Wednesday, June 27, 2012

[Weekly Words on Women] Watching the World Turn Upside Down

As most of you know, I don't tend to get passionate about a whole lot. I try pretty hard to be even-natured and talk about things in a fairly rational way. I don't let too much rile me up, and I avoid the shenanigans you can count on from my co-author, SinSynn.

I'm going to play by some different rules for this series, which I had planned and sketched out well before last week's web explosion on gender, bias and sexism.


Over the next few weeks, I will be looking at access and control some more, along with the gaming community and how women are viewed and treated. I'll probably discuss how we got to where we are today, and ask a lot of questions. 




Last time, I talked about control and access in regards to women's sexuality. This time, - let's talk about women's rights. I'm specifically looking at the way the world is changing and how control and access is being challenged, especially via religion and politics (at least in the US).



Tuesday, June 26, 2012

[WOD] Why Does He Do That?

On Vinnie motivations and such.

Vinnie started off in Austin as a soldier, looking for an army to join.

As an Ordo, he had a built in army. He was given missions from higher ups, just like any soldier. some of his missions had a direct and obvious purpose, while others were more subdued, inobvious and vampire-y.


Vinnie doesn't talk about why he does things very often, and certainly not with other Kindred. He knows Kindred share a tendency to be less than clear about their motives or aims, and sees the wisdom in it, after having seen first hand all sorts of scheming.

Vinnie was primarily motivated by the pursuit of power. Vinnie's particular avenue to power has always been knowledge. Most of his interactions with other Supernaturals have been to gain information or access to it, and he has used the information to fuel his adventures. Some of the people he has encountered have been more useful than others, and he has pursued deeper relationships with them.

Vinnie embraces both his Mekhet and his Ordo natures, and has come to realize that the only way to gain the power he wants is to adapt as things progress, 'see things', and do a whole lot more listening.



At one point, Vinnie wanted to kill the Commissioner if the situation presented itself. He's now in the position of viewing the Commissioner as something of a mentor, especially regarding philosophy and the nature of God's purpose for the Kindred in their existence.

While Vinnie doesn't have a lot of experience understanding or discerning supernatural things, he has been exposed to quite a few and is just now starting to understand how they interact with each other and what advantages to use when. His particular avenue of attack at this venture is to befriend one of the Mist-Walkers, and use this person as a  walking "dead-detector". He's also decided that it's hilarious fun to torment the Mages, but in a subtle and devious way.

(The Mages are protecting someone they think Vinnie and/or Reese are after for nefarious purposes. Vinnie has made a big production of wanting to talk to the fellow, and the Mages have become defensive. Vinnie doesn't really care about the person in question, but instead wants to push the Mages out of their hidey hole by being very persistent about finding said person.)

My major problem with playing Vinnie at the moment is that I don't think very quickly. I am usually trying to play catch up by at least one game session, if not two...


Wednesday, June 20, 2012

[Weekly Words on Women] The Strip Club

It's dark, moody and heady with quiet anticipation inside the club.

All the lights focus on the woman moving on the stage, flashing across her breasts as she swings around the pole, beckoning to the audience.

The beat of the music is generating interest and attention as her hair slides across her back, her head turning to look at the crowd again.

Friday, June 15, 2012

[Wonderland] Second Chances

Several people have asked me how my session of Wonderland went on Wednesday.



Unfortunately, there weren't any players. However, on the way out of the store, I ran into a buddy and we started chatting in the parking lot.

The buddy and his girlfriend are just learning about RPGs, and had a lot of questions. While talking, they expressed interest in my little playground, and so we're going to try again next time. Then when I got home, TheBoy told me he really wanted to play, so it looks like I have potential players for next session!

This "second chance" gives me time to flesh out the background packets I'm passing out to the players, as well as work on the map some more. (I need to find a way to share my map with you guys! I think you will like it.)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

[Wonderland] Beginnings

Rather than talk and dream and blather about the Wonderland idea, I decided it was time to actually run it.  I'm jumping in.





I'm scheduled to run my first session (intro and character making) tomorrow. I still have some work to do (printouts and maybe clean up the map some more), but I can't back out now...

I'm still not sure if I am crazy or convinced, but I am doing it.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

[WOD] Austin by Night: EPIC Vinnie Recap

So, I have not blogged about Vinnie much, if at all. I have very specific thoughts and ideas for him, and I am having a difficult time deciding if I want to blog about them or keep them secret.


Vinnie IS a Vampire, but it's tough to get outside advice if I don't seek input. So, I'll give you the very best of the very best... or something. This is a recap of several sessions, boiled down to the most relevant and understandable details (as far as I can, anyway).



Tuesday, June 5, 2012

[RPG] Dissonance

I know, without any real preface or explanation, that I don't like OSR and/or old school stuff. It's just not for me. That doesn't bother me. I know what I like... it's pretty simple stuff.

What's simpler than 4 chords and incredible attitude?


Jeff had a really interesting post recently about the apparent lack of a first level as he sees it in the Next iteration of D&D. He went on to talk about what he DOES like in a game, which generated a metric crapton of comments. His follow up post had a real eye opener for me. One of the guys responding made an off the cuff remark about CoC, which struck me in a very particular way.

I don't enjoy a fragile first level character for a D&D game. It makes me all kinds of mental to consider that my D&D dude might die the first session out of the gate. (I don't like a D&D game at all, really; but that is beside the point.) However, I fully enjoy (and expect!) a fragile " first level"character for CoC. I LOOK FORWARD to the inevitable decrepitude, insanity and/or mangling of any character facing the Eldritch horrors, but not for D&D.

The question of the day for me boiled down to: Why?



What makes one character being a meat puppet unconscionable, while the other is gladly given as grist for the mill? I have absolutely no illusions that if I were playing, my CoC character could live long enough to gain a lot of experience or make a prestige class; and I am totally ok with that. Reconciling that against my angst about a D&D character's prospects becomes something I want to do, just to keep my head from spinning.

I have a thought or two, but I'm hesitant to put it out there right yet. I'd love to hear whether any of you have similar dichotomies, and if so, how you reconciled them with each other.