I got an email today from a man who organizes a LAN party named TurkeyCon. It seems that, being a blog and a bit older than his new site, my one-entry reference to attending our friends Lucinda & Grant in North Carolina at Thanksgiving, of course named TurkeyCon, could cause some confusion.
He asked if I could rename the entry or something, so that eventually his site would be number one on the Google search, no doubt.
Well, I didn't rename it, but I did add a clarification line and a link to his site. Luc&Grant have prior art, even if they don't have the domain and it's really unofficial. But he asked in such a nice way that I felt bad if I'd have just refused.
Speaking of which...our TurkeyCon comes up in November. When I will be trying to do NaNoWriMo. This should be interesting to see how much writing I can get done while down there, at the end of the month, when deadline approacheth.
Comments (7)
Dont' worry - we won't distract you too much.
Well, maybe we wil. And Jack will certainly try. And I'm sure the bird will try to bite you (again), and the dog will want her ball thrown, and the cats will need to be petted, and the kids willl want to get/give hugs and to show you Every Single Thing They Own.
And the food, of course. And the movie(s). And the gamestores.
And you owe me a neck massage (I think).
But other than that, you should have PLENTY of time to write...
Posted by ShadowSpawn | October 7, 2002 10:15 PM
Posted on October 7, 2002 22:15
And I expect Rilla and Gevrok may find themselves in more trouble... it tends to be their lot in life.
BTW, rooftop cargo carrier arrived yesterday. We'll be trying to see how well it attaches this weekend. With success, Jack can bring more unusual and (hopefully) distracting things.
But yeah... plenty of time to write. Sure!
Posted by Jack | October 8, 2002 9:25 AM
Posted on October 8, 2002 09:25
Jack, the kids want you to run a Paranoia session while you're here. Ryan got his hands on 5th Ed, has read the rules (and won't admit it), made maps and characters, and even GM'd once for The Bridgetling.
She lost two clones before they even GOT to the Briefing Room...
But he wants to see a master at work before he GMs for us grownups.
So - any interest?
SS
(besides, this lets me hijack Dazz's blog for my own Nefarious Purposes! MUAHhahahahahaha!)
Posted by ShadowSpawn | October 8, 2002 11:01 PM
Posted on October 8, 2002 23:01
Just ran some Paranoia at AmberCon North this year (in a mutant no rules kinda way)...
I can probably dig up the old book and remind myself how the mechanics work (like that matters!) and toss together a messy old Code 7 for all to enjoy.
Posted by Jack | October 9, 2002 3:00 PM
Posted on October 9, 2002 15:00
"Enjoy" being a relative word, of course. Had to have a medium-length heart-to-heart with The Bridgetling in the middle of Ryan's attempt at GMing. Took a bit to get across to her that the whole POINT of Paranoia is, "No Matter WHAT You Do, You Can't Win".
Also worked on making the point to Ryan that, while killing clones is in fact his job as moderator, it has to be FUNNY, dammit!
But it's good to know that we're having a certain amount of success in raising the Next Generation of RPGers.
(Mmmmm, NextGen. If Ryan is Wesley, does that mean I get to be Picard?)
SS
(ObSFADTopic: Julia, I've been telling people to use MT as their web-publishing software because "I have a friend who's Really Into That Stuff who swears by it". Got two ppl trying it so far, and it's all your fault! )
(ObPreviousPostComment: the comment about "hijacking your blog" was clearly placed there by a Commie Mutant Traitor, who will be unearthed and executed immediately. Nothing to see here, Citizen; move along, be happy, trust the Computer!)
Posted by ShadowSpawn | October 9, 2002 8:58 PM
Posted on October 9, 2002 20:58
Oh, it has to be funny, does it? That may take more prep work...
Actually, probably not. Ian and I spent some time discussing Paranoia GM'ing to each other (we were about to co-GM, after all, for only the 2nd time) and my position was that it works best as an improvisational game where you have a general plot and a few planned episodes in mind, then a bank of side-tracks, disasters, comic asides and explosions to toss in wherever they fit.
Not to say the Paranoia modules weren't great fun to read... and a great source to mine for that bank of ideas (I plan to re-read a few next month as a warm-up). But in most, if not all, comedy games, a structured adventure is a no-no... Players and GMs have to be free to go where the funny is. And a lot of that can't be guessed until you're actually playing and seeing what clicks with this group.
And that is as much a break from more familiar planned/scripted RPG gaming than the comic bleak hopelessness is from the familiar heroes winning out against all odds.
Posted by Jack | October 10, 2002 9:04 AM
Posted on October 10, 2002 09:04
"...my position was that it works best as an improvisational game where you have a general plot and a few planned episodes in mind, then a bank of side-tracks, disasters, comic asides and explosions to toss in wherever they fit."
Exactly. I've been talking with Ryan about that - that having "maps" for Paranoia in the same sense that one has them for a D&D3 adventure is not only not necessary, but potentially harmful. Paranoia, Toon, TfOS - that whole crowd responds WAAAY better to "roll-n-shout" than planning.
If roleplaying is like theatre-improv, then comic roleplaying is more like standup comedy. Keeping a finger on the pulse of your audience, and heading where they want to go, is WAAAY more important than anything else I can think of...
SS
(ObBlog: Um. Hmmm. OK - the "Vibrating Tampon" doesn't squick me out. I'm just...boggled.)
Posted by ShadowSpawn | October 11, 2002 9:32 AM
Posted on October 11, 2002 09:32