Current events
This page is for discussion of stuff related to the game coming up this week, no matter when that actually is. For instance, we can all assume Nate isnt coming for some lame reason and that Ed is sick of pizza and is bringing teriyaki or some other crap. They can post something here if that happens to be untrue.
Contents
Schedule
Date...........game................Location..........(Advanced attendance)
8/03/07......Entertain yourself!
8/10/07......WHFRP....Gabe's
8/17/07......Gemini....Ben and Dieter's wonderful gaming wasteland
8/24/07......sucking nuts.....each to his own
8/31/07......WFRP......BnD WGW
9/07/07......WFRP......The BnD Gaming Wunderhaus or the Wasteland!?! (Only you can decide)
9/14/07......WFRP......The BnD Gaming Wunderhaus
9/21/07......WFRP......The BnD Gaming Wasteland
9/28/07......WFRP......THe BnD Gaming Wunderhaus
10/5/07......WFRP......The BnD Gaming Wasteland
10/12/07.....WFRP......The BnD Gaming Wissenland
10/19/07.....Board games............BnD ..........(Dieter and Matt absent)
10/26/07.....WFRP.......................BnD
11/2/07......WFRP.......................BnD
11/9/07......Board Games...Gabe's ............(Matt gone, Dieter gone)
11/16/07.....Exemplars prequil...BnD..........(Matt gone)
11/23/07.....Go see the family...???..........(Matt, Ed, Ben, Gabe gone)
11/30/07.....Exemplars...........Jason's house of curds...........
12/07/07.....Exemplars...........BnD...........
12/14/07.....Exemplars?....................???..........(Matt Gone to Japan)
12/21/07.....??????....................???..........(Matt Gone, Ben Gone, Ed maybe)
12/27/07.....??????....................???...........(Ben, Matt Gone, Ed maybe present + brother-in-law)
1/3/07.......??????...............????...............(Ben Gone, Ed present)
Attendance and Food preference
12/7/07
--Edmiao 15:16, 2 December 2007 (MST) present, no pizza as usual. gotta watch my girlish figure.
--Gdaze-- Well fuck that, I will be present. As my apartmetn complex will only allow a guest to spend one night every other weekend... and having them tell me that I was causing too many problems and she didn't want me there... I decided to take my business elsewhere. So no moving for me yet.
BEN: present, pizza. Brandon will also be in attendance this week, if that's cool. All hail the dandy one!
--Gdaze-- Awesome, somebody else to actually come along with my guy when he goes in.
Also, we gonna do magic at 6?
Ben: yup. magic at 6.
--Justin 18:43, 4 December 2007 (MST) I'll be there. If I get there early enough I'll let you all destroy me in Magic. Pizza, of course. I'll probably also be there for the next game, just depends on my work schedule.
--Matts 20:18, 4 December 2007 (MST)justin, great to hear you'll be there! Gabe, what the hell kind of apartment building was that? Did you move in there or had you not moved yet?
--Gdaze-- It was a low income housing unit. Yeah, I qualifiy for it on my own haha. But yeah, after I put downt he intial amount they requested they started changing some things they had said earlier. And after the way they treated me I decided living there might not be so great.
--Dieter the Bold 11:17, 5 December 2007 (MST) Present, and pizza please.
--Matts 11:13, 6 December 2007 (MST)Emergency alert: I won't be able to make it tomorrow. Sorry guys. Feel free to have Justin play my character if you like.
--Gdaze-- Well shit, I've come down with a cold as well, however I may be better by tomorrow so we shall see.
BEN: wow. here Dieter and I were discussing the possibility of another gamer attendance apocalypse (only missing ingredient was Nate) and now we're coming back down to downright reasonable numbers.
based on the assumption that Jason and Matt/Walt will be present and both wanting pizza, that puts us at 6 pizza eaters (ben, jason, matt/walt, Brandon, Justin, Dieter which means 3 pizzas. Brandon has volunteered to pick up pizza at pudge bros., in which case the total will be $45 or about $7.50 per person. If we got costco pizza (for which I am NOT volunteering, so someone else would have to get it: you don't need a card to get into the food court area, I don't think, or you can borrow my card) the total would be $30 for a total of $5 a person. SO: I need to hear from Jason and Matt/Walt if they are eating pizza: I need to know the same thing from Gabe. THEN, unless I hear from someone who wants to go to costco, I will tell brandon to pick up the pizzas at pudge.
--Gdaze-- If I do make it I won't be having pizza this time, but do have small bills to pay for the last one!
-Ed: last time i went to costco without a card they gave me a hard time. let me get the pizzas but with evil eyes.
Ranting and raving or other random comments
--Edmiao 10:18, 3 December 2007 (MST) I'm on jury duty today. it's so fucking awesome.
BEN: so, I thought that given some of the things we discussed on friday, we should discuss them a bit further on the wiki before next session. First off, I know that Jason and Matt were concerned about our handling of the story: it seems we jumped the rails pretty early on. I'm sure all the players had a hand in this, and I think we are all open to suggestions as to how to stick more closely to the way things are supposed to run. Part of the problem may be that several of us (me, Dieter, and Matt, I guess) made fairly non-standard super heroes with, at least for now, fairly un-super-heroic motivations...Ed's character has this to some degree as well. So I imagine that until we develop more super-y motivations, we'll probably behave more like cyberpunk characters than superheroes.
On the other hand, I don't think this is all bad. For me, a very interesting part of gaming is the relationship formed with the other characters (which is why I, as a GM, thought Gemini was an interesting experiment, while most of my players chafed under long drawn out player-player discussions), and I am happy as a clam when we deviate from the plot in order to flesh these things out, particularly since they lend color to the characters and strongly contribute to group unity. As such, I was a little unhappy when we cut short several inter-character interactions...particularly since we had plenty of time left in the night. Also, these instances made me a little worried about the characters ending up as actors in a scripted play in which things have to happen in a certain way.
This is sort of rehashing old stuff, and I've had this discussion in one form or another with several of you, and I think much of it just comes down to how each of us sees gaming...and how that vision interfaces with the group we have. There are lots of very different views on what gaming is in our group (possibly break-down-able using the gamist-narrativist-simulationist criteria? maybe?), and I really think that in the end we sort of have to agree to disagree, and do our best to compensate for what we know are going to be instances of dissonance when we try to shoehorn players with a different style into our game world. We all know, for instance, that Ben will make a character who likes to try to blab his way in and out of whatever he can get his grubby hands on, and that Ed will carefully crunch his numbers for maximum pwnzorness. I guess what I'm saying is that, in conjunction with my exhortation above that the players strive to adjust to what the GMs want to see, that the GMs must also adjust to the very well known shortcomings/idiosyncracies/whatever of our players.
hope y'all have some free time today and tomorrow...I imagine this section could get very...wordy...soon (as if it isn't already...ben blabs a lot in real life too.)
--Gdaze-- I actually didn't think we jumped anything myself, I was enjoying it. Even more so that only Hub and the Dandy One were really interested in why these villians showed up. I guess it was kinda weird that the meeting up in the office was cut short but at the same time hearing the two doctors go on and on with made up terms for over five minutes was maybe fun for them, but over-all I can see cutting that kind of discussion short.
But really, I hardly see any rails jumped, it was a first adventure, first time for Matt to see our play styles, so the fact it was short seemed okay to me. So we got along a little fast, no biggie. The fact that we are all super powered means that we can't help but jump rails sometimes, long as we evetually get back on track I think it should be fine.
--Jason 17:39, 5 December 2007 (MST)I am going to make this short, unlike my usual ridiculous ranting and whining. Basically, while acting is a vital part of the game, it is not the games focus. Sometimes players lose sight of this. Stopping some character stuff is vital when the plot is stagnant. It is a game of storytelling, and while it is about the players, it isnt just the players. Had it been just me I would have canceled the game permanently about halfway through the night, but luckily, its not. Matt has ideas, and he will explore them. I am retiring from GMing permanently. I will be around to help him with rules questions or background stuff, but I am done GMing forever (once my current commitments expire).
BEN: this is in response to what Matt, or Walt, or whoever, wrote on his section. I really appreciate what you are saying, and it definitely butresses my confidence that all will be well. Friday nights are, for myself, a major contributor to my weekly sanity, and for some of us they come at a high cost in terms of favors to SOs, etc, so getting things on track is, at this point, a very high priority. I'm sorry the game was such a monumental disappointment as it seems for Jason, but as I said above, I think you just have a very strong play/GMing style that conflicts with some of the other players. Doesn't much matter for most things, but for tabletop I can see how that can get very, very, frustrating for you. I'm sorry for whatever my part in that frustration is.
--Matts 19:22, 5 December 2007 (MST)Two things: First, I TAKE OFFENSE to Gabe saying I was making stuff up! Loop Quantum Gravity is a well-established fringe science!
Second, I don't mean any offense by this, but I would have liked the opportunity to get to know Matt#2 better before playing in a game run by him. It's not a huge deal, but the whole situation makes me a little uncomfortable, so I apologize in advance if I act sketchy.
Third, I'd also like to make clear that there's an open invitation to both Matt#2 and Jason to play WFRP. I just want to make sure everyone feels welcome at all the games we're running.
--Edmiao 19:44, 5 December 2007 (MST) I thought the session was ok, but it seemed to me that we were supposed to do certain things and when we didn't do them, the reaction was that things had gone all wrong. This felt like a scripted game to me. There were mistakes all around (mine: sure I shouldn't call the cops on a criminal who shows up if that criminal is a player who is meant to be in the group). I think we should be able to roll with these mistakes and let things unfold as they will or make gentle redirects (ie, your cell phone is broken, hint hint, you can't call 911). My point is that trying to script the session is doomed to fail because inevitably someone won't do what they are "supposed to". My hope is that the rest of the game is not scripted regarding plot. I hope that this was due to first session plot set up events and that scripting will diminish?
I still also don't understand why we fast forwarded past the characters meeting in opperman's office. that seemed counter productive to group unification. Given that there were no time constraints on the evening, it seems like that could have progressed more naturally.
Lastly, in email conversations with Jason, I was very perturbed by the strength of your reaction to my comments. They were similar in tone to what you say above about cancelling the game half way through the night because players are not acting according to script. This worries me about the future of the game. You have repeatedly said that you are not GMing this game, but it was very clear to me last friday that you were the one with the vision of the exemplars world and were the one in charge of things. which makes sense, because you created the world. this also confuses me.
--Gdaze-- Right right, real stuff, but does NOT need to be played out in game for over five minutes! Anyway, as far as scripting goes, I don't mine things being dropped for characters to follow. The only thing I'd request is actually to YOU Ed, haha. Now don't play coe but we both know you like to cause trouble for other players. While this can be nice in some campigns, I don't think so here. For example like calling the cops on another character. Is that really what the doctor would do? After witnessing said person saving the day? And recusing a hostage? Ya putz! Heh heh but we all act out of character sometime. I don't mind that characters are suppose to find certain things, this RPG from the start was said to not be free-form, it will be a story. I actually think though that Dieter NOT getting invovled could make for some really good playing this week.
Also if players make mistakes, like calling the cops, making a character from the start who doesn't want anything to do with anyone, then the GM can too. I believe what Jason might have been mad at, and excuse me for talking for you Jason, is when Matt 2 and Jason asked some people to stop talking they did not, after being asked repeatdly. This is just rude and I was a bit shocked by it. Any GM would be put off by such actions, I'm glad ours as continued to stay.
Also quick addition we all make mistakes, we did so in WHF as well but you know, that came out alright, so m'eh, think everything should be okay. I like the direction it is heading in anyway. Although there are street thug Iraqi ninjas...
--Edmiao 23:58, 5 December 2007 (MST) I kind of thought that if a law abiding citizen was held hostage and then a known criminal started shooting up the place and then fled from the cops, that maybe that citizen would call the cops if that gun toting wacko showed up again. Obviously that was counter-productive for the story, so i should have metagamed and not called the cops. my bad.
Mostly I'm worried that things will continue to go off plot and in a week or two the GM(s) will throw up their hands and call the whole game off because it's not working out. since the players don't really know what the plot is (nor should we), it's hard to stay on the plot.
--Gdaze-- Well, that kind of thinking might befit a normal person, but the person who shot up the place also saved us. Not to metion this is a super powered world where that happens a little more often. And yeah we might get off plot, but with things going this way I think the plot will find us.
--Walt Jonse 17:59, 6 December 2007 (MST) I am not very comfortable gming for a group of people I do not know. Perhaps this is not the best way to get to know one another. I know Jason was very eager to get the exemplars game going, but perhaps it would be better to put it on hold. I do not want to abandon it all together. Still it would be easier for me if I got to know you all better. The better I know the players, the easier it is for me to give them the type of story they want for their characters. I am not declaring a cancellation, I am either too much of a diplomat or too much of a wuss to do that on my own. I want to know how everyone feels about taking a step back, doing something else for a bit and then picking it up in the future. Other possibilities that I am open to are relaxed get to know you board-gaming, playing as a pc in something someone else runs or running some one shot rpgs.
--Walt Jonse 18:17, 6 December 2007 (MST) I have sent emails out to almost everyone concerning what I have written above. If you did not get an email, it is because I find Jason's handwriting to be near indecipherable.
BEN: my email is benofzongo@gmail.com. I would also like to say that, just like your last comment on your page, I am highly appreciative of the spirit of what you say. I've always thought of this group as a bunch of cool people who are friends first and gamers second, and I'm glad to hear that you seem to share a similar idea/goal.
Ed: I just sent my reply via email, but it is appropriate to post it here as well....
Two points in response to that.
The first is that the exemplars game was on hold for a year and we sort of kept it in the que for a year. this resulted in us playing only one game at a time when our usual was two games at a time alternating. Then the exemplars game was revived and there was again a long delay in starting the game. most of us really though that it would never happen because there were a myriad of conditionals required to start the game. Thus, delaying the game further may cause everyone to throw up their hands and say forget it, lets start some different game. I think if this happened, the group would start a new game quite promptly to fill out our two game routine. this would push exemplars into the future by about 6 months to a year. Having it pushed that far off again, I think everyone would be pessimistic as to it starting again ever. Further, top on my docket for a new game was to have Ben resume his prior supers game and for us to port our exemplars characters into his game universe. I would want to do this with Viho, i'm not sure about others opinions.
The second point is to get more comfortable with the group would mean you joining as a player for a while. I think this would be preferable actually as many in the group, including myself, were hesitant to invite a new person into the group as a gm. it would be more optimal to have you as a player for a while, then once we are all chums to start a game with you as GM. Several folks including myself have said that before. However, Jason has said many times that you are not interested in being a player, only a gm, but perhaps he misstated your position, or as you state above, you have revised your opinion on that. I always thought it was kind of strange and suboptimal to have you and jason in the group on the exemplars game and both of you out of the group for the warhammer game. this was sort of bad for the group population, I think we optimally want to have 4-6 players plus a gm, so we were keeping our eye out to recruit a new player becasue warhammer is at the 4 players + gm level. Having you and Jason on one game and not the other kind of prevented us from recruiting more players because it would be crowded on the exemplars night and we couldn't very well invite a player for one game only. (by the way, brandon comes about 4-5 times per year, so this two week straight stint for him is very unusual; we consider him a guest appearance, similar to Nate and Justin. Justin will be here this week in town from spokane). So the whole dynamic is a little strange. To sum up this very long paragraph, i think everyones preference would be that you and jason both join the warhammer game. that said, i think jason has no interest in joining the warhammer game since he has not come to any of the sessions. His coming to warhammer or not really has no bearing on your (matt#2) invitation to join the game.
So, one option is that we dump exemplars, start Ben's supers game and continue warhammer, have you join as a player in both, and then put you in line for whatever game you want to start up after one of those games finishes. that game could be exemplars or something else.
--71.197.192.244 20:28, 6 December 2007 (MST) I had told Jason that I am not really interested in a role other than GM, but my feelings on this have changed since the move. I have not heard input from everyone yet, but the majority seems to be going towards ending Exemplars. I don't know the schedules for the other games, but I would be glad to play. Perhaps I can find info on them somewhere on the wiki.
--Edmiao 20:31, 6 December 2007 (MST) let's see what folk say, I know gabe has a different opinion at least. i'm not strongly arguing to end it. I may have come across stronger than intended above. I'm against putting it on a short hold that would prevent another game from starting. a long hold is fine or continue is fine by me.
--Gdaze-- Well. When I first played under Ben, I was with all strangers besides Dieter. And we've had people join our group that nobody really knew (Jason, Nat) yet they seemed fine with being player characters. So I guess what is most weird is to have a bunch of people who do know each other, under someone who doesn't? It is an AWFUL lot of info to take in, observing how each of us play. I'm fine with anything EDWARD, hahaha. SO yeah if you want to take a break and join as a player, sweet deal, if you want to continue, also sweet deal.
Anyway, my cold seems much weaker so I MAY be able to come tomorrow, lets keep hoping. Anyway Matt-2 I would like to echo what Ben said (pays mana) and the spirit behind everything you said is quote... uh, good. In all reality I'd be fairly terrified of GMing a group as large as ours with out really knowing anyone. In all reality though I really do want to take on Iraqi street thug ninjas.
--Justin 01:42, 7 December 2007 (MST) Wow, Gabe. Do you play under Ben often?
Other Non-RPG gaming Events
--Edmiao 15:16, 2 December 2007 (MST)Just bought tix for golden compas next sunday 6pm. Ben, others, interested in some munchin/settlers/other before the movie? You're invited to our place for games beforehand, Cheryl want's to show off her christmas tree.
BEN: Kim and I are in, baring last minute emergencies. We can bring space munchkin and/or munchkin fu.
--Edmiao 23:05, 2 December 2007 (MST)Bring both. any time preference? want to show up at the movie at say 5-5:20?? thus leave here at maybe 4:30. so start games at noonish?
Looks like kim may be working a promotion from 9:30-1, I'll pick her up from that and then we'll be over between 1:30-2. You guys want to grill or do something for food as a group?
--Justin 18:45, 4 December 2007 (MST) Kim?!? Who's Kim? Is that your gay Korean boyfriend?
--Matts 12:50, 5 December 2007 (MST)Last minute emergency: Since we have guests on Sunday that I entirely forgot about, Rina won't be able to make it :( I'm going though!
--Gdaze -- Where did you get these tickets at, as in, which theater?
BEN: cinerama (www.cinerama.com), 6pm sunday.
Ed: We could do some food something for an early dinner, burgers? what time should we leave for movie if it takes say 20 minutes to get there?
Weekly Magic Whining/Complaining/Smack Talking
--Edmiao 14:00, 3 December 2007 (MST) Jason (or others), want to try out a little magic workstation this week? i could do wed or thurs evenings probably. If you have a microphone I use [www.skype.com skype] for online gaming, which might make it easier. the workstation looks funtional, but you have to do everything yourself (draw cards, target spells, throw things into the graveyard, etc), unlike magic online which does a lot of that for you. but the cards and program are free, so who's complaining. I guess I was. shut up bitch!
--76.164.21.217 14:38, 3 December 2007 (MST)I will try and download this in the next day or so and make a deck or two. What are our deck restrictions? Only cards we own or will own reasonably soon?
--Edmiao 19:01, 3 December 2007 (MST) who said that? i say mtg workstation, no restrictions. maybe limit to one dci restricted card if you know what they are. if you don't know, then you probably won't find the restricted cards anyway (like me). takes a little to familiarize with the program, but once you do, the filters and search functions are really nice.
--Jason 20:46, 3 December 2007 (MST)Its downloaded and installed. Now I just have to make some decks.
--Edmiao 19:29, 4 December 2007 (MST) if others are interested in this, it comes with world champions decks from the last several years, so you can just get it and roll with a champion deck.
Gabe: ED! You limely Brit, post a link to where you get this program. But right now I think I'm gonna go make some decks for this Friday, I got some nasty~ ideas.
--Edmiao 18:54, 5 December 2007 (MST) this link has a link to the download page and another link to a walkthrough. you have to download the magic workstation program and then download a card database.
--Edmiao 19:13, 6 December 2007 (MST) Magic workstation online tonight anyone? 522-1511
The Next Step in WHFRP Reboot
