Search This Blog

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

[General][Gaming] "But You're Wrong, Steve. You See, It's Only Solitare"-

It is confirmed that Wojo/Vysh' s player is moving upstate for better employment. :)
--I hope to have his last session, this Friday, be memorable for him.

Part of my Classic-Play years were spent listening to a LOT of Jethro Tull, and as I type this, Chequred Flag, off of the Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll, Too Young to Die album, is just ending, and Warchild is beginning.
--Not only do certain albums/songs remind me of certain times and games, but they seem to re-activate centres in my brain with the same sort of creative energies present then.

My mother, of all people, reminded me that I ran a lot of Call of Cthulhu (two or more years of 36-hour sessions each weekend), far removed from the 'right way' of dealing with the Mythos, but a method that kept even the more jaded GMs and picky players coming back.
--What was I doing then that worked so well, and had I lost it in the meanwhile?
---Happily, no, I still have the mental film projector playing in my mind, and am able to articulate it in 'real-time' keeping the PCs on their toes as much as Indy was forced to be back in Raiders, while keeping them totally off-kilter as regards what's around the next turn.

It's not in the holy writ of mouldering and soft-drink stained folio sized booklets, kids. Rather, it is in your noggin and in your heart. Loving the scenes you are describing. It seems to me, that unless you love the game you are running, you cannot expect your players to give much of a good golly about it, either.
--Formulae, charts, and reconstituting a 'lost art' through philosophising the perceived intent of other, now departed, game-players turned 'pros' is a deathtrap, in my worthless opinion.

So, what do I have planned for Friday? I can't tell you that, because now a few of my play group have the URL to this blog, but I can tell you that I am already thinking of the to-be-published Adventure Locations and how they are going to be set up, and even what they'll look like, whether I digi-paint the covers myself, or I continue to utilise Peter Mullen's excellent artistic tallents, or grab the talents of other great artists available in the Classic-Play community and elseswhere.
--To that end, I have made a contact of a local printer and wargamer, and need to discuss the technomantic page layout-look I am seeking for in Autumn Garden Vol. I. I'll need to get my Wacom digital tablet to communicate with my PC again, and then give this guy my roughs rendered in the various art programmes I've fiddled with for over a decade.

Furthermore, I have found a means of securing an actual boxed game release venue ready for brick and mortar stores, as well as selling them out of my home. This prospect, filling a boxed set with custom dice and up to date catalogue and other bit-inserts, thrills me with the same sort of giddiness that I felt when a really cool game caught my eye on The Compleat Strategist, Davie, Florida store when I was a wee cur in my tender teens.
--Likewise, cardboard figures have now progressed to the point where custom artwork can result in game-specific runs, Print on Demand, so that's pretty toe-curling (except my freshly broken one, that is).

Time for chocolate! :D

6 comments:

  1. My CoC was pretty different than the norm. I ran it a little pulpy. Some gunplay, lots of role-playing, and nobody died or went fully nuts. I remember around 1990 when I first started a big campaign, most or all of my players were girls who played in my AD&D. It was a tough sell (none of them read Lovecraft), but after a couple of games with mood setting, and the girls doing lots of shopping and hanging out in speakeasys, they were hooked and were often demanding a CoC session instead of D&D. T.S. I'd love to hear about some of your Call of Cthulhu stuff.

    Wow, a last game for a player. I'm not sure I ever ran a final game that I knew the player would not be there anymore. Usually it's about not being friends anymore for some drama reason, breaking up with a girlfriend who was a player, or somebody having a schedule change or a last minute move out of town. Anyway, it's great that you can provide a special session. Hope it is memorable for all. Try not to kill 'em.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brunomac,

    Unfortunately, most of the 'cool' stuff I ran later was done by pro or semi-pro outfits.
    --I ran a lot of Zeppelin adventures, and Dreamlands, before either the Theater of the Mind zep adventure, or The Chaosium put out The Dreamlands boxed set and later booklet.

    Most of my games were more generic gorror, influenced by both The Twilight Zone, and The Night Gallery (TNG featuring often awful versions of HPL's work, but hey it was the '70's after all). I had also grown up on Nightstalker, and The Outer Limits, and Chiller. EC Horror mag images and other Bernie Wrightson visual influences made their impact.

    But, when I saw Ghostbusters, I remember running a C:of:C adventure that or the next day, where (somewhat embarrassingly, now) the PC had found a NAZI laser pack, and placed an emerald icon at the muzzle to effect melting destruction upon various gibbering horrors that poured through holes in the ancient stone walls of some South American jungle site.

    I also had a branch of the US Government aware of the Dreamlands, and having the PCs occasionally get the heads-up as to when portals to the DLs would be opening, so that they could bodily be transported there --to their later chagrin.

    Dark Pulp/Noir was the tail end of my run, but the horror adventures didn't end with our not playing C:of:C. Perhaps one of my most chilling adventures was a Justifiers, damaged spacecraft solo game; or a very near-future homebrew over the phone while I was in Gainesville, FL., and my buddy was down here in Miami. He lost his scat on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, and thanks for the good wishes.
    --I do hope he enjoys it. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice - I grew up on Outer Limits, Night Gallery, and Night Stalker in addition to all the usual suspects.

    I only remember two Gallery episodes though. The iconic "Earwig" episode (it laid eggs!), and one where some folk convince a dude he is going to turn into a giant slug by morning (an especially weird episode).

    ReplyDelete
  5. Night Gallery #28 ( 3-1-72 )

    THE CATERPILLAR* A bored colonial on a Malaysian plantation finds himself the victim of a gruesome assassination plot he had planned for someone else. Cast: Laurence Harvey, Joanna Pettet, John Williams.
    ---

    I couldn't find any reference to the second tale of which you wrote.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I can't wait to see the layout, and the idea of a boxed-set is really exciting. Please keep us all informed.

    Congratulations!

    ReplyDelete