On the DDR (which the Diamond Dimension Drill somehow became): After two minutes of the DJ Corerose 'Summer of Love' mix, it does punch a hole in the dimension.

Jimmy: Does it really, really have to be based on a Dance Dance Revolution Machine?

John: Yes, it does

Beth (to Harry): I was thinking of maybe catching a movie. Would you like to come?

Jimmy (aside to Harry): I think she's asking you on a date.

Jimmy: 'I'm not afraid of you!' (to GM) I teleport away from him.

You do everything in the sexnasium.

Are you calling Charles' Partner a whore?

No, she called her a troop of whores.

Charles: How do we know Blackman is a man?

Arthur: They're all happy, cheerful people. Keep them away from me. This stuff might be contagious!

Beth (on what to do with the last 24 hours in heaven): I think we spend about 22 hours doing...

Charles: Sexnasium!

Beth (after it turned out the 22 hours wouldn't be spent in the sexnasium): Then I spend an hour practising shielding.

Harry: That's not what I was expecting to last two hours would be spent on...

Mike (ooc): Calum-art is the barrier between seeing something in your mind and realising that you can't draw for shit. (At this point Nick put a box on Mike's head to stop him talking)

Beth: No arguing this time.

Harry: Yeah, right.

Harry: No, Jimmy doesn't get to negotiate. We saw what happened when Jimmy negotiates.

GM: Blackman punches her (Greed) straight across the face.

Harry: Damn it, he's a worse negotiator than we are.

Beth (mental link to Blackman): Antagonising her isn't going to help right now.

Blackman (mental link to Beth): To be honest, that's all I came here for.

Harry: You... tit!

Beth (to GM): I don't communicate this to anyone else.

Greed: And I want all your clothes this time.

John: If Beth fails her will save, we're all fucked. Literally.

Beth: I don't think mentally tying off people's genitalia is ... hang on...

Towards the Penis!

Charles: Jimmy, you forgot the important rule. We don't listen to Arthur.

GM: John, what are you doing?

John: Discussing Beth's first orgasm with Charles...

John: Arthur Bithil Naked. Athur Bithil Naked. Arthur Bithil Naked.

GM: Everyone get a +1 on their will saves...

Arthur (as Lust possessed Charles): It's in him. I'm sorry. I had to yell that.

Jimmy describing himself: Like a young Hugh Grant. But older.

Jimmy: I'm the super genius! (to GM) I punch myself in the face.

Harry: My girlfriend is scary. She wants to know about eating souls.

Beth (to Gluttony): Would you like me to feed you something?

Harry: Does a bear shit in the woods?

Arthur: You get this only once. I'm impressed.

Charles: Or, we could pour brandy over him, light it, and eat him.

Beth: He treats me like I'm stupid!

Harry: Arthur, do you have anything to say about that?

Arthur: Only when she's being stupid.

John: But now, I'm a self-actualised idot!

Harry (on the ongoing therapy session): What have I created?

Harry (to Arthur): Yes, you've been like a father to me. My father was an abusive alcoholic.

Jimmy (to Harry): Just for the record, I'm proud of you.

Harry: Just for the record, I'm not.

Arthur: I'm very proud of you too, but you'll never get it in writing.

Jimmy: Big hugs for everyone. Okay, let's go kill something.

GM: Burning! Burning!! Burning!!!

Jimmy: I don't have that defect any more.

Calum. Plastic. Head. For the sake of his honour, that is all that shall be recorded here.

Harry: He might be a dumbass, but he's our dumbass.

Jimmy: My name is Julian Lilac Foder!

Harry: It really is.

Harry: If we die, I'm going to ram that thing so far up your ass...

Harry: Oh fuck it. Can I shoot him now? I'm shooting him now.

XYZ: What is the meaning of this?

John: Sorry, did we get your birthday wrong?

XYZ: How did you get past Wrath?

Arthur: Because he's made in your image – as thick as pig shit.

XYZ: [Dramatic Villain Monologue]

Harry: (With sock-puppet hand-motion) Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh...

XYZ: Oh please, that's slightly petty, isn't it?

John: Yes

Harry: Have you met us?

Charles: This is a whole new meaning of 'spit-roast'.

Harry: Dude! So wrong! Dude.

Arthur: Yes. Give the muppet his respect.

XYZ: (having lost both his arms) this isn't as bad as it looks.

John: Well, we all knew that Arthur would become the ultimate evil one day.

Arthur: What do you mean 'become?'

Epilogue:

I Ching: ...about Buddism, about spirituality, about moving on. Don't give me that look, Grasshopper.

Lancaster, leaving and MnM

Wed, 28 May 2008 18:45:06 GMT

Okay, back from lancaster. It was great, as always. Thank you muchly to people who make it this way.

As most of you now know, me and Steph are leaving the country soon, to go on a great and epic journy around as much of the world as we can. The leaving date is provisionally this Saturday, or early on Sunday, depending on the ferry times and how long the leaving party takes. You are all invited to the leaving party, of course, but I'm doubtful that you will be able to actually make it, seeing as it's at noon, here in Hastings. Still, if any of you are going to be within a hundred miles of me on Saturday, let me know and I'll sort something out.

There will be another post soon about what the arrangements to stay in touch are while I'm away. I'll be updating a blog, but not necessarily this one. In any case, there will be links from here.

The long-awaited final section of the Mutants and Masterminds game was fantastic. No-doubt everyone in Lancaster with any intrest in it will already have heard all about Group Therapy and Beth on Eating Souls, but the quotes are below. Anyone who doesn't know what this is about but is intrested in the quotes can find the rest here> westslide</div>

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 13:50:28 GMT

Unfortunately a combination of things are making it look like we won't be able to be in Lancaster after all. There are works on the railway lines, meaning the shortest journey is in excess of seven hours, including a bus ride and four changes (and meaning we couldn't get reservations, so most likely no seats either). That might be possible coming up, but going back like that when we'd both most likely be hungover just isn't an option.
On top of that, Seeker_dreamer has had a nasty cold, and while it's getting better now (thank you Erfalaswen, the honey and lemon is a life-saver), it's bad enough that it will make an already miserable journey intolerable.
Oh, and we overspent on Christmas, so money is tighter than it was supposed to be.
In all, rather than come up for just a couple of days now and then having to rush back to work, with all the above, we thought it would be better to make our way up for a longer, less hectic visit some time in the new year, probably sometime when we can go to a live, and a vip session, and do all the things that Lancaster is so very, very good for. We'll even save the mead until we come up - we got a bottle of it for Wintereenmas.

Sorry to disappoint people - we do love you all and want to see you, but it just isn't working out for this week.

I'll speak to as many of you as possible at least around the new year - those of you whose numbers I have at least. For those of you I'm not able to talk to, I hope you have a good one.

random memes

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:44:13 GMT

Your Score: The Frog

You scored 25% domestic, 33% gregarious, 46% trickster, and 50% intellect!

Wild, Solitary, Serious and Emotional: you are the Frog!

Sensitivity, regeneration, renewal. In many cultures, frogs are a strong symbol of luck and wealth. Frog medicine teaches the power of transforming oneself, a natural path of change that occurs over a lifetime. Frog is also a symbol of femininity and fertility, and natural healing. Frog people tend to be pleasant, positive, and well in-tune with the energies around them.

This test categorized you based on four different axes of personality, which were then associated with a different animal. The four axes, as well as all possible results are explained below.

Wild/Domestic: This first axis categorizes you based on how much you are drawn to the outdoors, versus how much you are drawn to civilized situations. Domesticity has many shapes and forms, and varies from the joy of dolphins leaping next to a ship to the steadfast loyalty of a family dog.

Gregarious/Solitary: This axis measures how solitary you are. If you scored high, it means that you enjoy the company of other people, while a low score indicates that you prefer a more solitary lifestyle.

Trickster/Serious: This axis measures how well you line up with conventional trickster archetypes. People who fall into this archetype have a sense of humor and an excitable, highly chaotic streak. Scoring low doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor; it just means that you probably don't think dynamite is very funny.

Intellectual/Emotional: This last axis determines whether you are more emotional -- acting based on feelings and instinct, or rational and intelectual -- acting more on thought than on your gut feelings.

Wild	Gregarious	Trickster	Intellectual	The Hyena
Wild	Gregarious	Trickster	Emotional	The Otter
Wild	Gregarious	Serious	Intellectual	The Antelope
Wild	Gregarious	Serious	Emotional	The Wolf
Wild	Solitary	Trickster	Intellectual	The Weasel
Wild	Solitary	Trickster	Emotional	The Coyote
Wild	Solitary	Serious	Intellectual	The Raven
Wild	Solitary	Serious	Emotional	The Frog
Domestic	Gregarious	Trickster	Intellectual	The Fox
Domestic	Gregarious	Trickster	Emotional	The Dolphin
Domestic	Gregarious	Serious	Intellectual	The Horse
Domestic	Gregarious	Serious	Emotional	The Dog
Domestic	Solitary	Trickster	Intellectual	The Rat
Domestic	Solitary	Trickster	Emotional	The Ferret
Domestic	Solitary	Serious	Intellectual	The Cat
Domestic	Solitary	Serious	Emotional	The Squirrel

Link: The Animal Archetype Test written by crumpetsfortea on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test
View My Profile(crumpetsfortea)

So, about the same complaint a Yijadd, actually. How on earth did I get to third level when I can only cast cantrips?

I Am A: Chaotic Good Human Sorcerer (3rd Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength-11

Dexterity-10

Constitution-14

Intelligence-16

Wisdom-9

Charisma-10

Alignment:
Chaotic Good A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he's kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Chaotic good is the best alignment you can be because it combines a good heart with a free spirit. However, chaotic good can be a dangerous alignment because it disrupts the order of society and punishes those who do well for themselves.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

New Year

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 19:51:21 GMT

There seems to be a patern developing here. I'm planning to come to Lancaster in for the New Year, to see people and party, if there are people there and parties happening. And thus, my first post since the one coming back from Lancaster last time. I don't know why this is.

That's a lie. It's because I'm lazy, and posting to livejornal is a suprising amount of effort when you're working full time, don't have the internet at work, and really, really can't think of anything that's happened that you have any desire or right to announce to the world in general (there have been problems, but they've mostly only been my problems by accociation, so I won't discuss them here.) Seeker_Dreamer reckons I should get a facebook account. This might improve matters, or might mean that I'm not paying attention as a priate/zombie/werewolf rather than just as me.

However, there are some pictures of me dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow floating around on there, courtesy of one of Seeker_Dreamers old school friends.

So, is there going to be a New Years bash? Where will it be, can we come, and does anyone have a floor we can steal once we finally pass out?

Visitings

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:19:50 GMT

Thank you all greatly for the hospitality, especially erfalaswen, darkluke and archangelonline for the use of the floor and copious toast.

The Darkside was extremely fine. I was quite drunk, and I think I exhausted myself headbanging. I don't know how some of you people can dance all night, I get wiped out after about half an hour and need water and drink.

Of course, after that I dance again. My neck has mostly recovered now.

Also, a chance to roleplay with anyone other than the three people I've been GMing for was good, even if it didn't last as long as it might have.

Damn, I miss everyone already. I'll try to come up again sometime soon.

And I'm going to post regularly. Honest. I mean it this time. See, I'm posting right now...

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 11:29:48 GMT

Any of you who read S*P will already know, but Robert Jordan, of Wheel of Time, died at the weekend.

Now it genuinly never will end....

That Meme...

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 22:02:52 GMT

So, seven songs that are on my mind at the moment...

How can you have more than one song of your mind at a time? I don't think my brain has that much processor time.

Here are seven songs that have been on my mind recently (the last week or so).

1) Judas Be My Guide by Iron Maiden, because it reflects my current feelings on the fate of the human race.

2) Taking The Queen by Bruce Dickinson.

3)The Immigrant Song, by Led Zepplin, because of Shriek III

4)Temple of Love by Sisters of Mercy, just because I love it.

5)Beautiful Lie, by someone or other, because it keeps getting played loudly downstairs, and is an improvement on everything else being played downstairs.

6)Ghost of the Navigator, again by Iron Maiden

7)No, after ten minutes I really can't think of another song tha'ts been on my mind at-all recently. Mostly this is because my laptop, which has been slowly dieing for some time can now only really be used for one thing at a time, so I can't listen to music and, say, read LJ, or webcomics, at the same time.

As for tagging people, I believe that yjadd covered virtually everyone I might have tagged anyway. If you want to do it, feel free.

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 11:54:13 GMT

Okay. Things have changed. Again. However, this time the change is permanent. As in there will be no other changes.

I know I haven't been updating here, but I think just about everyone reading this will have the context in any case.

Bottom line: Me and Seeker_dreamer will be leaving Lancaster. Most likely at the end of the week.
I'm sorry to everyone who was expecting us to say, and I'm sorry we've dithered quite as much as we have and raised your hopes. It was nice to see so very many of you at the party.
Ultimatly, we love everyone in Lancaster, but the job that we needed to stay up here has failed to materialise, so we're pretty much having to leave. It may not be entirely permanent, but it is at least indefinate. I at least can see coming back to Lancaster at some future date, but not for quite some time, as in when I have a car and, heaven forbid, a career. In short, not yet.

I'm going to try and tie up the remaining loose ends before leaving (games etc) but at least some of that won't be possible.

I'm still going to be here on lj. I'll update alot more regularly once I have a net conection of my very own.

I'll post a longer breakdown of our decision later, if anyone's intrested.

Random Fact Meme

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 10:51:01 GMT

Thought I would get this done while there were still a load of untagged people on my list.

[Once tagged by this entry, the assignment is to write a blog entry of some kind with six random facts about yourself. Then, pick six of your friends and tag them; no tag backs. This explanation should be included.]

1.The more people tell me that something needs replacing, the more attached I become to it. My wallet no longer fastens, and tends to let all my change fall out, but replacing it now would be loosing.
2. I have a habit of lying on my bed, throwing things at the ceiling and trying to catch them. I often miss. Sometimes they don't
3. I once created vegan chocolate-cake-pie for a friends birthday.
4. If I find an unattended lighter while even remotely drunk, I will attempt to make the flame bigger. Often ludicrously so.
5. I enjoy match-racing. If you want to know what this is, bring me a small cardboard box, and a box of matches, and I'll show you.
6. I read something in the region of thirty webcomics regularly.

Tagged: dark_dreamer06, mwkilburn</div>, pen_pen42, seeker_dreamer, westslide,

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:35:55 GMT

I just did the 'what drug is your personality like' test. I won't bother posting the result. You all know what I got anyway.

Sat, 22 Jul 2006 21:44:03 GMT

Okay. I am now back from my holiday to .... Heysham. No, seriously. I have sunburn and everything. There is a camping/caravaning site, just next to the power station (still deadly serious), built on land reclaimed by tipping rubble onto the sand of the bay until it stopped sinking. This does of course mean that you are attempting to pitch tents there by driving metal spikes into building rubble, but it is there. We went to Windermere, something I never got around to doing before (criminal, having lived so close for so long), and actually enjoyed the horrific weather (that is to say, when the boiler broke and there was no hot water at all, it was still pleasant to take a shower, because you could get shivering cold to delay getting hot again). However, the drive back was unbearably hellish. We were stuck crawling along the M25 at less than walking speed, in the worst of the heat, and then the water ran out. I don't think we got a clear strech of road for more than half an hour the whole trip (and Heysham to Hastings is quite some trip). Ten hours in a cramped minibus, with a seven people and a dog. We don't get air-con or anything fancy like that. We kept cool with water over heads, until it ran out. Then we just got hot.

But aside from that, seeker_dreamer has graduated, and is now a Master of Phyiscs. She is not only the most beautiful, wonderful, lovely person in the whole world, she is also insanly clever.
And she's mine.
*Does a little happy dance*

Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:57:14 GMT

I may be away from sweet internet goodness for about a week, so just to make sure I have something utterly mind-destroying when I get back:

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, (even if we don't speak often) please post a comment with a COMPLETELY MADE UP AND FICTIONAL memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad - BUT IT HAS TO BE FAKE. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people DON'T ACTUALLY remember about you.

Just don't expect me to respond in a hurry.

*sudders at the prospect of internet withdrawl*

Things to do when boredom strikes (other than memes, odviously)

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 18:14:50 GMT

seeker_dreamer has shown me where most of the Lone Wolf books have been posted on line, complete with random number generator and online character sheets. Given there's more than a dozen of them, it could fill a whole afternoon of sitting around waiting for Lurps to begin again so you can get your roleplaying kicks.

If you don't know Lone Wolf, it's decent Fighting Fantasy style gameplay, but with a lot less 'You chose left instead of right. We spin you out for six paragraphs, then kill you. And you never know what you did wrong.' Also, it's set in an intresting world, with intresting plot, and recurring characters who you don't have to kill on sight.

Plus the combat system is so much cooler. And you get to play a ninja monk.

It's at http://www.projectaon.org/

(I think that link works now. I could be wrong.)

Yarr!

Sun, 09 Jul 2006 22:20:19 GMT

I went to see Priates of the Caribbean with seeker_dreamer and her family yesterday, and needless to say, it was great.

However, two 'hamster wheel/ball' scenes in one film may be over-doing it slightly. But only very slightly. Me and seeker_dreamer had a bet over how the set-up of the plot would work, with me assuming that they would give Captain Jack Sparrow total plot centrality and her saying that they would still include Will and Elizibeth as protagonists rather than support. I still maintain that I had a well reasoned and logical argument, based mostly on the facts that a)Will and Elizibeth were both dull characters b) the only reason the first film was such a hit was Captain Jack Sparrow and c) Will and Elizibeth got a 'happily ever after' endding, leaving them with few good plot hooks. I should have paid more attention to the posters for the film. Needless to say, (assuming you're only here after seeing the film, what with the spoilers warning,) she won, though they did manage to make both the others intresting. Also, the ending. I say ending. I mean 'ending.' As in the 'ending' of the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. As in not an ending at all. However, we do now have a space-opera trilogy (sometime I'll get bored and write a rant about why Star wars isn't sci-fi), a fantasy trilogy, and now the makings of a swashbuckling trilogy. I can't think of any others (possibly Evil Dead), but it seems to be a good number of films to make without the characters getting old or the plot getting tired. It is worth noting that if anyone replies to this suggesting the matrix trilogy be added to the list, they will be removed from my friends listing. There was only one Matrix film. seeker_dreamer complains that we had someone laughing loudly behind us, but I can't say I noticed. It takes a good film for me to forget I have an open bag of revels in my lap. Even if they have introduced the rasin one. End of tangentical ramble.

In other news, seeker_dreamer has complications to her surger. Not serious ones, but she is now on Penecilin, and feeling down about things. If I was in Lancaster I would take her to people who would make her feel much better, but here I don't completly know what to do. Of course, there is also a much lower risk of her being unexpectedly bearhugged down here, so I suppose I has it's upside. I'll be back in a week for graduations, and I hope to run into some of you then. Let me know what you're doing that week!

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 19:58:16 GMT

Well, this post is going to be a long, tangentical, rambling and in all lightlyhood quite dull rant about the Stormhaven finally that just happened. So if you weren't intrested in, for example, westslide talking about Dariel, then skip

Wow!
I know that there has been some epic live roleplaying this term, but that was it, the big one for me. Yurgen, my four-year-old dragon paladin finally went down, fighting an army of the undead, having just seen his old home and all his old family wiped out by a comet destroying the continent. I can say that I had thought about what would happen when Yurgen finally died, and I generally thought that, in honesty, it would happen because he over-exerted himself in some trivial encounter, and bought it off total body. A rather dull vision, but one that is very realistic given his penchant for ending up on one or even no total body after such things as a fight with some pissed off guards, or similar. Yurgen was never very good at caution.
Of course, that isn't how I wanted him to die. If your character is going to die (and with someone as unyeilding and violent as Yurgen, he was going to die), you would rather they die in some sort of dramatic final stand, possibly defending something really important to them, and mourned by their friends.
Yurgen, of course, had his own attitudes to death. Most noticably, he wasn't especially afraid of it, ascribing to the celtic or viking attitude that death is mearly a move to a new world. Thus, he wasn't too fussed about people killing Magnus, his one-time friend, after he lost the duel. Magnus was a good person, by Yurgen's standards, and thus would be going on to somewhere worthwhile. Thus, he was alive to serve his Lady, and when he died he would be going to be with her in a better place. (As a note for those that don't know, this better place was firey, and under the ground, but it was a better place.)
Of course, he was feeling rather different after the whole comet thing. At that point, with the blind, isloated terror in his underbrain being fought down by his over-brain desberatly rationalising (my goddess will protect my people, I have nothing to worry about). He wasn't actually suicidal, as he would consider suicide under those circumstaces to be a very bad death, but he was more or less looking for a good death. Of course for him, the best death is fighting an evil enemy (the undead are about the only choice here) against overwhelming odds. If he had had time to get back to his pregnat wife, he could have come out of it, but at the time he was just looking for his goddess to let him know that she wanted him to come back to her. And an army of undead was all the invitation he needed.

So he got everything he wanted, in the end. His religion is established in the south of what was once Ketan, his wife and children have a people to protect them (in so far as the ditz ever needed looking after), and he got the death he always wanted; throwing himself pointlessly against an army of undead. Alistor's ( petemonster's charater) reaction was very moving as well. Yurgen was fully aware that he was going to die (hense 'if any of you make it out of this, tell my wife what happened') and wasn't altogether supprised that no-one else felt a certain-death charge against the advancing but non-aggressive whites was in order, but he would have been very moved at Alistor's efforts to get is body out of there.

And on that note, I feel that it's worth pointing out that this adventure resulted in a 100% loss of PC paladins in the Stormhaven system. Three of us went out, and none of us came back.

I've had a lot of advice over the years of what to do about loosing a character, especially a favouite one, or one who you have invested a lot of time, energy and emotion in. But somehow I don't really feel much sense of loss with Yurgen. He had, I suppose, reached a sort of conclusion. It wasn't that I didn't have anywhere to go with him, or that I was getting tired of him. On the cortrary, things were just opening up to be really intresting indeed. But his death, right there and then, as well as knowing that he changed the world, and will be remembered, somehow means that his death was the best thing that could have happened to the character.

Most of the kit I origionally bought or made was with Yurgen in mind, and a lot of it (noticably the sword and shield) were starting to look a little worse for ware. I was going to get them repaired, but now I almost feel like it would be better to retire them, as they were really Yurgen's. The head-band, at the very least, is something I don't think I could use for another character.

On a lighter note, the next thing I'm going to come back as is probably going to be a leprechaun.

And on a lighter

Thu, 15 Jun 2006 12:42:22 GMT

I did this lots of times, and this is the only one really worth posting...

Okay, the damn thing won't post as anything other than a string of code. Here are the answers, if you want to do it for yourself, look to evilbilbo.

If you were on a battlefield right now, versus everything...
Name Goeffrey Shockleigh
Gender Male
Age 28
Lover or a Fighter? Lover
Fight for good or evil? Good
Battle Cry: Cake!
Weapon of Choice Good intentions
Appearance Your Favourite Clothes, flanking from the sides on foot
Your Battle Cry... Would scare the demons of hell
Foes slain upon first strike: - 97%

What you fight Occupying Enemy Forces
You fight.... Because you are the right person for the task

Mmmm. Good Intentions. That sounds about right. Of course, Geoff isn't much of a lover, but he really isn't a fighter.

Thu, 08 Jun 2006 15:13:37 GMT

I kind of like this;

The Detailed Starship Quiz

LiveJournal Username

Spaceship Name

Spaceship Size

How is the spaceship piloted?

How is the spaceship powered?

What's the upholstery like on the seats?

How do you see outside the spaceship?

What's the spaceship's primary purpose?

What's the Captain's catchphrase?

Main Weapon System:

Christina Aguilera

Main Defensive System:

Granola

Chance of catastrophic failure at critical moments

53%

Voice of the ship's computer:

darkluke

Finds mandatory uniform unflattering:

fluzzlewett

Looks sexy in mandatory uniform:

almighty_weasel

Ripped sleeves off mandatory uniform:

seeker_dreamer

Spends an unhealthy amount of time in the weapons locker:

almighty_weasel

This Fun Quiz created by Akhmed at BlogQuiz.Net

Aries Horoscope at DailyHoroscopes.Biz

Athough the idea of darkluke as the voice of the ships computer is slightly worrying.

Saturday Stormhaven

Sun, 28 May 2006 21:50:34 GMT

You'd think that a party that had only four people would be less likey to disappear off in seperate directions, wouldn't you? You'd think that a party consisting of three life-preists and a mage would stick together for their own protection. Especially while leaving the city and wandering off into the forest. No. Noooo.

I suppose it didn't help that I said at the start that the adventure could be solved without anyone in the party drawing a sword. And unless I'm mistaken, there was only one encounter over the would day where a player actually got hit (athough a miscomunication with some Sasquach did require a blow to be parried). So what happened? The plot was: Noble's son has been cursed by witch for knocking up daugter. Now turning into monster and killing former friends every night. Party hired to find out what's going on and stop him.

One of the red herrings thrown the parties way was a Necromancer/golemmancer who opperated out of a big, scary tower in a swamp. He was breeding combat creatures, and had some magic items to give away to a party willing to fight a monster or two. As I've already mentioned, the party weren't really up for this (two starting preists, one of them 'ulimate passafist', someone who is religiously opposed to standup fights, and a diviner), but they did talk two npc adventurers into attacking him, so he could test his creatures on them. I let the monsters design the creatures. One creature had been rejected as 'no viciuos enough.' (For the record, it had three skeletal heads, crap claws and four insectoid legs) Rather than fight, it wandered off to pick flowers. One of the party (Dan's character, a passifist hobbit) gave it a biscuit. It followed them for the rest of the day. They used magic to talk to it, despite the fact that one head only said 'Hello' and one only asked for food. At some point (this is entirely fearpatientmen's fault) dire-ducks became involved. Oh, and the diviner bilked them out of vast amounts of money when he accepted the ring as part-payment.

All of this was dealable with. I was expecting to have to stat on the fly, and Sam the constuct Undead that wasn't visious enough was just funny. Buy the party wouldn't say in one place. This isn't 'they moved' or even 'they changed direction,' either of which can be an issue. They split up. At one point, I had the Shaman and the Hobbit going off into the forest to talk to some shamans they'd been told about, who had been invented as a random embelishment to a red herring from earlier. At the same time, the Diviner was trying to talk people into letting cast magic on their roofs, and the Scaven was hidding from the watch in the sewers. During the first entrace of the monster, half the party were off buying buscuits for Sam the construct. The big linear, the only bit I could plan in advance for (the plan wouldn't read off the disk, by the way), only half the party were on it. The other half stayed behind the guard someone.

And when the party were together, they took monsters with them. Beyond Sam the construct, they had a ladder thief following them for a while (I've no idea how that happened). And when they went for the big denoucement at the end, they took more than half of the monster party with them as npcs.

The way to the witch was supposed to be guarded by wolves, bears and suchlike. As it was, the wolf had to bugger off before they got to her, because I had to play the witch as well as the wolf.

I'd say 'never again,' but I say that after every live I run. And for all the bitching, I do really enjoy it.

Next time, I'll run something without a 'no neseccary combat' stricture, though. That was tough to write.

Short notice reffing

Wed, 24 May 2006 23:41:48 GMT

I know techincally, it isn't short notice, as I mentioned I wanted to run a live in Wk1. And then mentioned I thought I could run an adventure for half a dozen people (including monsters) while everyone was off at the Heartland Games. So I did, I suppose, have every reason to expect that I would be running this week. It's just that I have a tendacy to find out that I'm running on Saturday, on Tuesday. Or Thursday, if I'm unlucky. I don't think I've ever had a 'timetabled from the start of term' ref slot. Oh well, at least I don't usually try for plot-archs.

Fortunetly, I think the idea I have can be scaled for anything from a lone, starting-points mage to a well-built, thousand-point-a-piece party without too much difficulty.

I hope.

Better get writing then.

RP Systems

Thu, 18 May 2006 11:03:45 GMT

On Tuesday, I ran a 'Tanks, big guns and rockets' combat in GURPS for my Alpha Centari game. In itself, it worked out okay, with the party just about screwed enough to make it fun, but not so much that Sparta Command needs to send in a B team just to make sure everyone has a character. The 'You open the air-lock. There's a man pointing a rocket-launcher at you.' moment was particually fine.

However, I did get quite fed up with the GURPS combat system. There is a flow-chart giving you a step by step acount of how to resolve one, single attack in GURPS. It's 54 steps long. I thought 'but this is for resolving *any* attack. I only need the rules for ranged attacks'. So I slimmed it down. To 44 steps. This is all well and good if you really want to do that, but it results in the main gunner rolling vast numbers of dice and everyone else asking if they're in range yet.

For those of you who've never delt with it, the sequence of resolving an attack in GURPS is: Take skill. Correct for Speed+range+cover+size+called shot+movement+darkenss. Correct for Aiming+Accuracy+Targeting Gadgets+Snap Shot. Then roll the dice. Then roll their defence (potientially, this has almost as many modifiers as the attack roll). Then roll damage. (Big guns=loads of dice.) Modify armour by armour divisor (with a calcuator). Apply damge to armour.

All of this means that combat becomes slow and clunky, while I hammer away at a calculator trying to work out if the enemy turret is or is not, in fact, disabled. If there hadn't been mind-worms, I believe everyone else would have gotten quite bored.

I have come to the conclusion that GURPS combat, while very effective for two people with armour and shields bashing each other with swords, is too complicated to work well with armour-piercing depleated uranim tank shells.

So I'm trying to create my own system. Something I once though I'd never do. Generally, I have three systems that I thought, between them, could offer everything I ever wanted. Tri-stat (BESM, and some other things, noteabley dX), which is fast, simple and cinamatic, with massive felxability to create whatever you want. I did activly consider running the game in Tri-stat this term, but decided against it. Unknown Armies (the system, rather than the setting, which has many of it's own merits) is great for 1. the maddness system and 2. the symplicty. However, it does work mostly on the basis of 'a gun is a gun' and armour is either a bullet-proof vest, a stab-proof vest or nothing. Not a good system for modelling nine types of armour, and fifteen types of weapon over the couse of the game. The third System I've used is GURPS. However, I've become disillusioned. There are three physical stats, and only one mental one. The skill system is conter-intuitive. And the combat is too slow and clunky. So, I'm going to see if I can put all the relevant bits of the systems that I like in one place, and ditch the bits that don't fit or I don't like. Wish me luck...

VIP, and unexpected efficency

Tue, 16 May 2006 08:50:43 GMT

It's remarkable how paranoid you can make yourself just by acting paranoid hard enough for long enought. Outofcharacter, I know the only monsters stated for the area are walking along the other side of the road, and have greeted us cheerily. In Character, Geoff is certain that any minute now, a huge, slathering wall of fur and muscle and teeth and claws in going to leap down the slope in a single bound, to rend *him, specifically* limb from limb. So when I think I see something that could be movement on the ridge-line, the adrenaline is very real. Even if it is an old plasic bag.

So, Geoff's first time actually fighting the Way, rather than cowering from them. I think he supprised himself. He certainly supprised me. I was expecting him to be much less effective, but somehow he actually got stuck in. Possibly, this was because he didn't know they were vampires until he checked. The first one he downed had used up all it's blood, so it wasn't regenerating. It was an nasty shock to find out he'd been fighting the way.

Also, I've already written and sent off the first draft of my report for the Prince. I'm not sure it's my responibility; technically it falls to the ranking Kerridor, and I think Matthias, knight of the something, technically outranks me within the conclave. But he left it at home last time, so I'm not taking any chances. From the whole 'You have half an hour to get off my territory' thing, I imagine the Prince is angry enough anyway. I'm just trying to make sure he has no reason to be angry at me specifically.

As to the test everyone's doing, I also got the clan I'm playing:

You scored as Nosferatu. You belong to the Nosferatu bloodline. The Nosferatu are the spies and theives of the vampire underworld who prefer to go without being seen. This is fitting as their bloodline has twisted them into hideous, loathesome creatures. As such, most other vampires only speak to them when they absolutely must, making them quite the social outcasts. At least the sewer rats seem to like you.

</td>

Nosferatu

67%

Brujah

67%

Tremere

54%

Gangrel

46%

Malkavian

46%

Ventrue

29%

Toreador

29%

What vampire clan do you belong to?
created with QuizFarm.com

However, I had to have a tie-breaker, and Geoff is an arty Kerridor, rather than a sneaky one.

I also rather like this;

I amAzathoth!

Known as the "Blind Idiot God", the center of all cycles known as Azathoth is the great void itself, infinite creation and inescapable oblivion made one. The Great God is without ego, as it has been embodied in a seperate consciousness as Azathoth has cast off the curse of self-awareness. Surrounded by the host of flautist servitors, piping the songs of the unknowable, Azathoth is not to be known by his aspirants. That is the purpose of another God...

Which Great Old One are you?

Roast Marrow with rice stuffing

Mon, 08 May 2006 21:42:46 GMT

To break up the ranting about my life, I thought I'd post any recipies I made up (only ones that I've actually made and eaten, of course) on here. Even if no body ever reads it, it'll help me keep track of what I'm cooking.
NB: the basic unit of cooking when I do it is 'some.' If for some reason you want to copy this recipe, use your imagination. If you can cope with 'salt and pepper to taste' you should be able to cope with 'some flour.' It's all a matter of scale.

So today, I made Roast Marrow, with Rice Stuffing.

Serves two very, very hungry people, or three of four normals, especially if you have dessert after.
Like most of my recipies, this was dictated largely by what was in the fridge. I would have liked to include TVP mince, but there wasn't any. I would also usually include some chilli, but I have a deal with my girlfriend not to use any chilli in food she'll eat for a whole month. So there isn't any.

1 large marrow
1 large onion
1 bell pepper (of any colour)
2 mushrooms
Some rice
Some red lentils
Sage
Thyme
Five spice
Some butter
Some oil
Some mustard
Some horseradish sauce
Some yogurt
Pepper
Salt
Garlic
1 egg

Slice Marrow lengthways, and scoop out seeds. Cook rice and lentils. Place in bowl, and add butter. Chop vegtables (other than marrow) and fry. Add to rice. Add everything else, and mix thoughly. Spoon into hollow in marrow. Cook in hot oven until cooked (the marrow doesn't change colour much, but it does go tender.)

Nice on its own, in large quantities, when very, very hungry.

Mon, 08 May 2006 16:30:43 GMT

Ha-ha! I have been talked into getting a live-journal, but as yet only my seeker_dreamer knows about it, as she's the one who talked me into getting it. I have a whole list of friends though, and the real purpose of this journal is reading other people's anyway.

So...

I finally watched Corpse Bride, at a friends recommendation, and it was a lot better than I had expected, although the worm (maggot? Did it actually *have* a name?) irritated me no end. The perfect balance of comedy, romance and pathos, and a "wise-cracking" worm to break the mood whenever it gets good. Still, it was worth the price, which between a special offer and student discount, was really quite cheap.

It just occurred to me that I won't have my student discount much longer, and that once it's gone I'm going to miss it, although I haven't really taken advantage of it while I've had it. I just don't buy that much music (so much easier to steal other peoples) or that many films etc, and I've been to the cinema about five times. I've kept thinking 'Ooh, must go see that', then letting it go by, then thinking 'Ah well, I'll get it on DVD,' then continuing to ignore it. I am going to get V for Vendetta, and Tristan and Isolde, because the original stories of both are too fine to pass up on.
Or, at least, I'm still determined to see them now, when they're no longer at the cinema. Maybe I'll just buy the books.

How is it that the spellchecker can cope with Isolde? I wouldn't have thought it would be in the dictionary.