Today the last regular post to Ten Years on Terra went up, the weekdaily blog I've been keeping of the A Time of War (MechWarrior) tabletop I've been running for the last year. Writing that has been a major contributing factor to the lack of posts on this LJ -- most of my content creation effort has been going there, trying very hard to keep up with the once-a-weekday schedule I was holding myself to. The first three weeks were definitely the hardest, but anytime the frontlog dropped below three entries or so was stressful.

On the other hand, maintaining the log was a tremendous boon to my as a gamemaster, and made sure that I spent at least a few hours a week thinking about the game, even if I wasn't running that particular week. I think I may make this a regular feature of my GMing style -- perhaps not publicly (this one was partially done as a service to the rest of the BattleTech community) but the public exposure definitely motivated me to keep writing.

I could make comments on the game itself, but I've already done so (quite exhaustively) there.

In an effort to get more content here, I asked darkoni42 to provide me with seven topics to talk about. I believe the rules of this meme obligate me to pay these topics forward on request, but I expect everyone who reads this and is likely to participate has already gotten a goodly set of topics for themselves.

So, without further ado, ( I'll strain to remember how to use an lj-cutCollapse )

This got generated as something of a byproduct of my research into a number of different things, but I thought I'd share it. I built a simple Asteroids network game. The architecture is such that the server calculates the entire game, and sends each client a report on what they can see. The client then sends back a very specific data structure that details what actions the ship takes. The server continues calculating and sending reports, and the ship continues sending orders. Any number of ships can be connected at the same time, and the game tries to spawn then close to each other.

The heart of this game is the C# Project that comes with it. The project contains a simple client with two procedures in the frmMain form (CreateShip and Think) that can be modified to build a new AI for the ship. The idea here is that multiple people develop different Ship AI's, and then connect them to a server to see which can accomplish a goal faster (although at the moment the only reasonable goal seems to be to shoot the other ship.) If there's interest in this kind of thing I'll spend some time to expand on it, if not, I'll probably let it go.

Anybody who is interested can find the starter kit (the C# project for the client and two different server applications) at this location. If you don't already have a C# (or other .NET) development environment, I suggest Visual Studio C# Express 2010.

One of the goals I strive toward in running table top games is to produce either a very emotionally intense (although not actually unpleasant to the players, of course) or at least very cinematic experience for the players. Its more difficult than you would think for somebody who is traditionally a puzzle GM. I was thinking back on the games that I've run over the last decade or so, and I think I've only achieved this perhaps three times. The three that spring to mind are:( ExamplesCollapse )

So what are the most cinematic or emotionally charged adventures that you've had?

So, yeah, I think I'm done with World of Warcraft. Its been sliding for a while, but I was holding out for the latest patch, hoping that it would provide some exciting new gameplay I could get into. A new dungeon was being presented, and so this evening we rounded up our guild members and went in.

( A dull relation of the events this nightCollapse )

Through the good offices of mariaklob, I was able to obtain four more bookshelves this weekend and begin what I hope is the final phase of my unpacking adventure in my new apartment. The big win for me this week was after assembling three of the four, I finally unpacked my video game box collection, which my mother had increasingly believed me nuts for storing in boxes in her basement for years on end in anticipation of some day whence they would be displayed in my home.

But at long last they are unpacked, and I have found the experience slightly more rewarding than I was expecting. My collection goes back deep into the day of 3.5" HD floppies, and contains some of the more significant milestones of gaming through the 1990's. For almost every game on the shelf, I can remember where I got it, when I started playing it, who I discussed it with, and notable scenes or entire sessions from a few. A few also remind me of the buildup to their release, such as my copy of Starcraft, which I remember the tremendous anticipation of from the time it was expected to be a reskin of the Warcraft II engine all the way up through the first time I walked from WPI to the Greendale Mall to pick it up after school on launch day.

They also remind me of friends past and present. Of Norm, whom I played Quake with in the Movie Lab at WPI for half my academy career, Diablo, which I met with another friend to play almost every day for the summer of 1999. Deus Ex, which was a surprise gift from sirroxton, a game I never would have bought myself but has become one of my all-time favorites enough that I occasionally still go back and play it all the way through.

It occurs to me that I think of these games as a particularly avid reader thinks of books; they are signposts of the culture I had growing up, even if I didn't realize it at the time. They significantly contributed to my development and my choice of career, and I realize now that I'm an adult and many of my piers have played some or many of these games, that spending so many hours of my childhood on these wasn't a waste; it was setting up the cultural framework of references, examples, and metaphors that began with my generation and continues forward for a large subset of my peers.

I'm glad I kept these.

OK, two elements are coming up that I wanted to plug here:

Element the First: Initial test runs of hosting at my new place have proven the concept sound, and so I am going forward with the much-anticipated Star Trek TUARS on Saturday, June 21st (i.e., this coming Saturday) starting at 1000. The basis of the even is that I have a huge amount of Trek on DVD, and there is a lot of Trek people like to watch. So starting around ten in the morning, there will be a democratically decided marathon of Trek, consisting of a consensus or voting on the next episode to watch, followed by watching said episode. Cycle, Rinse, Repeat. Order pizza, chinese, or other food as necessary. If you're planning on coming and/or don't know my address, drop me a line.

Element the Second: I'm thinking on running a 4th Ed. D&D campaign this summer. Probably weekly or biweekly, meeting in Worcester, and running on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. If you have an interest in participating, again, comment or email me. I promise, no more stupid video games this time, unless everybody really, really wants them.

OK, so it appears there is sufficient interest in a cooperative SEV game that I think its going to happen. I booted up SEV on my computer last night to discover that I installed it, but haven't yet put in the key (which is sitting somewhere near my desk in Worcester), and thus I won't be launching the game for a few days yet. If you aren't already familiar with Space Empires V, I recommend visiting the Malfador Machinations website and downloading the demo.

( Discussion on ProtocolCollapse )

Last night I went out with a few of my coworkers to Corky's in Memphis. I'm not much of a ribs person, but the dry ribs there were really, really good. Definite recommendation for your next visit.

Today, BioShock was released, and I got myself down to a Best Buy to purchase myself a copy. We closed out most of our critical work today, so I went back to the hotel, turned off all the lights in my room, and loaded it up. Remarkable game, and I suspect that the specs on EMERALD contribute greatly to it being as good as it can be. The game is really creepy, and I get the distinct impression that recording somebody's first play through both with FRAPS and a headset. The story is a bit slow to reveal itself, but so far there's been no major plot twists (halfway through the third level) -- the Good Guy is poorly defined and the villains are manically evil or two fries short of a Happy Meal. I look forward to completing the entire game.

Hate.

Magus.

So.

Much.