Nuadha's Tale

Ignorance can be tolerated, where reason is left free to combat it. -Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, July 31, 2003

My iMac
While typing up a post just now where I mentioned how much I love my iMac, I accidently hit the num luck/clear button on the number pad, which in a horrible design flaw with the early iMac keyboards was placed dangerously close to the delete button. I deleted my post.

Anyways, I posted that we've had the iMac for over three years now, and have minimal problems with it. It's generally been a great computer. Over the last year it has had a whining sound that has been getting progressively worse. At first I thought that I was just hearing the normal sounds and being hyper-sensitive because the house was quiet when I heard it but these days its gotten so loud that I hear from other rooms in the house and it annoys me the whole time I use the computer.

So, I decided to try and find the source of the sound tonight and its definately the hard drive. Bad news- A noisy hard drive means the hard drive is dying and should be replaced soon. Good news- I priced the hard drive. The nice thing about a three year old computer is that parts come cheap....and also can count as an upgrade. My computer had a 10GB hard drive and when we bought it, that was more than enough (this was pre-MP3s) . Even today, we do fine with our 10GB drive. Pricing replacements, the cheapest ATA drives are 20GB and run about $60. For $60 bucks, I'll repair my computer AND get double the hard-drive space.

I'm almost seeing the hard drive going bad as a blessing. It's forcing me to upgrade something that I'd like to upgrade anyways.

Wednesday, July 30, 2003

Quiz
(Via Double N)

You are Sir Didymus!!  A Fearless and valiant warrior who will fight to the death if you feel strongly enough about it.  Your friends rate you very highly and so they should because you
You are Sir Didymus!! A Fearless and valiant
warrior who will fight to the death if you feel
strongly enough about it. Your friends rate
you very highly and so they should because you
are a loyal and wonderful person.


"Which 'Labyrinth' Character are you?"
brought to you by Quizilla

A Newspeak dictionary
courtesy of the Toronto Times:

Toronto Sun, July 27, 2003

Terms of engagement
Herewith, definitions to keep on top of current events

By ERIC MARGOLIS -- Contributing Foreign Editor

It's very difficult keeping up with Mideast news due to the Orwellian
newspeak coming from Washington.

So here's a handy list of key terms, translated into simple English.

Liberation - Invasion.

Coalition - The U.S. and British invaders, plus some troops from
rent-a-nations like Romania and Poland. In the past, "the coalition" would
have been called imperial forces and mercenary auxiliaries.

Dictator - A ruler you don't like, or who does not cooperate.

Statesman - A cooperative dictator.

Stability - when things go the way Uncle Sam likes, ie., the status quo.

Instability - when things don't go the way Uncle Sam wants, ie., when
trouble-makers try to change the status quo.

Iraq reconstruction - a process whereby big firms that contribute to the
president's re-election campaign obtain contracts to rebuild the damage
caused by U.S. bombing.

Freeing Iraq's oil assets - Washington's seizure and sale of Iraqi oil,
which in no way can be compared to Cuba's seizure and sale of U.S.-owned
property, a dastardly crime.

Mideast democracy - regimes that hold rigged elections and obey Washington's
orders.

Free trade - pouring goods and services into the newly "liberated" country,
and buying up its key industrial assets at fire-sale prices.

Terrorism - violent acts by dangerous fanatics and malcontents who refuse to
accept the downtrodden status assigned to them by Washington.

Anti-terrorism - State terrorism.

Uranium - a yellowish mineral from Niger that causes red faces in the White
House.

Iraq Administrator - A pro-consul or gaulieter, disguised as a minor
suburban bureaucrat.

Drones of death - Iraqi remotely piloted aircraft that the White House
claimed were poised to fly off Iraqi ships lurking in the North Atlantic and
shower fiendish germs on a sleeping America - which turn out to be two model
airplanes, only one of which could fly. See "vans of death."

Vans of death - Claimed by Washington to be Iraqi mobile germ warfare
laboratories, but turn out, on inspection, to be British-supplied trucks for
inflating weather balloons.

Weapons of Mass Destruction - Nasty weapons, existing or non-existing, that
the other side has. When your side has them, they become invisible.

Torture - a foul act committed by your enemies. When your side does it, it's
called intensive interrogation in Guantanamo.

Homeland security - bolting the barn door after the horse has escaped by
rounding up Muslims and denying them due process of law.

French - Insubordinate ingrates and depraved chain-smokers who had the nerve
to try to block the jolly little war in Iraq, and now sneer, "we told you
so."

Germans - Untrustworthy. Just when you order them to be warlike again, they
go soft. Wait until they see the next dozen WWII epics from Hollywood.

Canadians - A bunch of pot-smoking, pinko, wimp nancy boys who marry their
best friends and refuse to obey orders from the Great White Father in
Washington.

Islam - An evil faith that promotes violence and hatred, as proven by the
Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, who learned about the agents of the devil while
encountering them in motel rooms.

Fox News - The Ministry of Truth. (aka Minitruth, -Nuadha)

Al-Jazeera News - All the bad news we don't want to hear. See Fox News.

Die-hards and Saddam loyalists - Any Iraqis opposing the invasion of their
country.

Traitors and friends of Saddam - Journalists who questioned the Bush
Administration's lurid claims over Iraq's purported threat.

Moderate - A Mideastern ruler who toes the line and makes nice to Israel.

Peacekeepers - Troops from browbeaten or bribed vassal states sent to
perform garrison duty in U.S.-occupied nations that the Pentagon wants to
avoid, or lacks the troops to perform.

New Iraqi government - An august body that leaps to its feet when a U.S.
soldier enters the room, and has total authority over garbage collection and
sewers.

Saddam Hussein - A former close American ally who got too big for his
britches. If not assassinated, may soon be needed again to run Iraq for
Washington. (I have to disagree with this one. There's no way the US would use Hussein again when it can just create another dictator.....errr....statesman. -Nuadha)

Uday and Qusay - Yes, Saddam's boys were big-time delinquents, but Crazy
Uday's biggest mistake was probably making fun of George W. Bush in his
newspaper, calling the prez a draft-dodging wimp. Perhaps that's why he and
Qusay got the multi, anti-tank missile treatment - Texas justice - rather
than a nice show trial in Baghdad.

Eye-Raq - A democracy-seeking Arab state that volunteered for mentoring and
tutelage from Washington in exchange for helping out American drivers of
SUV's.


Tuesday, July 29, 2003

Flag Desecration
Bush's reply

(By the way, the site is a parody site)

Name

James is the #1 most common male name.
3.318% of men in the US are named James.
Around 4064550 US men are named James!
source namestatistics.com


To make feel less common.....

Nuadha is a very rare male name.
Very few men in the US are named Nuadha.
Be proud of your unique name!
source namestatistics.com

Monday, July 28, 2003

My Monster

Nuadha

is a Giant Ant that is Worshipped as a God, can Fly and Phase in and out of Existence, is Cold-Blooded, and Fears Nothing.

Strength: 4 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 7



To see if your Giant Battle Monster can
defeat Nuadha, enter your name and choose an attack:

fights Nuadha using

Quote of the Day
Bill Maher on California gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Finally, a candidate who can explain the Bush administration's positions on civil liberties in the original German."

Saturday, July 26, 2003

Meet the Press
Gen. Wesley Clark was on Meet the Press back on June 15th. On it I guess he revealed that five hours after the terrorist attacks of 9-11-01, he received a call from a white house official. Clark didn't name names but said, "I was on CNN and I got a call at my home saying, 'You got to say this is connected. This is state-sponsored terrorism. This has to be connected to Saddam Hussein.' I said, 'I'm willing to say it but what's your evidence?' and I never got any evidence."

Five hours later. Most of the nation was still reeling from the news. The White House was already working to turn this into their excuse to start a war that Cheney and Rumsfeld had been wanting for years. (See the 1998 letter that "Project for a New American Century", the neo-conservative group that Cheney and Rumsfeld belonged to, sent to Clinton asking him to invade Iraq to make America stronger in the next century.)

EDIT- I found this article from FAIR (Faitness and Accuracy in Reporting) on the comments by Clark and the suprisingly little coverage it received.

Underworld
The White Wolf geek in me is so looking forward to this movie, but somewhere a rational part of my brain keeps telling me its going to suck.

Tarot Quiz
(Via MacGeek)
EMPEROR
EMPEROR
"the pioneer, builder, doer,
visionary"

You create what is needed for future generations.
You have a deep love for adventure, travel,
change, the creative process, setting new
things in motion, and changing both internally
and externally. You have a great gift of
visionary perception, an eye for what is and is
not working.


which major arcana of the thoth tarot deck are you? short, with pictures and detailed results
brought to you by Quizilla

The Toth creeps me out. I've read a lot of Crowley's writings and nothing there has ever bothered me, but I look at the Toth deck to buy it one time and there was something about it. The cards made me feel a little Vertigo. The art definately touches something, but I don't think I could ever use it.

In case you're wondering, I use the Rider-Waite mostly (along with millions of others). I have a few other decks I like, but the Rider Waite is the only tarot deck that has ever really clicked for me. The art is clean and the symbolism is strong. For such simple art, there is an amazing amount of detail in the Rider-Waite deck.

Friday, July 25, 2003

No Do-overs
For those of you who may not have heard, California has a group that gathered enough signatures to force a recall vote of their governor. The group, funded by the Republican who'd like the job, claims that Gov. Davis should be recalled for mismanaging the economy. (The LA Times has this entertaining reply to this thinking.) Personally, I'm thinking that, by this same kind of logic, the United States should have a recall vote for our unelected president.

Lucky Ducky
is back at Tom the Dancing Bug. It's not as funny as last time, but he's still a lucky ducky.

Found another one.

A poem
An old co-worker from Interfirst sent this to me:

Up there St Peter met me
Standing at the pearly gates,
He said "I must check your record
Please stand here and wait."

He turned and said "Your record
Is covered with terrible flaws,
On earth I see you rallied
For every losing cause."

I see that you drank alcohol
And smoked and used drugs too,
Fact is, you've done everything
A good person should never do.
We can't have people like you up here
Your life was full of sin,
Then he read the last of my record
Took my hand and said "Come in."


He led me up to the big boss and said
"Take her in and treat her well",
She used to work in The Mortgage Industry.
She's done her time in hell".

Another Quote
We should not march into Baghdad . . . . To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us, and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day Arab hero . . . assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an unwinnable urban guerrilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability.
- Former President, George Bush, in his 1998 book "A World Transformed", co-authored with Brent Scowcroft, Random House

Quote of the Day
We're only going after the bad guys. ... If you're not a terrorist or a spy, you have nothing to worry about.
-A spokesman for the Dept. of Justice, quoted in this article.

Thursday, July 24, 2003

Known Unknowns
As more of Bush's lies come to light, the only thing shocking me is that there are people actually suprised by this shit.

Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Quote of the Day
"INTEL INSIDE- The world's most common warning sticker"
-unknown

Miniatures
When I heard that WotC (Wizards of the Coast) was cancelling the Chainmail miniatures game, I was bummed. I had finally found a miniature game that was exactly the kind of game I was looking for. It was fast with easy (minimal) set-up. It allowed you to build small warbands of varied figures, had simple rules and a whole lot of strategy. During my time playing in the Chainmail league, I played several warbands with wildly different strategies and won most of the leagues, so of course I liked the game. I won a lot. :)

Then WotC announced they were cancelling the game and I lost interest. The game hadn't been around long and it was just starting to get a following, but noone would want to play a game that is no longer supported. The important thing about miniature games is being able to find an opponent. If you can't find someone to play against, you won't get much use out of your minis. It sucked because Chainmail was just starting to build a following and the last coupleof sets had some of the best minis they produced.

Since Chainmail, I started playing Heroclix a bit and it's a decent game, but it's nowhere near the quality of game that Chainmail was. The best part of the game is the fact that it's superhero miniatures but even that can only carry the game so far. Unlike Chainmail, with its varied startegies and tactics, Heroclix tends to have very little in the way of strategic options. Most Heroclix teams tend to be pretty similiar. If you don't have a few guys that fly on your team, you'll probably lose. So, every team has at least two fliers. If you have too many inexpensive guys and try to win with hordes of "cannon-fodder," you'll proably lose. In Chainmail, I had some terrific luck with warbands that were all cheap guys. In Heroclix, if you try buying just one or two really big (expensive) guys for your team, you'll lose. In Chainmail, my first warband was one huge Ogre and a Gnoll. I won a lot with that team. In Heroclix, when I go to play at a hobby shop, it seems everyone is playing the same team with the same startegies.

So, I've wanted to play miniature games, but Heroclix wasn't the game I was hoping it would be. I still keep picking up the occassional pack because the comic geek in me loves having superhero miniatures and, while I like playing the occassional game of Heroclix, I mainly like that I may be able to use them someday for Champions or Mutants and Masterminds and have already converted a couple of Heroclix figures into some of my Champions characters.

My miniatures are gathering dust and lately I rediscovered Magic: the Gathering. I've spending my money on it instead.

When WotC cancelled Chainmail, they said it wasto come out with pre-painted minis like Heroclix and Mage Knight. They had seen the popularity of the games from Wizkids and they wanted to cash in. Skeptical at first, I've since heard that the new game may be an updated version of Chainmail. I've seen the miniatures on site like this one and I've liked what I've seen. The game comes out in a few months and I'm looking forward to it. The best part? The same excuse I gave myself when I got into Chainmail miniatures: They're fantasy miniatures that I can use for countless other games (like the D&D RPG), so if the game flops or gets cancelled, I still can find a use for the minis.

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Another Stupid Quiz
Galaxy
You are a Galaxy-class Explorer, a top of the line
luxury-liner with teeth. You prefer refinement
and appreciate beauty. You're well-apt at
diplomacy and are trusted to handle crises.
Despite a changing world with new, you still
have a reputation for unparalleled excellence.


Which Class of Federation Starship are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Giles!
(Quiz via Double-N)

The Reformer, or GILES
You are Giles! Or, Type One of the Enneagram's
personality structure: THE REFORMER. You are
rational, principled, orderly and
perfectionistic.


Which Buffy & Enneagram's 9 Personalities Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

No suprise.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. Giles is the only Buffy character I really identify with....although I wouldn't say I'm a perfectionist by any means.

Monday, July 21, 2003

Quote of the Day
If we don't change our direction,
we're likely to end up where we are going.

-Chinese Proverb

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Environmentalist
Threat rating: Low. You are annoying, but too much
of a softy tree hugger to pose any threat to
the mighty machine of Republican progress. And
the FBI know where you live.


What threat to the Bush administration are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Friday, July 18, 2003

Fascism
One of the message boards I read and post on (a gaming one actually) has a thread discussing fascism. (A GM is trying to create a fascist state for his gameworld.) One of the poster posted this, which he found on the web:



FASCISM - 14 CHARACTERISTICS June 21, 2003
Dr. Lawrence Britt
Destruction Abroad to create Distraction at Home
Dr. Britt, a political scientist, published his article “Fascism Anyone?” in Free Inquiry magazine (Spring, 2003), a journal of humanist thought. He studied the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia), and Pinochet (Chile). Dr. Britt found the regimes all had 14 things in common, and he calls these the identifying characteristics of fascism.

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male- dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Opposition to abortion is high, as is homophobia and anti-gay legislation and national policy.

6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in wartime, is very common.

7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions either are eliminated, or are severely suppressed.

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts is openly attacked, and governments often refuse to fund the arts.

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections. :

Thursday, July 17, 2003

Bisexuality Quiz
(Via Angel Mills)

I already knew the answer to this, but I was....for lack of a better term.... curious what kinds of questions the quiz would ask and where it would score me. So without further adieu...

You're straight, but open-minded. We respectfully
think you're missing out, but at least you know
that the right person is the right person, no
matter what their genitals look like. You have
the guts and self honesty to try bisexuality if
it ever seems right for you.


How Bisexual are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

The Super Five
For a while I've known that Superman was one of five characters that are said to be known all over the world. I've wanted to know who the other world rekinowned four were. I had heard that Sherlock Holmes was one and had guessed that Mickey Mouse was one. Now, I know. Ready? The five characters known all over the world are: Mickey Mouse, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Robin Hood and Superman.

Tuesday, July 15, 2003

Rubber Duckies
Now, this is something I'd like to see. 29,000 rubber duckies on a voyage across the ocean....

Di Another Day
That's the title of Peter Milligan's upcoming storyline of X-Statix, the "edgy" spin-off of X-Men. In it, he introduces the newest mutant to the Marvel Universe, Princess Diana. It's not a joke and he's getting a lot of backlash for it. I've never read X-Statix but I've read some of Milligan's other stuff and this is not that suprising. He's replied to the critics in an editorial for the Guardian.

I don't know what to think of this. I don't believe that because someone is dead that they become hands-off for writers and if he tells a good story by this, what's the harm? Is this any different than Saturday Night Live's episode of the X-Presidents where the X-Presidents (G.H. Bush, Reagan, Carter and Ford) were traped by evil aliens and summoned their secret weapon back from the grave, Dick Nixon? Maybe people are more appalled because this isn't a spoof or maybe it's OK to use Nixon because he was such an asshole. I can't see people getting this pissed off about someone doing a story about Abe Lincoln returning as some sort of superhero, so what is it about Princess Di? She's loved by the masses, but so was Elvis Presley and that hasn't stopped writers from using him. Is it because she's "royalty?" Something about this seems wrong to me as well, but I can't say why.

[edit- It seems Marvel chickened out and has pulled the Princess Di story at the last minute.]

Saturday, July 12, 2003

Anyone but Bush?
In the world of Progressive politics, there has been a lot of talk lately of Progressive parties like the Greens and Socialists not running candidates this year. The logic is that anyone that the democrats decide to run should be preferable to four more years of Reagan Jr. If the dems ran someone even slightly progressive, I'd consider this a possibility, but the attitude of supporting the "lesser evil" no matter the cost is dangerous. Joe Lieberman has a good chance of being chosen and there is no way in hell I'd ever vote for him. Want to now what kind of guy he is? Read this article.

Friday, July 11, 2003

Church and State
I can't vouch for all the facts presented in this flash animation, but it sounds about right.

Tuesday, July 08, 2003

Panther
Carla and I skipped upgrading our Mac when the last new release of OSX came out. Honestly, they are giving us new releases of the Mac OS way too frquently and it didn't look like that big of a change. Now, apple.com has a preview of Mac OS 10.3 or "Panther." I like it. I have't been using my iDisk or my Mac in general much lately, but I like the how they've updated the iDisk. We'll have to see how much this upgrade is, but our Mac has been working perfectly fine under our current version of OSX, so if they charge an arma and a leg for it, then upgrading probably isn't worth it.

Towards a One-Party System

The New York Times has this article about the Republicans getting closer and closer to their goal: A One-Party State.

Monday, July 07, 2003

Djinn's Roleplaying Questions
(Via Djinn and Arref)

Djinn asks:

What kind of genre do you favor in play? There are a lot of genres that I enjoy playing, but my favorite genre to GM is superheroes. The superhero genre is what I know best. I've been regularly reading comic books since I was 14 and have a good feelings for the types of characters and scenarios.

A good game runs the gamut in moments - at times dark and somber, at times bright and light-hearted. What mood do you like to see prevail? Bright and light-hearted. I like dark, sombre scenes. They bring a lot of drama to the game. However, roleplaying games are supposed to be fun and the times when everyone is laughing and smiling are a lot more fun than the serious dramatic scenes. An ideal game should have both, but a game that's always light-hearted would be infinitely preferable to one that's always serious.

What timeframe do you like to play in? (this may be related to genre, or not) Middle ages? The era of nano-tech? The rise of the roman empire? Honestly, I'm comfortable in any time/setting.

Do you like Puzzles? Riddles? Mysteries? These are all very different things, in my mind. Puzzles use logic, riddles use words, mysteries can be unraveled by a single astute mind or by picking at the threads until the resolution finally becomes apparent... I hate puzzles, both as a player and a GM. They usually bring an otherwise exciting game to a screeching halt. When I first started GMing, I tried running games where the players/characters needed to figure out some logic puzzle to continue and learned really quick that puzzles don't further a plot at all and just slow things down. Riddles are a little more acceptable as they usually only take a second or two of game time. Mysteries....I love. Mysteries can be the whole plot and as player characters interact trying to unravel the mystery, they provide a reason to roleplay. Some of my favorite scenarios to run have been your classic-style mysteries. I've done locked-door muder mysteries in fantasy setting and contemporary settings. I ran a very succesful Star Trek game where every "episode" was basicallya new mystery for the players. Whether the characters were trying to discover why a strange alien planet worked the way it did or where Garth of Izar went with the stolen Dreadnaught, I planned every adventure like a mystery. I planned to give the characters certain clues at certain times/places until all the pieces came together. One of my favorite games was an episode where the characters were framed for blowing up a space station they had just left. I don't remember who did it in the end, but I remember how intensely the players cared about solving the mystery when their characters were the prime suspects. As a player, it never seems like the plot is stuck in a mystery because you can't figure soemthing out. You just ask more characters and check more places and wait for the GM to give you more clues.

What other challenges have you come across that you enjoyed or hated? I enjoy roleplaying challenges. I can't say that I am very good at them but those challenges like what your character should say to calm down his girlfriend when she finds out that he's a superhero are the most interesting ones.

Do you like playing in large groups? Small ones? What do you think is an ideal sized group for an experienced group? Back in the day, I loved GMing for large groups. The Heroes Unlimited campaign I used to run had a miniumum of eight players at every game and had run a couple of games for over 12 players. These days, I would never consider a group over eight players and I am beginning to think that six is ideal. As a player, I can't stand large groups. I played in an Amber game with 12 players and I'll never do it again. We spent more time waiting to get the GM's attention than roleplaying. As a player, I'd also say that 3-6 players is ideal.

Do you enjoy watching others play, or do you work on other things when your character is not 'on stage'? Related - do you try as a player not to know any out-of-character knowledge, or are you comfortable knowing things your character does not know? I try not to know much out-of-character stuff, so I tend to focus on other things. If another character is having a really good scene, I'll pay attention. I trust myself not to let it affect my roleplaying, but I prefer not to know and to find out what happened to the other characters in-character. If another character found out that his dad is really Dr. Destroyer, I'd rather find out when/if that character decides to share that with me.

In an Amber game, do you like the Attribute auction? Or would you rather create your character with a set amount of points and be done with it? I prefer just using a set amount of points. Unless your doing a throne war, I don't see a need for an auction.

What kind of character do you like to play? What attribute do you like to put first? In Amber? It depends on the concept, but I think I like Psyche best. Psyche characters get to be the mages or trump artisans and therefore have the most options as a character.

Who's your favorite Amberite Elder? Why? Caine, because he plays the game like noone else in the Amber family does.

Saturday, July 05, 2003

The New Gods
I meant to blog this earlier, but in case anyone is interested, Cartoon Network will be playing some of the New Gods episodes of the Superman series tonight followed by a brand new episode of the Justice League featuring Darkseid and the New Gods. I'm at work tinight, but you can bet I have a tape on at home.

Wish: Character Backgrounds
For this week's WISH, Ginger asks:

Do you like to have bits and pieces from your characters’ backgrounds appear in the game? Do you write hooks into your character background for the GM to use in the campaign for your character? Do you like it when the GM gives you a background hook into an adventure or scenario with a previously unknown hook, such as creating an old friend of your character’s who is somehow involved? What are some examples of cases where hooks have worked or not worked for you?

Why have a background if you didn't expect the GM to possibly use it. I don't expect the GM to use everything, but if I write something into the background, I hope it will be of some use for the GM. I don't expect everything to be worked in. I know that when I'm GM, I can't always make use of everything someone writes in their background, but the bits that a GM uses makes that scenario a lot more perosnal for the character. Do I like it when the GM adds some backgound? Most GMs I have played with haven't added background elements that were way out of character and I don't expect that my character has lived in a void before I started playing, so I appreciate the additional background. Once again, it makes the character more real and the story more personal.

I can think of countless cases when background elements have worked and can't really think of them not working.