We are once again planning to resurrect the Stargate SG-4 game. Your friendly webmaster will be playing the role of the original Hephaestus (among other smith-gods).

We are currently debating candidates for the game system for Stargate SG-4. I will briefly cover each proposed system.

In the following text, Stacy is the GM of the original game, and also this one. Ray, Jenna, and yours truly are the currently actively interested players. Scott Bowden, who runs Star Wars, is thinking of playing as well.

* The original, homebrew variant of west end's Star Wars D6 system crossed with MGI's DC Heroes (the acting/etc attribute pattern).
Pros: Well, we've done it before. We also have my character sheet design already made.

Cons: both stacy and myself find this option a bit boring.

* A version of WotC's D20 system.
Pros: We are currently playing Star Wars under this system. There's a lot of sci-fi-ish stuff (gadgets and such) that could probably be adapted. There's also a modern D20 book coming that would cover the Tau'ri civilization (i.e., Earth guys). I also own the Farscape RPG, which adds even more to the mix.

Cons: The d20 system is a bit heavier, mechanically, than I prefer. Classes and Levels.

* GURPS
Pros: Lots of setting material for GURPS that would be useful. Ray likes the detail and realism provided by the system.

Cons: The setting material is also useful to other systems by design. At least two players (myself and Jenna) really dislike the focus on realism and/or the heavy crunchy mechanics involved in GURPs. Chargen annoyed me last time I tried it, and the Vehicle Design system is a nightmare of Lovecraftian proportions.

* BESM (Big Eyes, Small Mouth)
Pros: It's pretty easy to use and learn, and there are levels of detail to the system (like skills) that one can use or ignore. It's multi-genre to some extent, having several different setting books that it has been applied to -- everything from Sailor Moon to Demon City Shinjuku to .

Cons: Nobody has actually played it yet. It does tend to have a distinct anime flavor to it (by design), which is great for stuff that is not Stargate.

* The Window
Pros: Narrativist oriented (well, this is a pro with at least two of the three confirmed players). Simple to learn and adapt. Extremely multi-genre. Arbitrarily detailed for those who want lots of things to roll.

Cons: The lack of crunchy mechanics and open-ended chargen may put off Ray, who favors GURPS.

* QAGS
Pros: Several people involved actually work for Hex. Simple system. Presumably easily adapted.

Cons: At least one player (me) feels that, while the system is probably fine in terms of complexity, characters themselves seem TOO simple. Even the Window can have arbitrary complexity in that regard. I also tend to regard it as more than a little undignified to play a system that touts itself as "quick-ass" (which is almost synonymous with "half-assed" in my book) and uses a mechanic called "yum-yums". I'm all for sardonic humor and not taking yourself too seriously, but there's also such a thing as "not seriously enough".

I have posted synopses for all of the recent games. Logs may or may not follow soon, depending on if I can remember enough details to write them. I'll have to start at the end and work backwards, though.

The current phase of Huntington is now ended (as of Friday) and I managed to leave my character on an interesting development...

There are a couple of points here:

* When the gang went into the Umbra to talk to Jasmine's mom about the prophecy, Kerry was told that he needs to "bring her in" (Tenna). The original prophecy talked about the twins that represented Death and Life, which presumably meant Angelyn and Alex Cabrell, the Medium and the Werewolf.

Since the HALF gang are forced to uphold the prophecy instead, the Gilman kids got that particular role. The only problem was, both Kerry and Tenna were about Life. We knew this about Tenna from the Future Reunion Movie session we had during the previous cycle of Huntington awhile back, wherein Tenna was an awakened Verbena. Not that we felt constrained by that, but it seemed appropriate given their bond that both twins would gravitate towards the same primary sphere, and unlikely that Tenna would be joining the Euthanatos anytime soon.

* Kerry subsequently discovered that Thaddeus Smythe was, in fact, his Grandfather ... the very same Thaddeus Smythe whose sister Penelope was bizarrely transformed into his Avatar in the most recent incarnation of Ascension by Gaslight.

* Tenna was never left anything in her grandfather's will; it has always referred to Kerry alone.

* The twins have always had a bizarre tendency to reverse personalities, Kerry becoming the emotionally perceptive one, Tenna becoming analytical. This has been compared to Quantum Mechanical concept of entangled particles.

* Kerry and Tenna were always said to be identical (monozygotic) twins, despite this being impossible by any known mechanisms of biology.

* Kerry has always had a bizarre and apparently unhealthy interest in his sister.

The stage was now set for Kerry to add up 2 plus 2 and get the natural logarithm of negative 3i. Kerry has taken these factors and more to mean that Kerry and Tenna never should have been two people. (I may yet write up a bit where Thaddeus' time magic indicates as much explicitly.)

Guess he should have gotten some coaching from Jasmine on math at some point...

In any event, there was a big showdown with Julia Dornfeld, psychotic transgendered evil uber-ho, during which Kerry was alone, gravely wounded, and unable to heal himself (four aggravated damage, no Q left to heal it with, and the BSD that caused it still snarling in his face).

Faced with near-certain demise, he took a cue from Julia, and began converting his own body into microorganisms. His theory was that these organisms would force the BSD's own DNA to rewrite itself to produce more microorganisms ... in effect, the BSD would become a carrier for a BSD-seeking plague (Kerry didn't want to kill just this BSD, and anyway, the microorganisms would need more time to wear down the BSD's natural regeneration than Kerry apparently had available.)

Kerry's body was totally converted into microorganisms, effectively killing him. But he didn't cease to exist. His mind was pulled into his sister's body across their bond.

Although it was intentional on my part, my notion here is that Kerry didn't actually do anything to cause this. It was a natural consequence of one of the twins dying.

So, to summarize, Kerry is dead, and inside Tenna's mind. Tenna's roommate is Mary. Mary was Kerry's girlfriend. Tenna is a lesbian. Hilarity ensues.

Never let it be said that I can't generate love polygons ... ^_^

I suspect that viewing the world as both Female Verbena and Male Etherite Life-mages simultaneously should be ... interesting.

Tenna is presently hoping that someone will find a way to take Kerry back out of her head, and place him in a new body being grown for that purpose. But she has a strong suspicion that, once in such close contact, they won't be as easily separated.

At the very least, this method of joining the twins is a bit less ... discomfiting ... than the more mystical/alchemical process that I originally came up with. Heylel would've had nothing on a emotio-rational, self-impregnated Gilman Rebus whose offspring would later prove to be ... the Gilman twin's missing Grand-aunt, Penelope Smythe.

As described in my earlier entry, Huntington has ended. This presently means that we will be starting my Exalted game, Obsidian Requiem, the Friday after Thanksgiving weekend (December 6th, I believe).

I have been working on a page for Obsidian Requiem, though there's not much campaign-specific information there yet (just general interpretation stuff I've been writing about the Underworld).

Friday night was session 3 of Obsidian Requiem, which marked the achievement of a sort of unofficial milestone for me.

I managed to freak out the PCs just by having their antagonists (two Deathknights of the group that invaded the PCs homeland) in the same inn...

... completely ignoring them, flirting with barmaids, drinking and chatting.

It was pretty cool.

It was also amusing to be playing the "Ominous choral music" (Blaze, from the Escaflowne soundtrack) -- which had previously been used for things like portentuous eclipses and horrendous imminent thunderstorms -- in a pub setting. The Pub of Doom!

Well, Obsidian Requiem has resumed with Act II, although we haven't yet started the Abyssals stuff. Leaving aside the difficulty of getting characters created, there is one big hiccup with my plans there.

It seems that Ray (who plays Albrecht) isn't interested in Abyssals. Vehemently not interested. I was expecting Jenna (Ourna) to be resistant to the idea, but Ray hit me out of left field.

Back around my birthday, it occurred to me that one way that I might sucker^H^H^H^H^H^Hconvince him to play would be to provide alternate characters that carry the same problematic attitudes that the Abyssals do. One possibility that popped into my head was the Amenti. (If you don't know what I'm talking about, they are the topic of White Wolf's Mummy: The Resurrection line.)

Basically, they are modern humans who suffer some tragic weakness that prevents them from excelling in Life, who attract and are merged with a fragment of the ghost of an Ancient Egyptian, in a ritual called the Spell of Life. This renders them effectively immortal and "more alive than the living", in a sense. They can be killed or die of natural causes, but death is only temporary to them. They wander the Underworld for awhile, regathering their energies, then they are reborn into the world of the living.

Naturally, since Mummy is a World of Darkness game set in the modern day, and Exalted is neither of these things, it will take some work to convert them over. Not to mention a judicious rewriting of the story behind their existence.

So that's what I'm working on right now. Sacred, Undying Losers (a tongue-in-cheek name patterned after Exalted sourcebook names like "Graceful, Wicked Masks"). The real name is probably more like "Chosen of Ma'at". It seems to be coming along well, although I don't relish writing charms for it. I had a lot of nifty ideas, and the Amenti seem to plug almost perfectly into the world.

We are again on de facto hiatus at the moment, this time because of a lot of stuff going on this month. I opened up the option for one of the players to run an interlude session of Obsidian Requiem last weekend for part of the group, since Stacy and Ray were out of town. Chris was more interested in playing video games, so Jenna wound up running just for me and Randy. I got to play a new NPC, though, concentrating on setting his personality in my mind, and I think everyone enjoyed it.

I think we will resume my game on the 13th of June.

Oh yes, I wrote several new logs for the campaign, which are now online.

I have created a new weblog for my upcoming Nobilis game, Delphinium and Larkspur. (Actually, this is a sort-of a revival of the game. I intended to run it as an email game last year, but it never got off the ground.)

Added a new page for our upcoming B5 game, Lurking in Shadows

At least, it's upcoming if the game ever comes out…

Like the two games mentioned in the previous entry, you'll probably see most of my updates happening there.

Today we travelled to Atlanta for Dragon Con.

Departure: About town a quarter after 10 am. A caravan of four cars, eight people, and at least two video game systems. We were connected by radio and cellphone.

First Stop: Restroom break near Jellico Mountain around 12:30.

Second Stop: We ate lunch about 1:15pm at a Wendy's outside Knoxville. I bought some baseball caps.

Third Stop: Restroom break at a rest area between Knoxville and Chattanooga about 2:30.

Arrival: Got to Ray's dad's a little before 5:30pm. Just before it started storming. Maybe it'll be cooler than it was on the way down here.

It is 6:30 as I write this, and Ray's dad is grilling out. Later, I think we are planning to go downtown to get our registration over with. I'll have to post this when I get access to the internet.

It is now 9:26 am and people are starting to wake up, claim the showers and eat. Last night after my first post, we went to the host hotels around 10 and go through registration. Registration was … big. We waited in line upstairs to wait in line downstairs … to wait in line in the ballroom. Or at least everyone else did.

My brother and I didn't have to stand in line for the last bit, since he bought our tickets through ticketmaster. We pretty much filled out a form and walked up to the desk. Of course, we still had to wait around for everyone else to make it through the long, winding line, which took an hour and a half. That'll teach 'em to pre-register!

The Hyatt is pretty cool, especially the core elevators (glass pods with workings visible by visitors out in the lobby). They go up into the ceiling and down into the floor at the extremes. According to others, the Mariott Marquis (our hotel) is even better. I've seen pictures of the interior of the Hyatt, but not of the Mariott.

By the time we got back last night, I was too tired to hook up the laptop and write this entry, especially once I got out of the shower. Got in bed finally around 1. I will write a separate entry covering our further exploits for today later.

Day 2 began around 11am when we left Ray's dads. Once we got to the hotel, we proceeded to embark upon an epic quest to find parking, the valet parking being full. As it turns out, the front of my car is visible from my hotel room on the 23rd floor.

Finally we entered the con proper. The Marquis is, indeed, cooler than the Hyatt. It's like being inside a dragon's ribcage, appropriately enough. I took a few pictures, and then realized that James Marsters was walking past approximately ten feet away from me (being escorted to his panel). I tried to snap a pic, but my camera is somewhat slow to react at times, so he had gotten partway around an obstacle before it worked. Once the rest of the party joined us, we went to that panel. It was entertaining, as expected.

After that, we came back to the room for food and such, then hit the dealer's room and exhibitor's hall. I'm not new to meeting celebrities, but DragonCon has a higher percentage of those that I feel an attachment to: James Marsters, Peter Woodward, Bill Mumy, Robin Atkin Downes, etc.

Merchandise purchased so far: 1 copy of Phil Brucato's new game Deleria, signed. 1 pair of Ether Goggle type goggles.

Also saw part of a demo reel of White Wolf's new Vampire game at their exhibit. (I'm more interested in the fact that it uses the Half-life 2 Source Engine than the game itself, but it did look pretty cool.)

As we came back to the room after the dealer's room, who should pop into our elevator but Peter Woodward? He is apparently staying two floors below us.

My basic assessment of Dragon Con so far: too damned many people. But otherwise pretty cool. The entirety of Midsouth Con would probably be smaller than the audience that was at James Marsters' panel.

Update (circa 11:30pm): After bumming around the room not feeling energetic enough to go to the things that I had planned to go to, Chris and Jenna finally decided around 9 to go to the Buffy Horror Picture Show (sing along with “Once more with feeling”). I decided to go with them. (We were going to hit the pool, but decided to give it a miss for now.)

Once we walked over to the Hyatt, we discovered that there was a line directly in front of the doors. So we got in line. And waited. And waited. And waited. People were squeezing in close. People were walking both ways in the rest of the somewhat narrow hall where the line was located, so security kept telling us to move closer to the “wall” (doors). 45 minutes later, they decided to make a gap in the line a few people ahead of us, to unblock the doors. Con security, hotel security, and the Atlanta Police Department all gradually came into the area.

Finally, the line started moving. Then came the word: the room was full to capacity and we had to disperse. They told us they would run it again in 45 minutes so everyone could see it. We could go out or go in, but we couldn't stay (nevermind that the line would reform for the next showing.) So we dispersed and started walking towards the back of the line.

On top of that annoyance, a few moments later we turned around to see that they were letting people that had been standing behind us go into the room, since they apparently miscounted and had space after all. Needless to say, several of us were highly annoyed at this.

Jenna and Randy went to the con suite and to catch Bill Mumy's concert (which I was gonna go to, but having just gone to the Hyatt and returned disappointed, I no longer have the energy.)

I am up and ready for Day 3. Unfortunately, nobody else except Ray is up, and my first panel is not for another hour. :)

More later.

Randy and I just returned to the room. Jenna and I saw Peter Woodward's Conquest panel this morning, which was quite amusing. He repeated the bullriding demonstration that he gave last year which had us all choking with laughter, and his emphasis of the dirty words in his talk by pointedly pausing to watch the sign language interpreter's rendition was very funny.

After, we went to the Dealer's room, where she wanted to get some autographs. As we were standing in front of Stephen Furst's table, who should walk up behind us but TV's Claudia Christian. Apparently, she was added at the last second, possibly for today only (not sure).

The line getting more crushing, I decided to do some more shopping while Jenna got her signatures, but couldnt find anything I simply had to have in the Dealer's room. So I went to the Exhibitor's hall for awhile, with much the same result. Finally, I went over to the art show. Then Randy walked up as I was waiting on the elevator, and we went back to the room. Sat around for awhile, then I wanted some food, so we went to get some then hit the Dealer's room again.

Sigh. The only thing I've bought today is a camera strap and food. If anything, it seems like I'm less motivated to buy stuff here at Dragon Con than I usually am at MidSouth. Not because I don't want to, but just because I haven't found anything massively exciting. Of course, many of the companies whose products I want to check out don't seem to be here: Eden (Angel) and Mongoose (new B5 stuff), AEG (Stargate), and Spectrum (Cartoon Action Hour).

Stuff that I've been looking for: a Centauri hairpiece, a monocle, and a decent top hat. Have yet to see any of that for sale. I know I could probably buy all of it online, but it just seems wrong somehow. Perhaps I'll buy Orpheus, or Icehouse stuff.

Even the art show is not immune to this phenomenon. I've seen lots of artists whose names I've taken down (or cards/bookmarks grabbed), but only one piece I've actually bid on so far. There was another I would have bought a print of, but the original was the only thing I found (The Storyteller, by Stephanie Pui-mun Law).

Although I'm interested in seeing many of the guests, I have yet to get any autographs. On the other hand, the lines are insane. Guests spotted to date (in no particular order): Anthony Simcoe (D'argo/Farscape), Walter Koenig (Bester/B5), Mira Furlan (Delenn/B5), Stephen Furst (Vir/B5), Peter Woodward (Galen/Crusade), Tony Amendola (Bratac/SG1), Richard Hatch (Apollo/BSG), Gil Gerard (Buck Rogers), Bill Mumy (Lennier/B5), Noah Hathaway (Boxey/BSG), Danny Strong (Jonathan/Buffy), Tom Wilson (Biff/BttF), James Marsters (Spike/Buffy), Herbert Jefferson (Boomer/BSG), and Robin Atkin Downes (Byron/B5). Haven't seen Christopher Judge (Teal'c/SG1), Lani Tupu (Crais/Farscape), Andy Hallett (Lorne/Angel).

I haven't even been to comic artist's alley.

I dunno.

As I write this (in the text editor, since the wireless is off at a panel or something) it is raining outside. Got to watch the storm roll in over the last half hour or so. Got some hopefully useful pics of it. I've taken more pictures of the view out the window and the interior of the hotel than I have of the actual con.

Incidentally, I have to go back around noon Monday, so I won't be covering the entire con on here.

May go swimming later.

Nothing much new to report. Tomorrow is my last full day. Just got back from a too-expensive dinner in the Mariott's tacky sports-bar a little while ago, just in time to catch a firework show out the window (from the Stadium, we assume).

I went to the exhibit hall after I wrote my previous report, just to try to catch it before it closed. Didn't buy anything, but I got a demo of Zendo by the Looney Labs people just before the hall closed. My ennui about buying stuff is fading, but slowly.

Got an update on the situation with the non-existant Deleria CD. (The CDs weren't up to snuff, and are being redone.) Apparently the info is being placed on the Laughing Pan website for the time being.

Technically, this is day 4, but actually I'm still up from Day 3. This entry lists my event plans for tomorrow.

• 10 am - Life in the Village (Prisoner) or Uncovering a Parametric Universe (Art). Might actually give these a miss.

• 11:30 - Jaffa! (Sg1) or Overcoming Artist's Block. Probably go to the Jaffa! panel, though I'll feel guilty for skipping yet another art panel.

• 1 pm - Go to get lunch and visit dealer's area and such again.

• 2:30 - The Ambassador will see you now (B5) or Doctor Who: 40 years in the TARDIS. Most likely I will go to the B5 panel, as I've only see the B5 guests in passing so far.

• 4:00 - Egyptology and Anthropology SG-1 style. I'll probably have to leave early to give the art show one last pass (making sure I haven't been outbid and if I want anything else).

• 5:30 - The Man, the Mage, the Historian (Peter Woodward) or the Art Show. Most likely go to Peter's panel

I skipped the 10am panels and went to the Exhibit hall and art show again. Picked up Zendo and a print of The Storyteller by Stephanie Law, and someone at wizkids gave me a free clicky figure. Then I went to the Jaffa! panel with Christopher Judge and Tony Amendola. Chris is quite amusing.

Now I'm about to go retrieve money and lunch before I go to the B5 panel.

Though I have more stuff to write, I don't have time to write it right now because we are getting ready to go to the b5 panel and/or check out.

I'll have to write them after I get back home later tonight.

Well, I finally made it home from my hellish trip back from Atlanta around 1am Tuesday.

First, I'll give you a bit of background. I went to Dragon Con knowing that I would have to come back a day early due to the fact that the con is scheduled for the first week of school. If I miss the same class two times during add-drop, they drop me from the schedule (in addition to having two absences and being behind.

Scott's girlfriend Deanna also had to come back Monday, but since neither of us knew the other very well, we both thought that an eight hour car ride with just the two of us would consist of extremely awkward silence. So my first option for getting back early was out.

A one-way Greyhound ticket was suggested, but I would literally have had to buy a ticket right then when I found out, because the price was going up about $30 the next day. So I decided against that. Plane rides and such were also rejected.

I was working all of this out at the beginning of last week because it took that long to determine whether I would even be able to get off work Friday. Eventually, with time running out, I just said screw it, I'll drive my own car. I drove to MidsouthCon and had no troubles, and this time, I'd have other cars along for the trip down there. We got down there with no problems, aside from trying to find a place to park (parking in the garage across the street from the Marquis: $48 for the weekend).

On the way back, things went pretty well for the first half of the trip. Around 2:30 I stopped about an hour outside Atlanta for lunch, and stopped again for cooler ice a little later. I got to Chattanooga with no problems. When I started getting close to Athens, TN (just about the halfway point of the trip), I decided to stop at a rest area (around quarter after four). This is where the fun began. When I got back out to the car, it wouldn't start. In fact, it didn't even try to start. Hmm, sez I, this could be annoying. Oh, I've been running the CD player, and occasional AC for a few hours, and apparently my dome light has been on for an indeterminate amount of time. Perhaps the battery is drained. I shall ask some random stranger for a jump.

The jump is successful (and easy), and the car starts right up. I check to make sure the terminals aren't corroded or something (they aren't) and go on my merry way. I quickly notice that my turn signal causes the speedometer to jump. This doesn't worry me overmuch … I've known for awhile now that there appears to be a short in the turn signal wiring.

As I get closer to Knoxville, my speedometer grows more and more erratic. People are passing me in spite of my alleged speed, and the speedometer periodically jumps its reading. The speedometer in my truck used to do something similar, apparently because the mechanism was busted, and the only things that could fix it were a good solid thump, or changing speed drastically to get it to “reset”. Thumping seems ineffectual, so I decide that I'm going to pull off onto the shoulder, slow down to reset it, then pull back out.

A wonderful plan, except when the car decides to die as I implement it, stranding me on the shoulder of I-75 around 5:30pm. Bah! So after some back and forth, the operator gives me the number for the highway patrol. I wait about a half-hour to forty-five minutes before a trooper pulls up.

He jumps the car and tells me he'll follow me to the next exit to make sure I can get that far, then disconnects the cables. The car is running a bit rough, and as soon as I try to pull off, it dies again. Conclusion: alternator is shot. I get the number of a towing service from him and he tells me that he'll check up on me a bit later when he swings back through that stretch of road if I'm still there.

So I wait another half hour or so for the tow truck to show up. By this point, it is getting close to 7pm. The driver doesn't appear to be happy to be working on Labor Day. We load up the car, and off we go … but to where? The only places likely to be open on the holiday have apparently just closed. We take it back to the towing service. Cost: $55.

Since I have to be back in class Tuesday, and also don't relish trying to find a place to stay overnight, some debate on the cellphone with my friends settles the plan that I would be picked up by Deanna as she comes through the area about 4 hours behind me.

The irony of this solution was not lost on me: Deanna. Who I originally could have ridden back with in the first place, obviating the need for me to take my car at all.

Anyway, to make a long story short, that is what happened. She got there about 10 or 10:30 (meaning I sat around at the towing service for nearly four hours). The most ideal solution for me to handle the car itself would be to call my dad, and have him come down with the car trailer and take it back up here to be fixed. Unfortunately, he wasn't answering his home phone for several hours, and I didn't have his new cellphone number. After Deanna picked me up, he finally called me back. Having just arrived in Pigeon Forge, TN. Sigh.

The car had to be left behind with the key so that the towing people could take it to Firestone in the morning and drop it off, and the Firestone people would fix it. As my brother and the rest of the group came through on Tuesday, they would pick the car up, and Randy would drive it home. Of course, I had to call Firestone and give them my credit card info and such.

The problem turns out to have been both alternator and battery (when alternators go bad, they can sometimes destroy the battery in the process, so no big surprise, though I was obviously hoping it was just the battery). Cost of replacement: $395.48. Sigh.

To top it all off, all of the chaos of the trip back caused me to run my cell phone minutes over, so my bill next month will be larger than usual.

I will post some backdated entries for the rest of my Dragon Con info as soon as I get a free moment (I spent the entire day yesterday either dealing with the car stuff or being in class, and I've literally not had time.)

For anyone else that reads Tangency, the big seekrit other forum is on needcoffee.com

Yeah, I find the “nyah, nyah, I know but I won't tell you” attitude rather annoying, how did you guess? If you want to keep it quiet, that's one thing. Taunting people with the fact that you know but won't tell is quite another. It was humorous once or twice. It has failed to continue to be so with repetition.

If you go there, TOP means “the other place”

Lately, I've been contemplating running another game of Amber. So, recently, I've been assembling my ideas on the setting and rules. I've also been constructing a MUSH for Amber, just to play around with geography.

No particular point to this post. Just thought I'd mention it.

Friday night I ran a guest session of my brother's Buffy game, in which I threw the characters into a D&D plot (Fair Oaks and surrounding land became Barovia from Ravenloft). Pete guest-starred as Count Strahd Von Zarovich, who may become a recurring character.

The session was intended to introduce my new character, a white hat gamer who managed to stumble across the original edition of D&D, an arcane tome written in the 13th century, with spells that actually work and other mysterious properties. I played it intentionally for silly amusement value. It was sort of my version of Once More, With Feeling.

Aside from the fact that the AC at full blast was doing nothing whatsoever to cool the house and we were all therefore miserable, the game seemed to go well (if a bit long).

Finally, R.I.P. Richard Biggs, B5's Dr. Franklin.

Well, my many successful months of resistance to the evil addiction sweeping the land (that virulent plague known as “City of Heroes”) have proven for naught. Finally, the last free man on Earth has succumbed.

I have a dislike of multiplayer gaming with people that I don't know personally (one perusal of the City of Heroes forums should indicate why), and I'm also not overly fond of allowing further incursion of the subscription model into my entertainment. On top of that, I am somewhat biased against the Superhero genre (because of a semi-complex set of associations and perceptions of the comic industry and the genre itself).

Nevertheless, this resistance can only take you so far when 1) nearly all of your friends have been constantly playing since the beta and are no longer available on IM most of the time, 2) a large proportion of in-person conversation with said friends revolves around the game, 3) you don't have to make the initial cash outlay for the game, 4) the subscription is at least reasonably priced (first month free, then $15 per month, including the subscription to the print-comic), and 5) one of your friends twists your arm.

We are now in the hotel. Internet is active. Things are prepared.

Time for the con.

Update, 1:17 am

I haven't done much today. I visited the art show and bid on two pieces, as well as bought a print. I went to the Exhibitor's hall and bought the Exalted books that I hadn't yet. And I have obtained a copy of BESM d20. The only panel I attended was for MMORPGs, wherein I completely missed meeting one of the virtue people. If things go to plan, I should do more tomorrow.

9:25 am:

Preparing for first panel now.

3:16 am:

Attended Firefly panel, Farscape panel, Dr. Demento show, and B5 music video screening. There were many goth girls in evidence. Also, had lunch with Calvin Meeks and Co. from the Virtue server on CoH.

At 3:05 am local time on the morning of the 16th, Valve activated the Half-life 2 authentication servers, enabling me and others to play the game.

Unfortunately, at midnight, 3 hours before that, they shut off our internet again. Argh. So I had to take my computer to mom's to use their DSL. But I got it activated.

So, so pretty…

What is this mysterious creature?

More pics of the Oddity:

Something I wrote up for an event in City of Heroes. See this thread

Dramatis Personae
Tikhnaya Kosh'Mari, Arrogant, egotistical, cynical, and deadly russian assassin
Oxana Stepanova, Tikhnaya's younger self, before she became what she is today
Malevelyn, Tikhnaya's former lover, who is about to get married to Usurper Dyne

Close My Eyes Forever - Lita Ford and Ozzy Osbourne

((Tikhnaya))
Baby
I get so scared inside
and I don't really understand
Is it love that's on my mind,
or is it fantasy?

((Malevelyn))
Heaven
is in the palm of my hand,
and it's waiting here for you.
What am I supposed to do
with a childhood tragedy?

((Tikhnaya and Malevelyn))
If I close my eyes forever
will it all remain unchanged?
If I close my eyes forever
will it all remain the same?

((Oxana))
Sometimes it's hard to hold on
so hard to hold onto my dreams.

((Tikanaya))
It isn't always what it seems
when you're face to face with me.

((Tikhnaya))
Like a dagger … you stick me in the heart
and taste the blood from my blade.
And when we sleep would you shelter me
in your warm and darkened grave?

((Oxana))
If I close my eyes forever
will it all remain unchanged?
If I close my eyes forever,
will it all remain the same?

((Malevelyn))
Will you ever take me?

((Tikhnaya))
No, I just can't take the pain

((Malevelyn))
But would you ever trust me?

((Tikhnaya))
No, I'll never feel the same

((Tikhnaya))
I know I've been so hard on you
I know I've told you lies
If I could have just one more wish
I'd wipe the cobwebs from my eyes

((Tikhnaya and Oxana))
If I close my eyes forever
Will it all remain unchanged?
If I close my eyes forever
Will it all remain the same?

((Malevelyn and Oxana))
Close your eyes,
Close your eyes,
You've got to close your eyes for me…

This is my first (partially) successful test of exporting the oddity model from Lightwave directly to a Half-life 2 SMD file. (Obviously, I haven't figured it all out yet, since it is supposed to be textured, and this is a basic tripled version of my subdivision cage rather than a final model, but the point is that it is close to working.)

Info on the Lightwave Exporter is here

Incidentally, I don't have a name for this guy yet, so that's why I keep calling him the Oddity.

Now I have solved the problem with textures for the Oddity model not appearing:

(Forgive the ugly texture, I haven't yet bothered repainting it after the UVs got changed. It works, that's all I was concerned with at this point.)

And I've also been tinkering a bit…

Here is the regular mesh (smooth shaded):

Here is the same exact mesh with the same exact number of polygons displayed using normal mapping created from a much higher polygon model:

Take note of the area around the eyes, for example. The normal mapping isn't 100% perfect yet, or else HL displays it oddly, but I was happy to get that much working.

Here are some trading cards for my characters in CoH, created with the Trading Card Generator. I'll do up more of these for the other characters later.

Usurper Dyne (current)
Heterodyne (parallel earth UD)
Heterodyne (Future UD)
Saul Invictus
Night Cinder

After seeing the most recent Star Wars film, I posted to my local friends private email list a random assortment of things that I noticed.

One of the things that people have been critical of during the prequels (or so I percieve) is that the Jedi are apparently blind to the manipulations of a Sith Lord that many of them have actually met in person. One of the things I posted was my take on that situation:

The first thing to keep in mind is that Yoda and Mace explicitly talk about their ability to use the Force being diminished due to the growing inflience of the Dark Side. So, in general terms, the Force is less effective for seeing stuff.

The second thing is that the Jedi can't just look at Palpatine and realize he's a Sith Lord (otherwise the movies would've been much briefer). Apparently, it's somewhat like being jammed. People like Palpatine who use the Dark Side are mostly invisible to Jedi, unless they are actively using their powers in their presence. Maybe it's because actively looking for the Dark Side is a bit like exposing yourself to its temptations. More likely, unlike Anakin, who is actively angry and such, Palpatine is so cool and collected and puts forth such a sympathetic face that he simply doesn't register as angry, hateful, etc.

Yoda is a bit suspicious of Palpatine even as far back as the beginning of Episode II, but apparently no Jedi actually senses the Dark Side around Palpatine until Mace brings it up in Episode III … and even then, he isn't sure about it until Anakin tells him.

The Jedi have known about the machinations of the Sith for something like fifteen years by the time of Episode III. They aren't idiots. They just couldn't pin down who was behind it all exactly using the Force, so they were forced to rely on other sources of information. And that's what Palpatine can control. Look at the story of the Sith from the Jedi perspective:

• First the Sith are thought extinct.

• Maul shows up, proving they aren't. The Jedi know there are always two Sith, a master and an apprentice, but don't really know which Maul was. However, the fact that Maul was defeated (by a Padawan no less) suggests that Maul was the apprentice. So the Master is still out there, somewhere.

• Then, a former Jedi, Count Dooku turns up. Fine and dandy, the Jedi say he's not a murderer … until he demonstrates his grasp of Dark Side powers and tries to convince Obi-wan to join him. This suggests to the Jedi that Dooku was the Master that trained Maul, having fallen when he became convinced that he was the chosen one and started trying to use both sides of the Force. He even fends off Master Yoda long enough to escape. And here he is, trying to recruit Obi-wan as his new apprentice. The Sith would love the irony of corrupting the Jedi that took out Maul into Maul's successor.

• Then Ventriss shows up, wielding lightsabers very much like Dooku's and tries to take on Anakin (and fails). Clearly, Ventriss was Dooku's new apprentice. After all, Dooku is still known to be out there.

• Then General Grievous shows up and takes out a number of Jedi. Obviously he's had some sort of training, probably by Dooku. Certainly a non-traditional choice for an apprentice, but the Sith can hardly be expected to play by the rules…

• Once Dooku dies, Grievous apparently becomes the new de facto Sith Master … and not a very impressive one from the Jedi perspective. He's dangerous, but a coward, and not actually capable of using the Force, it would seem. Effectively, the Jedi probably think the real Sith died with Dooku, and all they have left is a cleanup action…

• … until they realize things are getting worse, not better, and grow suspicious of Palpatine. Mace can finally sense the Dark Side “around” Palpatine, but doesn't actually accuse him of being a Sith, so clearly this isn't quite the same thing as knowing what he's facing. Anakin's revelation to Mace finally confirmed who was behind it the whole time.

So, it's not that the Jedi were bad at seeing through deception … it's that Palpatine is VERY, VERY GOOD at misdirection.

I have updated the Huntington game log and quotes pages to go in chronological order, which should make them easier to read.

Recently, about a week after I got into the closed beta, Cryptic announced the pricing for City of Villains would consist of buying the box. For that, if you already have a CoH account, you get four extra slots and access to all of CoV.

But all was not well in Cryptic-land…

Then, the next day, they announced the new “Enhancement Diversity” system. The latest in a long stream of changes apparently made to weaken our supposedly superheroic characters.

That was the last straw. I've decided to leave CoH/CoV, possibly for good, possibly not. Certainly for awhile.

This was made easier by the fact that I finally got around to playing with Second Life. It's one of several early attempts at a virtual reality ala Neal Stephenson's Metaverse. It's not a game; it's a world, and most of the stuff in it is made by the users, not by some “dev team”.

Just in the last week, I've:
* Built a house and decorated it
* Bought an ornithopter and starting flying it recreationally. I use my hovercraft or teleportation grid for more mundane travel.
* shopped for clothes, furniture, and widgets, like my widescreen TV (plays streaming video). My neighbor bought a radio that plays internet radio stations
* started designing a new house of my own, a largish place (for the amount of land I have) with Mansard roofs and a tower (think Addams Family)

Being a creative/explorative type, I'm having a bunch of fun. I do wish I could use lightwave to make stuff for it, but that level of technology will come later.

If you want to join me (basic accounts are free, and the only thing you can't do with them is own your own land), feel free to use this link to sign up:

http://secondlife.com/ss/?u=6d9835e175fc2a45b06a046384c28fc0

Or use my SL name, Dyne Talamasca, when you register.

Lots of new posts have been made over on the Exalted page in the last several days.

Soon Running: Aureate Chorale (Exalted Abyssals)
Soon Playing: Nobilis - The As-Yet Untitled Game, as Vitor Reynard, Count of Reflection

Currently Running: Nothing
Currently Playing: Everway trial game (as Grim of Eskil, an Odin-esque Water Sorceror), Star Wars Prelude II as the Baron (in theory)

Recently Running: Nothing
Recently Playing: Jade Rhapsody, Secret of Zir'an

This is the sheet for Grim. Posting it here because I don't have a specific page for Everway.

Name: Grim of Eskil

Motive: Knowledge
Virtue: Truth
Fault: Peril
Fate: Subterfuge

Fire 3
Earth 4
Air 5
Water 6

Magic 7

Powers: 0 pt Gift - Water Affinity (Breathe underwater/Remain Dry)

Description: A tall, thin older man who speaks in a quiet, rasping voice. He comes from the sphere of Eskil, where his people live in a city under the waves.