Afterthoughts

 Suddenly I have the hankering to watch "City of Lost Children".

Anyway: what kind of system would you use for a light quest game?  Ie: a game like Brave Story, parts of the Lord of the Rings, Wolf and Spice, or Shannara.  The point of the game is that you are going somewhere to do something, and it has these qualities:

• Individual party characters may come or go or stay put; you may share a goal or you may just be going the same way (initially)
• "combat" may happen, but it is not the focus, and would probably leave people injured rather than triumphant
• Focus is actually the characters, their growth and changing (and definition, actually), and enjoying the setting
• Play is multi-session

I can think of a few that would "work", to various degrees of fit.  Some of ribbon drive's mechanics are appropriate, but not really the core mechanic.  You could use bliss stage in a modified form (no dream missions, some sort of modified authority).  Both of these would at least provide reasonable support for the correct feel of the game, based on social interaction more than task annihilation.  Burning Wheel would also work (since it supports questioning beliefs, learning, dangerous combat, change over time, etc), but it doesn't do as much to support the right narrative structure (though MouseGuard could fill the gaps, if it were generalized).   I mean, this sort of game can be run in gurps or NWOD or DnD, but a generic system would provide scaffolding for all the wrong things.

Anyway, I'd love to hear people's thoughts on this.

and I'm running out of internet to look at. So because I love you (no, not you) here's some excellent SMBC.



And...

Seattle Punk Audio Zine is available in iTunes now as well.

The first episode of Seattle Punk Audio Zine is now available: http://bit.ly/1lKhCu

In this episode, I interview The Damage Done and play four songs from their album Scream All Of Our Cliches.

If you're at all interested in punk music or would just like to hear what's been eating a good chunk of my brain lately, please listen to show. I've learned a lot just from doing my first couple of interviews and editing this episode, but I know I still have a lot to learn. Feedback, especially if it will help to improve the show, is welcome and encouraged.

There is also a feed you can subscribe to in order to get updated on future posts and episodes. It will probably be available in iTunes in the next couple of days as well.

Cheers!

http://media.libsyn.com/media/stabbingcontest/Stabbingcontestep030.mp3

let's see... Since the last post I've moved twice, started a new job, worked on my phd applications, started taking a class, been separated from my cat, been reunited with my cat, and read a lot of library books.

The two moves were the result of a long stretch of really bad luck finding a place to live, so that when I finally did find a place to live, on the day I moved in they told me there had been a miscommunication and they didn't actually allow cats. So I had to move again. Fortunately I found a place that's cat-friendly, nice, near my job, and in a good neighborhood. My new roommates are both about five years younger than I am, but easy enough to get along with. They work full time and generally have their lives together, and it's only occasionally that I'm reminded how young they are ("You won't tell K's mom that we smoke weed, right?"). Plus, it's nicely within my budget. And I got Aurora back from Ben and Lesley!

My job is yet another coffee shop job. It's a better fit for me than the last one was, though. The coffee shop is run by Firefly fanatics, so there's Firefly and other geek paraphernalia around, and lots of people coming in for things like board game night, and D&D. The customers are nice and tip a lot better than Indie customers ever did (I think this is an Atlanta-Seattle difference, mostly). I really enjoy the actual making coffee parts of the job, and I'm getting better at that. My boss is tiny and Australian and somewhat terrifying, but as I get better at doing the job and more used to her, I'm better able to relax around her, and I think she's beginning to get a better idea of how to handle me, too. And she won points with me yesterday when she showed up and I complained to her about the nonstop slew of "No on Ref. 71" ads that the radio had been running. (Ref 71 is the "everything but marriage" referendum for domestic partnerships, and the ads have been things like, "In Massachusetts, schoolchildren were forced to learn that same sex couples are the same as everyone else!" with accompanying scary music). When I complained about the ads, my boss immediately changed the channel and said, "that's not our position." Thank you coffee shop boss! I probably won't stay at this coffee shop past March-April, because I want to go back to China at some point and because after that I'll either be going to a PhD program or needing to get serious about finding a real job, but as a short-term thing this is pretty fun.

So anyway, life is okay.

 I realize Kathy needs an Icon.
Because she would love this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCrEezFfNsQ

 Had the seed of a relationship system in mind, but at the moment it requires that you understand the concept of a number line (positive, negative, absolute value).  Feedback appreciated.
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Modeling relationships in games is hard.  Combat is much easier to experiment with.  For me.  Time to suck it up and write a story-games post for help.

Allergies suck. It's completely derailed me from anything else. Dagnabbit.
I had forgotten how OVER the TOP the Hugh Jackman Van Helsing movie is.
Vacation can't come soon enough.
I have a lot of things on my list to get done before said vacation.

Yesterday, I saw like four really good pairs of shoes I'd wear.
Today, I saw one REALLY nice pair of Reeboks.

EDIT: Finally got into playing Assassin's Creed. It wasn't until i got to the first free-roaming city that I really got into it, however. Took a while, nearly dumped it because of lack of interest. Hm.